744 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009

Electromagnetic Phenomena in Resistance Spot Welding and Its

Effects on Weld Nugget Formation

Yong Bing Li, Zhong Qin Lin, Xin Min Lai, and Guan Long Chen
Shanghai Key Lab of Digital Auto-body Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai 200240, China

Abstract— Resistance Spot Welding is a major sheet-metal joining process in automotive

industry. During the RSW, a very large welding current flows through workpieces and induces a
very large magnetic field in weld nugget. According to electromagnetics, the current density field
and the magnetic field will interact with each other to produce a strong electromagnetic force.
Once molten metals appear in the nugget, the force will act on and drive the metals to move. In
this research, a multi-physics finite element model, which consists of a two-dimensional electric
model, a three-dimensional magnetic model, and a two-dimensional fluid dynamics model, is
utilized to investigate the features of electric, magnetic, magnetic force, thermal and flow fields
in the weld nugget and their interactions. Research showed that the electromagnetic force in
the nugget results in a symmetric flow and substantially changes the heat transfer in the weld
nugget.

1. INTRODUCTION

Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) has been known as a process involving electromagnetic, thermal,
fluid flow, mechanical and metallurgical variables [1, 2]. During RSW, a large current flows through
copper electrodes and workpieces, and induces a large magnetic field in weld nugget. Based on
electromagnetic theory, the current and magnetic field interact with each other to produce a huge
electromagnetic stirring (EMS) force, which will affect the fluid flow and heat transfer in the nugget.
As such, in order to reveal the nugget formation, a model, which comprehensively considers the
coupling of electric, magnetic, thermal and flow fields, should be developed. However, because of
the complexity of the RSW process, the current published models rarely consider the effect of the
induced EMS force. In 1990, Alcini [3] performed experiments to measure the temperature change
in the weld nugget. His research showed that strong fluid convection appears in the nugget and
the thermal field in the nugget is relatively uniform in the radial and thickness directions, which is
obviously different from the large temperature gradient of traditional electric-thermal model [4].
In this research, a magneto-hydro-dynamic (MHD) finite element (FE) model, which couples
the electric field, thermal field, flow field, magnetic field, is used to investigate the electromagnetic
phenomena in RSW and its effects on the nugget formation.

2. NUMERICAL MODEL

In order to reduce the complexity of the multi-physics process, the molten metal in the nugget is
assumed as incompressible, viscous, laminar, and Newtonian fluid [5]. The electromagnetic field
is viewed as quasi-stable, in view that working frequency of welding power supply is too low to
cause obvious lag between the magnetic field and its source. The metallic fluid in the weld nugget is
assumed to keep electric neutrality, in view that the electromagnetic field in the nugget varies slowly
with the low frequency current [6]. Based on the above assumptions, MHD equations describing
the multi-physics process can be given as follows:

∇·V~ = 0; (1)
µ ¶ ³ ´ · µ ¶¸
ρ
∂Vi ~ ~ + ∂ −δij P + µe ∂Vi + ∂Vj
+ V · ∇Vi = J~ × B , (i, j = x, y); (2)
∂t i ∂xj ∂xj ∂xi
µ ¶
∂T ~
ρCM + V · ∇T = ∇ · (k∇T ) + Sh ; (3)
∂t
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009 745

