THERMAL-ANALYSIS FOR RESISTANCE-WELDING OF LARGE-SCALE THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITE JOINTS

The need for effective and reliable joining methods continues to grow as the use of thermoplastic composites becomes widespread. It is now p ossible to join large-scale components with the development of an auto mated sequential resistance welding process. The thermal history gener ated by the heating element placed at the interface between adherends determines the quality and performance of the welded joint. This artic le presents a thermal analysis for the resistance welding of large-sca le components that overcomes the limitations of previous models. To si mulate welding of the interface. a heat generation term was incorporat ed that accounts for the Joule heating of graphite fibers in the heati ng element. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the influe nce of welding parameters and assess the uniformity of interface tempe ratures. Components were joined by the resistance welding process to o btain experimental verification. Regions of localized overheating wher e potential current leakage may occur were identified as a function of process parameters. Insights on promoting more uniform heating for th e resistance welding process are discussed.