Fatigue behaviour of tensile-shear loaded clinched joints

The present work concentrates on the static and fatigue behaviour of tensile-shear loaded joints obtained by clinching, a rapidly developing cold welding technology for thin sheets used is in automobile, electronic and house hold appliances industries. The project primarily dealt with static, fatigue and residual strength tests, which showed a good fatigue behaviour of the clinched joints. Fractographic observations showed three different failure modes whose occurrence depends on the maximum applied load and on the stress ratio. Results were supported by FEM analyses showing that the failure regions of the clinched joints correspond to those with high stress concentrations.