∇×E ~ =0 



∇×H ~ = J~ 



∇·B ~ =0
. (4)
∇ · J~ = 0 



J~ = σ E
~ 


~ = µr µ0 H
~ 
B
where, E ~ is the electric field intensity, B
~ the magnetic flux density, H
~ the magnetic field intensity,
J~ the current density, V ~ the flow velocity, δij the Kroneker sign, P the hydrostatic pressure, µe
the effective viscosity coefficient, and CM = CP − Lh ∂fs /∂T the modified heat capacity with Lh
and fs being the latent heat and ratio of solid phase, respectively. A linearly varying fs is used
in this research [5]. Source term Sh in Eq. (3) describes the resistance heat generation density in
workpieces, electrodes and contact surfaces.
Because of the axisymmetric feature of the fields involved in RSW, a 1/2 axisymmetric model is
used to model the electric field and electrical contact behaviors, and a 1/4 axisymmetric model is
used to model the fluid dynamics behaviors. For the magnetic analysis, based on right-hand law, the
magnetic field induced by the welding current, which flows within the axisymmetric plane, is normal
to the axisymmetric plane, thus a 3D wedge-shaped model is used to reduce meshes. Moreover,
a layer of infinite elements [7] adjacent to outer surface of finite air layer is created to model the
infinite open space. Fig. 1 shows the multi-physics FE meshes of RSW process. Successive element
refinements have been conducted to reduce the mesh sensitivity.
For the electric model shown in Fig. 1(a), a uniform welding current and a zero electric potential
are applied at the upper and lower ends, respectively. Because an AC welding machine is used in this
research, a sinusoidal current input is used to improve the simulation accuracy. Contact pairs [7] are
used to model the electric contact along the workpiece/electrode (W/E) and workpiecfe/workpiece
(W/W) interfaces. For the 3D magnetic model in Fig. 1(b), a B-flux normal condition is applied
to the symmetrical plane, and B-flux parallel conditions are applied to the cutting planes. For the
far field surfaces, the magnetic vector potential in all directions is restrained to zero. For the fluid
dynamics model in Fig. 1(c), the electrode is defined as solid region, so the momentum equation is
not solved for this region, and the internal wall of the water cooling cavity is restrained to water
temperature; the whole workpiece is defined as flow region and the moving solid-liquid interface is
handled with imaginary viscosity method, e.g., the unmelted metal is assigned a very high viscosity
so that it does not move under the EMS force. Because the molten nugget is always a very small
part of the workpiece, the velocity of the outer surfaces of the workpiece is set to 0 m/s.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this research, the materials are 1.5 mm thick mild steel sheet. The welding time and holding
time are 20 cycles and 5 cycles, respectively. Working frequency of power current is 60 Hz, and
ambient temperature is 21◦ C. Unless specifically stated, a RMS welding current of Iw = 8700 A is
used.
A commercial FE code ANSYS/Multiphysics and its parametric design language is used in this
work to realize the complicated coupling of the electric, magnetic, thermal and flow fields involved

(a) Electrode
(b) (c)
Infinite element
Contact pair Solid region

Workpiece

Liquid region

Figure 1: Multiphysics FE model. (a) Electric field sub-model; (b) Magnetic field sub-model; (c) Fluid
dynamics sub-model.
746 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009

in RSW. For each time step, the electric analysis is first performed to output current density and
time-integrated joule heat, and then the magnetic analysis is done to get time-averaged magnetic
force. Lastly, the fluid dynamics analysis is done with the calculated joule heat and magnetic force
field as inputs.
In each time step, temperature-dependent physical properties, such as electric resistivity, ther-
mal conductivity, specific heat and electric contact conductance [8, 9] are updated based on the
calculated temperature field. The copper electrode is paramagnetic throughout the RSW process.
However, the steel’s magnetic permeability is a function of temperature. In this research, the EMS
occurs in the molten region, thus, only the computation accuracy of the magnetic field in the molten
region is needed to be assured. As shown in Fig. 2, the red molten region is surrounded by the
thick yellow unmelted region. Moreover, both the red and yellow regions are beyond the Curie point
(about 770◦ C for steel), and thus physically paramagnetic. Based on Ampere circuital theorem,
during RSW process, the magnetic field within the red and yellow regions is not affected by the
regions where the temperature field is below Curie point. As a result, during the magnetic field
analysis, the whole workpieces are treated as paramagnetic to reduce the material nonlinearity.
It is difficult to measure the flow velocity, magnetic flux density and temperature in a closed
nugget with present technological means. In view that the EMS behaviors in the nugget compre-
hensively affect the nugget formation, therefore, the final nugget’s profile is used to validate the
proposed multi-physics FE model. As shown in Fig. 3, there is a good agreement in size and shape
between the numerical and experimental nuggets.
3.1. Electromagnetic Field in the RSW
Figure 4 shows the current density vector field in the upper workpiece. Obviously, in the middle
of the workpiece, the welding current evenly flows through the upper and lower surfaces of the
workpiece. However, at the edge, because of the geometry discontinuity of the upper electrode
and the upper workpiece, the welding current flows outward and is away from the nugget center.
At the faying surface, because the electric contact resistance away from the nugget center is much

