Designing Robust Weldment Assemblies by Incorporating Non-Primary Failure Modes Due to Weld Redundancy in FEA

In the automobile industry finite element analysis is extensively used to simulate a structures response to external loads. Inadvertently the simulation typically captures the primary failure mode which is applicable when there is no redundancy - i.e. the structure being 100% complaint with the design.

In spite of the advances in the manufacturing systems used in the automobile industry across the world it is observed that it is not possible to have zero redundancy products especially when it is a mass production and there are non-automated manufacturing phases. In the automobile industry the most prominent contributor to redundancy are manual welds.

This paper is about incorporation of weld redundancy in the simulation for pre-identified critical welds using design of experiments.