Simulating microstructure evolution of battery tabs during ultrasonic welding

Ultrasonic welding offers ability to weld thin layers of malleable metals at low temperature and low power consumption. During ultrasonic welding, intensive material interactions occur due to the severe plastic deformation (SPD) and frictional heat generation, which leads to the microstructural change. Different grain microstructures have been observed after different ultrasonic welding conditions. Theory of the microstructural evolution was for the first time hypothesized as three regimes, namely SPD, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and grain growth according to the material thermomechanical loading conditions. A novel metallo-thermo-mechanically coupled model was developed to model the temperature-dependent mechanical deformation and microstructural evolution during the ultrasonic spot welding process. The numerical analysis was carried out with a three-dimensional (3D) finite element model using DEFORM 11.0. The material constitutive model considered cyclic plasticity, thermal softening and acoustic softening. Dynamic recrystallization and grain growth kinetics laws were applied to simulate the microstructural evolution under different welding time durations. The simulation results demonstrated that the essential characteristics of the deformation field and microstructure evolution during ultrasonic welding were well captured by the metallo-thermo-mechanically coupled model. The numerical framework developed in this study has been shown to be a powerful tool to optimize the ultrasonic welding process for its mechanical properties and microstructures.