Development of a Numerical 3D Model for Analyzing Clinched Joints in Versatile Process Chains

The application of the mechanical joining process clinching enables the joining of sheet metals with a wide range of material-thickness configurations, which is of interest in lightweight construction of multi-material structures. Each material-thickness combination results in a joint with its own property profile that is affected differently by variations. Manufacturing process-related effects from preforming steps influence the geometric shape of a clinched joint as well as its load-bearing capacity. During the clinching process high degrees of plastic strain, increased temperatures and high strain rates occur. In this context, a 3D numerical model was developed which can represent the material-specific behaviour during the process chain steps sheet metal forming, joining, and loading phase in order to achieve a high predictive accuracy of the simulation. Besides to the investigation of the prediction accuracy, the extent of the influence of individual modelling aspects such as temperature and strain rate dependency is examined.