Materials Transactions, Vol. 62, No. 2 (2021) pp.

191 to 197
© 2020 The Japan Institute of Metals and Materials

Fatigue Characteristics of DP780 Steel Spot Welding Joints with Different Static
Fracture Modes
Lihua Xie1,+, Bowen Shi1, Zhenkang Xiao1, Jiangwei Ren2 and Dong Li2
1
School of Materials Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620, China
2
Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Laser Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Shanghai 201620, China

Two specimens made of DP780 dual phase steels were produced by resistance spot welding and the quality was evaluated by the static
tension-shear test and low cycle fatigue test. The fracture characteristics, macrostructure, microstructure, microhardness distribution and fatigue
morphology were studied. The results show that the nugget size and microhardness gradient in the heat affected zone affect the static load-
bearing performance and the fracture mode. Meanwhile, applied load, microhardness gradient in the heat affected zone and inclined angle on
faying surface caused by macro deformation have influence on the low cycle fatigue life. Compared with the specimen which has high static
load-bearing capacity, samples with lower static load capacity has a higher fatigue life and plastic deformation characteristics under the same
applied load of 40% of its static load-bearing capacity, which indicates that the applied load is the controlling factor in the low cycle fatigue test.
[doi:10.2320/matertrans.MT-M2020214]

(Received July 13, 2020; Accepted August 31, 2020; Published December 18, 2020)
Keywords: dual phase steel, resistance spot welding, microstructure, fracture mode, fatigue

