Fredrik Axelsson

Abstract

In the present report the possibilities of joining polypropylene and glass fibre with metal sheet has been investigated. Finite element calculations of selfpiercing riveting and collar joining have been done in the commercial software Deform-2D.

The self-piercing riveting, SPR, simulations were compared with experimental trials and it showed that the material predictions of polypropylene and glass fibre were god enough to get proper results.

To evaluate if there are any alternatives to Deform-2D for SPR simulations the commercial software ABAQUS 6.4 was tested to see whether it is a suitably software or not for SPR. It showed that it is possible to simulate SPR in ABAQUS with very god results.

Trials to simulate self-piercing riveting with floating adhesive has been don but concluded that it was not possible to describe the behaviour of the adhesive with the present software.

Collar joining simulations were done to investigate this relatively new joinin technique. The following was obtained.

• Collar joining works for different materials.
• The strength of the joint is highly depending of the geometry of the collar and the materials used.
• A convexity on the collar produces the locking ability.
• By increasing the length and the diameter of the collar the strength increases.