Impact Performance of Model Spot-Welded Stainless Steel Structures

As part of a wide ranging investigation into the structural performance of spot-welds in austenitic nickelcontaining stainless steel, the behaviour of simple structures subjected to drop weight tests, generating strain rates in the range 10 s^-1< ε < 100 s^-1 has been investigated. The motivation for this work arose from a report of a collision of railway vehicles in which stainless steel spot-welds were believed to have performed unsatisfactorily under impact. A programme of experimental work has shown that, in general, stainless steel structural sections, with appropriately sized and positioned spot-welds, can absorb significantly more energy than carbon steel structures and, moreover, the performance can be adequately predicted by non-linear finite element modelling. Brief mention is also made of comparisons between the behaviour of spotwelds and laser-welds: the latter are particularly useful since access from only one side is required to manufacture the joint.