LAUSR

Abstract Shear fracture load is estimated in resistance projection welded (RPW) sheets with dissimilar materials and thicknesses. Relation between shear fracture load and welding parameters such as nugget size, sheet thickness and tensile strength of base material is obtained based on dimensional analysis. Lap-shear experiments are performed to investigate the effects of nugget size and thickness on the shear fracture load. Proposed equations predict the shear fracture load within an average error of less than 10 %. To ensure the occurrence of pullout failure (PF) in welded specimens of high strength steels, a critical nugget size is suggested as 5.5 (tm) 1/2, where tm is an average thickness of two welded sheets.