Failure modes and fatigue life estimations of spot friction welds in cross-tension specimens of aluminum 6061-T6 sheets

Failure modes of spot friction welds (SFWs) in cross-tension specimens of aluminum 6061-T6 sheets are investigated. Micrographs of the SFWs before and after failure under quasi-static and cyclic loading conditions are examined. Two different nugget pullout failure modes can be seen. A fatigue crack growth model based on the paths of the dominant kinked fatigue cracks is adopted to estimate the fatigue lives of SFWs. The computational stress intensity factors for finite kinked cracks and the Paris law for fatigue crack propagation are considered. The fatigue life estimations based on this model agree well with the experimental results.

► Dominant fatigue cracks for SFWs under different load ranges are identified.
► Two different nugget pullout failure modes are found.
► Stress intensity factors for kinked cracks are obtained by 3D FE computations.
► The fatigue crack growth model provides well fatigue life estimations for SFWs.