Fatigue behavior of friction spot welds in lap shear specimens of AA5754 and Ti6Al4V alloys

The fatigue behavior of single friction spot welded AA5754 and Ti6Al4V dissimilar joints was investigated based on experimental observations. Fatigue tests were performed in a constant amplitude load control servo-hydraulic machine with a load ratio of R = 0.1 at room temperature. Two-parameter Weibull distribution was used to analyze statistically the fatigue data for the joined overlapped sheets. Weibull graphics were plotted for each stress amplitude value. Subsequently, S-N curves were drawn for different reliability levels (10%, 50%, 90% and 99%) for the benefit of designers. A fatigue limit of 25 MPa was determined for the AA5754/Ti6Al4V joints (at survival level of 50%), corresponding to 15% of the maximum average static fracture load. Two different types of fatigue failure modes were observed for the specimens. Under high cyclic loads, the failure occurred in the upper Al sheet because of the higher stress concentration at the notch tip leading to crack initiation followed by its propagation through the thickness toward the joint surface and, subsequently, along the specimen width direction. Under low cyclic loads, “through weld” failure was observed as the crack rapidly propagated along the interfacial surface until a critical point at which the remaining cross section could no longer sustain the shear overload and failed. A fatigue crack growth mechanism based on the paths of the dominant fatigue cracks was then proposed and used to explain the fatigue fracture evolution under different loading conditions.