Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the fracture toughness of resistance spot welded (RSW) lap joints and coach peel joints of 316L stainless steels. In the current work, fracture toughness of RSW lap joints and coach peel joints were calculated respectively from the results of shearing tensile tests and peel tensile tests. The effects of welding parameters (welding current, welding time, electrode force) of RSW on fracture toughness were investigated using fracture mechanics concept based on ZHANG approaches. The fracture toughness decreases relatively with welding current from 8 kA to 16. Also, the effects of welding parameters on nugget are studied where the increase in welding current increases the nugget diameter.