1.5 mm

1.0 mm

0.5 mm

0.0 mm

-0.5 mm

-1.0 mm

-1.5 mm

Figure 2: Para- and ferro-magnetic regions in the Figure 3: Experimental validation of the multi-
nugget. physics numerical model.

Figure 4: Calculated current density field. The unit Figure 5: Calculated magnetic flux density distribu-
is A/m2 . tion. The unit is Tesla.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009 747

larger than that in the nugget center, the welding current flows back into the nugget center again.
This kind of current flow pattern directly determines the distribution of the induced magnetic flux
density. As shown in Fig. 5, the induced magnetic field is normal to the axisymmetric plane, and
gradually increases from the center of the nugget to the edge. Moreover, the maximum magnetic
flux density appears at the same locations as the current density field does.
3.2. Magnetic Force Field and the Induced Flow Field in the Nugget
According to left-hand law, the magnetic force field, which is the product of the current density
vector and magnetic flux density vector, is located in the axisymmetric plane. Fig. 6 shows the
calculated magnetic force field in the upper sheet. Obviously, in the middle of the sheet, the
magnetic force field is normal to the axisymmetic axis and gradually diminishes from the brim of
the nugget to symmetry axis in the width direction, however, in the other region, the magnetic force
field deviates toward the thickness direction, and diminishes from the upper and bottom surfaces of
the workpiece to the middle. The maximum magnetic force also appears at the same locations as
the current density field and magnetic flux denstiy field do. This kind of magnetic force distribution
finally determines the flow field in the nugget. As shown in Fig. 7, in each quarter of the nugget,
the molten metal flows out of the nugget along the faying surface and flows back into the nugget
along the edge of the nugget, which is because the maximum magnetic force around the edge of
the nugget pushes the molten metal away from the faying surface and flows into the nugget along
the boundary of the nugget.
3.3. Effect of MHD Behaviors on Nugget Formation
The flow of the molten metal will definitely affect the heat transfer behaviors in the nugget. For
traditional models, which can not consider the mass transfer in the nugget, the temperature gradient
in any direction is large because of the consisent cooling, as shown in Fig. 8. However, for the MHD
model, the strong flow substantially disturbs the regular thermal conduction and mixes the hot and
cold metal through mechanical stirring, and greatly reduces the temperature gradient in the nugget,
as shown in Fig. 9.

Figure 6: Calculated magnetic force field. The unit Figure 7: Calculated flow field in the nugget. The
is N/mm3 . unit is m/s.

Figure 8: Calculated nugget with traditional electro- Figure 9: Calculated nugget with the MHD model.
thermal model. The unit is ◦ C.
748 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009

4. CONCLUSION
A multi-physics FE model is used to model the electromagnetic phenomena in RSW. Researches
showed that the magnetic force field, which is produced by the welding current and the induced
magnetic field, is very regular, and causes the molten metal in the nugget to make regular flow in
four cores. The flow dramatically changes the heat transfer in the weld. Different kinds of thermal
gradient will results in different crystallization process, therefore, it is very necessary to consider
the effect of the electromagnetic phenomena in modelling the RSW process.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the supports of NSFC (Grant No. 50705059) and National
Key Technology R & D Program (Grant No. 2007BAF10B00).
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