An Analytical Model to Predict Elongation of Tailor Welded Blanks [TWB]

Tailor Welded Blanks (TWBs) made of dissimilar, uniform or non uniform thickness materials have potential applications in automobile industries for light weight materials in order to improve fuel efficiency and cost of carrier. The focus of this paper is to develop and present analytical model to determine total elongation of tailor welded blank (TWBs). The validation of this method is done by experimentally evaluated result. In this present work, an analytical model to predict the total elongation of tailor welded blank at ultimate strength is reported. The analytical model reported was validated by comparing the values with experimental results. Comparison with experimental results demonstrates the accuracy of this methodology. The analytical model provides designers a valuable tool to determine the selection of material combination and thickness combination for given total allowable elongation of TWBs. The methodology presented here has the potential to be extended to analyze a blanks made by more than two material combination.