1. Introduction to the strength and microstructure of base metal, and is

Lightweight has become a trend in the field of
automotive.1) Optimization of body structure design and
usage of lightweight materials are main ways to realize
the lightweight of automotive. Although aluminum alloy is a
potential lightweight material, the development of advanced
high strength steel (AHSS) have found a good balance
between lightweight and safety of automotive.2) As one
kind of AHSS, dual phase steel has better properties in
strength, work hardening rate, strain energy absorption rate
and formability compared with conventional high strength
low alloy steel with similar strength.3) Dual phase steel has
a ferrite matrix and martensite as second phase. This dual
microstructure can balance strength and ductility, which is
very attractive for automotive industry.4)
Resistance spot welding (RSW) has been used widely in
automotive industry and the fatigue behavior of RSW joint
which is made of AHSS is one of the interests for automotive
manufacturers.5,6) At present, the fatigue life of high strength
steels can not be improved conspicuously as static strength,
so it is crucial for many applications to take the fatigue
life and fatigue behavior of RSW joints into account in the
section of design.7,14,15) Crack initiation becomes very
important in high cycle fatigue, because it can reach more
than 90% of the life cycle of components, and the effect
of microstructure on the fatigue crack initiation and fatigue
behavior of DP steel is an important issue to be noticed in
optimizing the microstructure morphology.8) Suresh discov-
ers the fatigue cracks mostly initiate from stress concentration
points where the plastic deformation occurs. Intensive
research has been carried out to better understand the effect
of the microstructure variations on the mechanical properties
of DP steels.9) Some researches show the high cycle fatigue
life of RSW joints made of High strength low alloy steel,
DP and Transformation Induced Plasticity Steel is irrelevant
+
Corresponding author, E-mail: 18919711455@163.com
controlled by the size of weld nugget, the thickness of the
plate and the joint stiffness.10) However, Zhang and Taylor11)
find the number of loading cycles depended on the thickness
of the plate and the properties of the material under loading.
Based on the strain-controlled fatigue tests, Wännman and
Melander have report that the fatigue life increases with the
increase of martensite content in DP steel.12) In addition,
failure modes of RSW joints under static load are intensive
studied. Two static failure modes, Interface failure (IF mode)
and pull-out failure (PF mode) are often observed in the
failure of RSW joint;13) In PF mode, cracks originate from
base metal (BM), heat affected zone (HAZ) or the interface
between HAZ and fusion zone (FZ) which depending on the
properties of base metal and loading conditions.16)
In brief, the fatigue behavior of RSW joints is affected by
the microstructure and size of nugget in some studies and
these factors are crucial to the static performance of RSW
joint. However, the relationship between static performance
and fatigue behavior of AHSS is understood insufficiently.
In this paper, two typical RSW joints made of DP780 steel
are prepared with different static failure modes and the low
cycle fatigue behavior of joints are observed to explore the
relationship between static and fatigue performance.
2. Materials and Methods
DP780 dual phase steel plate with 1.6 mm thickness was
used as base metal. The chemical composition and mechani-
cal properties of DP780 steel were show in Tables 1 and 2.10)
The size of plates submitted to RSW was 120 mm © 40 mm.
RSW was conducted on a ZDB-180 energy storage spot
welding machine with copper­chromium electrode and the
diameter of electrode end face was 6 mm. The welding
parameters were shown in Table 3.
After RSW, joints were cut on electrical discharge machine
and the samples for microstructure observation were
produced on standard procedure and corroded by 4% nitric
192 L. Xie, B. Shi, Z. Xiao, J. Ren and D. Li
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3 Welding parameters.
Fig. 1 Dimensions of tensile shear test sample.
acid alcohol solution. The microstructure of joint was
observed on a VHX-600K type optical microscope and an
S-3400 N scanning electron microscope (SEM). The
hardness distribution in joint was measured on a HXD-
1000T Vickers hardness tester with 200 g load and 15 s
holding time. Static performance of joint was evaluated by
tensile-shear test according to ISO 14272-2001.17) The
dimensions of samples for tensile-shear test were shown in
Fig. 1. The tensile-shear test was performed on an AG25TA
type universal testing machine at a constant speed 2 mm/min
under room temperature. The fatigue behavior of RSW joint
was evaluated by low cycle fatigue test on an Amsler HB250
liquid servo fatigue machine. The joint was subjected to
tensile-tensile load. Gaskets were used to ensure the
coaxiality of applied load and spot during fatigue test. Two
different loads were applied according to the load-bearing
capacity of two samples. The maximum applied load was
40% of the ultimate load of the sample in tensile-shear test.
The stress ratio was 0.1 and the test frequency was 15 Hz.
The fatigue specimen was regarded as failure when the
recorded displacement reached 25 mm. The fracture charac-
Chemical composition of DP780 steel.
Mechanical properties of DP780 steel.
teristics was observed on S-3400 N scanning electron
microscope.
3. Result and Discussion
3.1 Tensile-shear properties of RSW joints
In quasi-static tensile-shear test, two typical failure modes,
interfacial fracture (IF) and pull-out fracture (PF), are found
as shown in Fig. 2.
Sample I fails through the nugget and the fracture surface
is relatively smooth (as seen in Fig. 2(a)), which is a typical
IF mode. The tensile-shear force of Sample I is 24.0 kN. In
interfacial fracture, crack initiates at sharp notches for stress
concentration and propagates through the nugget for the
weakness of nugget compared with HAZ. The crack on the
interface strengthens the stress concentration in FZ and helps
the propagation of crack along the solidification center line,
which leads to the IF mode in shear test.18) Sample P fails
in PF mode (as seen in Fig. 2(b)) and crack initiates at the
contact surface and then propagates through HAZ. The
tensile-shear force of Sample P is 33.0 kN. It is obvious
that the load-bearing capability of Sample P is higher than
that of Sample I. In a RSW joint made of dissimilar high
strength steel, carbon equivalent (CE) of nugget and crack in
solidification line are found to helpful to the occurrence of
interfacial failure. Meanwhile, a softer HAZ helps to promote
pullout failure.20) In this paper, the joints are made of the
same DP780 steel, so the influence of carbon equivalent can
be excluded.
3.2 Morphology and microstructure of welded joints
Figure 3 and Fig. 4 show the macrograph and micro-
structure of sample I and sample P. It can be seen from
Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 4(a) that the RSW joint consists of three
 Fatigue Characteristics of DP780 Steel Spot Welding Joints with Different Static Fracture Modes 193

Fig. 2 Typical fracture modes of RSW joints, interfacial fracture (a) and pull-out fracture (b).

