Macroscopic modeling of thin-walled aluminum-steel connections by flow drill screws

The modeling procedure of a flow drill screw connection between thin-walled aluminum and steel plates is presented. The discretization is oriented towards application for large-scale FE-models, in which the connection is modeled by hexahedron and the plates by shell elements. Material model phases for connection and substrates are examined on the basis of single-lap shear. The final material model originally developed for describing spot welds is then validated in cross tension. This paper shows the effort required to obtain a desired level of accuracy and provides an application-oriented approach for determining parameters for a numerical connection model.