Failure of resistance spot welds: tensile shear versus coach peel loading conditions

This paper aims at investigating the failure behaviour of resistance spot welds under tensile shear (TS) and coach peel (CP) loading conditions. A failure mechanism was proposed to describe both interfacial and pullout failure modes in each loading condition. The mechanisms were confirmed by SEM investigations, examining the cross-sections of the fractured welds to detail the fracture path. The experimental results showed that in the pullout failure mode during TS testing, necking is initiated at the nugget circumference in the base metal, and then failure propagates along the nugget circumference in the sheet, leading to the final fracture, while pullout failure during the CP test occurred by crack initiation and propagation near the weld nugget/heat affected zone boundary. The interfacial failure to pullout failure mode transition in the TS and CP tests was also studied. The critical weld nugget size required to ensure the pullout failure mode was obtained for each loading condition. The critical fusion zone size to ensure pullout failure mode during the TS test was larger than that of the CP test. It was found that the load bearing capacity of the spot welds under CP is significantly lower than that of the TS test.