Fig. 3 Macrograph of Sample I (a) and microstructure of nugget (b), coarse grain zone (c), fine grain zone (d) and critical zone (e)
in HAZ.

different zones labeled as base metal (BM), heat-affected
zone (HAZ) and fusion zone (FZ). The size of nugget/fusion
zone is 8.50 mm and 9.42 mm respectively in sample I and
sample P.
The nugget or FZ is composed of lath martensite with
columnar crystal morphology and the final solidification line
locates at the geometric center of nugget as shown in
Fig. 3(b) and 4(b). The HAZ of RSW joint consists of three
zones such as coarse grain zone, fine grain zone and critical
zone. The coarse grain zone locates close to FZ so the
material in this zone reaches to a temperature higher than
AC3 and stays a relative long time, which leads to the
complete austenitizing and coarsening of austenite grains.
Then, the austenite grains in coarse grain zone transform into
martensite laths in grain form in the following rapid cooling
stage and the grains have random orientation (as seen in
Fig. 3(c) and 4(c)). In fine grain zone, the peak temperature
exceeds AC3 and holding time is short, so the austenitizing
is not complete which leads to the final microstructure is a
mixture consists of original martensite and new transformed
martensite (as seen in Fig. 3(d) and 4(d)). In critical zone,
the peak temperature is between AC1 and AC3, martensite
transformed into austenite partly and then some ferrite are
found with martensite in Figs. 3(e) and 4(e). It should be
noted that there is no distinct difference between the
microstructures of two samples. In the RSW joints made
of DP780 and DP600 steel, similar HAZ microstructures are
found.19) The study shows an increasing austenite forms with
194 L. Xie, B. Shi, Z. Xiao, J. Ren and D. Li

Fig. 4 Macrograph of Sample P (a) and microstructure of nugget (b), coarse grain zone (c), fine grain zone (d) and critical zone (e)
in HAZ.

Table 4 Macrostructure characteristics of RSW joints.

