Effect of the welding process on microstructure, microhardness and residual stresses of capacitor discharge stud welded joint

Abstract

Abstract Capacitor discharge (CD) stud welding is a common and fast connection technology. This paper presents an experimental and simulation study of the stud weld joint of copper stud and carbon plate. An optimized stud welding process was proposed based on microstructure, microhardness and residual stresses of CD stud welded joint. The results show that a narrow weld seam with widmanstaten structure were formed because of quickly cooling. For the longer stud extension length, the width of weld zone becomes wider and the microstructure becomes more uniform. As the increase of welding voltage and stud extension length, the microhardness increases then decreases. However, the residual stresses are increased with welding voltage increases, while they are decreased with the increases of stud extension length. The optimized welding voltage and stud extension length should be designed to 90 V and 5 mm, respectively. This study will provide a great significance to the stud welding on site.