Joining of aluminium using self-piercing riveting: Testing, modelling and analysis

The paper presents a study on identification and modelling of self-piercing rivet connections in aluminium. Failure loads of self-piercing rivets have been investigated under combined opening and shear static loading conditions using a new test set-up and simple specimen geometry with only a single rivet. These results were used to identify rivet model parameters in the code LS-DYNA using inverse modelling. Static and dynamic tests were conducted on double-hat sections made of aluminium sheets jointed with self-piercing rivets at the flanges to validate the chosen rivet model. The numerical analyses of these components provided a direct check of the accuracy and robustness of the numerical model.