increasing peak temperature and transforms into martensite in
HAZ due to the rapid cooling rate.
3.3 Macrostructure characteristics
The stress distribution will affect the fracture mode of
RSW joint and have distinct effect on the transformation from
IF to PF.20) The macrostructure characteristics have a positive
influence on the stress distribution during the mechanical
test. So the macrostructure characteristics of two samples are
analyzed on the basis of nugget diameter D, penetration rate
X, thickness thinning rate Y. Penetration rate X = h/H +
100%, in which h is the nugget height and H is the thickness
of spot. Thickness thinning rate Y = (B ¹ H)/B + 100%, in
which B is the thickness of two plates. The parameters are
calculated according to the following form All the parameters
used in the calculation are measured from the metallograph
pictures and the calculation results are shown in Table 4.
It can be seen from Table 4 that the nugget size of sample I
is smaller than that of sample P. Nugget size is one of the
most important control factors of state loading failure mode.
The driving force of interface failure is the shear stress at
the interface of two plates and that of pull-out fracture is the
tensile stress around nugget. When the weld size is small and
the shear stress reaches the critical value before the tensile
stress, it will cause interfacial fracture. When the weld size
is large, the resistance of nugget to interfacial damage will
be increased, and the pull-out fracture will be caused.21)
Meanwhile, compared with sample P, sample I has a higher
penetration rate and a lower thinning rate. The penetration
rate and thickness thinning rate are related to the heat input
and deformation of materials under the high temperature. The
heat input can be calculated by equation Q = I2Rt, in which
Q is Joule heat, I is welding current, t is welding time and
R is the resistance of the specimens. Sample I undergoes a
 Fatigue Characteristics of DP780 Steel Spot Welding Joints with Different Static Fracture Modes
shorter welding time under the condition of same welding
current, so the Joule heat generated in Sample I is lower and
then a smaller nugget forms in Sample I. It should be noted
that the nugget size of both samples is larger than the criteria
for qualification according to the plate thickness.
Moreover, a plastic deformation ring, which undergo the
affection of heat and plastic deformation, forms before the
formation of nugget and grows in a different rate with the
nugget in RSW. When the generated heat is too high, nugget
grows faster than plastic deformation ring, which leads to
the increase of penetration rate and thickness thinning rate.
Sample I undergoes a shorter welding time, so the
deformation speed of the metal can not response timely,
then sample I get a relatively lower thickness thinning rate.22)
In addition, it should be pointed that the deformation of the
metal produces warpage of two plates and then a distinct
inclined angle at the faying face. In this paper, the inclined
angle in sample P is slightly larger than that in sample I. The
relationship between the inclined angle and the deformation
is unclear.
3.4 Microhardness of spot welded joints
The fracture mode and mechanical properties of RSW joint
are affected by the hardness distribution in joint. Figure 5
shows the microhardness distribution in sample I and P.
It can be seen from Fig. 5 that there is no significan
difference in the average hardness of fusion zone/nugget and
raw material between sample I and sample P. The average
value in FZ is 372 Hv and 254 Hv in sample I and that is
374 Hv and 246 Hv in sample P. However, two samples have
a common phenomenon - softening in HAZ. The minimum
hardness in sample I and sample P is 228 Hv and 224 Hv and
the location falls into the critical zone. Advanced high
strength steels have a higher carbon equivalence and higher
hardness in BM and HAZ, which leads to a higher tendency
to interfacial fracture.23) However, a softer HAZ helps to
promote pullout failure.20) The main reason for the softening
is that martensite suffers low temperature tempering in
critical zone which leads to the decrease of hardness.
Yinghao Yu et al. have found a “softening zone” appeared
near the heat-affected zone near the base metal in dual-phase
steel spot joints, and martensite tempering in critical zone is
responsible for the softening.24)
400 sample I
sample P
380
360
Hardness/Hv
340
320
300
FZ BM
280
260
240
HAZ
220
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Displacement/mm
Fig. 5 Microhardness distribution in Sample I and Sample P.
195
In addition, it can be seen from Fig. 5 that the gradient of
HAZ hardness in sample P is lower than that in sample I
even the minimum hardness is similar in two samples. The
reason can be explained by the high heat input produced in
sample P and longer welding time for heat transfer. The
lower hardness gradient is beneficial to impede the crack
propagation and enhance the load-bearing capability.
3.5 Fatigue properties of RSW joints
In low cycle fatigue test, the applied maximum force is
40% of the ultimate force in static tension-shear test and the
stress ratio is 0.1, 40% of their static load-bearing capacity
is chosen to investigate their dynamic load characteristics
under their static load, that is similar working conditions for
the bearing capacity of solder joints, rather than the same
working conditions. For sample I, the applied force is 9.6 kN
and the fracture cycle is 33080. For sample P, the applied
force is 13.2 kN and the fracture cycle is 5855. It is obvious
that the low cycle fatigue life of sample I is longer than that
of sample P under the condition of 40% static load bearing
capacity. It implies that the RSW joint which has high static
load bearing capacity endures low fatigue life. The reason
may be attributed to the unequal applied force and different
macrostructure characteristics. The fatigue crack originates
from tips at the faying surface of two plates for the stress
concentration. The high inclined angle leads to high level
of stress concentration and contribute to the nucleation of
fatigue crack. It can be seen from Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 4(a) that
the inclined angle in sample P is slightly larger than that in
sample I.
To reveal the fatigue fracture characteristics of two
samples, the fracture morphology is observed on SEM and
the pictures are shown on Fig. 6­7.
It can be seen from Fig. 6(a) and Fig. 7(a) that the fracture
morphology of RSW joint after low cycle fatigue test is
similar to that of pull-out static fracture. Therefore, it is
reasonable that the fatigue crack originates from the tip of
the interface. However, typical fatigue crack growth region
is found on both specimens (see Fig. 6(b) and Fig. 7(c)). At
the same time, some microcracks are found in the crack
growth zone (see Fig. 6(c) and Fig. 7(d)). In the fatigue
fracture process of RSW joint, microcracks are produced
under cyclic load and propagate through grain boundaries
to form macro cracks. Microcracks grow slowly or even stop
growth because of the different slip systems in adjacent
grains. So, the softening of HAZ caused by martensite
tempering is beneficial to improve fracture toughness and
reduce fatigue damage. The fatigue steps in Fig. 6(b) and
Fig. 6(c) show that there are multiple fatigue sources that are
not in the same plane. In addition, some dimples are found
on the fracture surface of sample I (see Fig. 6(d)) and no
dimples are found in sample P. This phenomenon show that
a large plastic strain occurs in sample I and no obvious strain
occurs in sample P during fatigue. The applied force
contributes to the strain and plastic deformation in fatigue
samples.
Bin Liu25) studied the low cycle fatigue properties of high-
strength hot-rolled dual-phase steel, and reported that the
ferrite and martensite in the microstructure undergo elastic
deformation during low-cycle fatigue. As the strain amplitude
196 L. Xie, B. Shi, Z. Xiao, J. Ren and D. Li

Fig. 6 Fatigue fracture morphology of sample I (a) overall appearance, (b) fatigue crack propagation region, (c) microcracks in crack
propagation region, (d) dimples on the fracture surface.

Fig. 7 Fatigue fracture morphology of sample P (a) overall appearance, (b) cracks on the fracture edge, (c) crack propagation region,
(d) microcracks in crack propagation region.

increases, the ferrite begins to plastically deform. However,
due to the hard structure of martensite, the initial uniform
plastic deformation of ferrite will be seriously hindered. As
the number of strains increases, the inhibition of plastic
deformation will lead to the hardening of the ferrite phase and
the formation of non-uniform plastic deformation such as slip
bands. Accumulated plastic deformation produces fatigue
microcracks, which accumulate large cracks and eventually
produce macroscopic fatigue cracks. The deformation of the
ferrite was also observed in the sample I in the present study
(see Fig. 6(c)), but was not clearly observed in the sample P.
At the same time, many fatigue microcracks were observed
and cumulative fatigue cracks were generated (see Fig. 6(c)
and 7(d)). Explain that the results of the study are consistent
with the results of this study. In addition, the cause of fatigue
failure is due to the existence of a large number of
dislocations at the ferrite/martensitic interface in the heat-
affected zone. In the reciprocating loading process, a large
number of dislocations hit the ferrite/martensitic interface,
resulting in fatigue failure.26)
4. Conclusion
(1) Two joints made of DP780 dual phases steel are
produced by resistance spot welding and their ultimate
load are 24.0 kN and 33.0 kN respectively in tension-
shear test. Moreover, the two joints show typical static
fracture modes, interface fracture and pull-out fracture.
 Fatigue Characteristics of DP780 Steel Spot Welding Joints with Different Static Fracture Modes
(2) The microstructure examination show two samples
have no obvious difference in grain morphology but
sample P has a bigger nugget size. In addition, there
are similar softening in heat affected zone in two
samples but samples with higher welding heat input has
a smaller microhardness gradient in the heat affected
zone. So, nugget size and microhardness gradient in
heat affected zone are the main factors in controlling the
static tension-shear fracture.
(3) The fatigue life of the sample with higher welding heat
input is 33080 cycles under 9.6 kN load and that of
the fatigue life of the sample with lower welding heat
input is 5355 cycles under 13.2 kN load. The applied
load is 40% of their static load bearing capacity. Two
samples have similar macro fracture appearance in
low cycle fatigue test, which is like the static pull-out
fracture. However, typical fatigue crack propagation
region is found in both samples. Meanwhile, there is
distinct plastic deformation characteristic is only found
in sample with lower welding heat input.
(4) Applied load, microhardness gradient in heat affected
zone and inclined angle on faying surface caused by
deformation have influence on the low cycle fatigue life
of resistance spot welding joints made of DP780 steel.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the Shanghai Science and
Technology Committee (No. 2003 0500 900) and Shanghai
University of Engineering Science (No. g202005001).
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