Tensile and fatigue behaviour of self-piercing rivets of CFRP to aluminium for automotive application

In this study, the tensile and fatigue behaviour of self-piercing rivets (SPRs) in carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) to aluminium 6111 T82 alloys were evaluated. An average maximum lap-shear tensile load capacity of 3858 N was achieved, which is comparable to metal-to-metal SPR lap-shear joints. The CFRP-Al SPRs failed in lap-shear tension due to pull-out of the rivet head from the CFRP upper sheet. The CFRP-Al SPR lap- shear specimens exhibited superior fatigue life compared to previously studied aluminium-to- aluminium SPR lap-shear joints. The SPR lap-shear joints under fatigue loads failed predominantly due to kinked crack growth along the width of the bottom aluminium sheet. The fatigue cracks initiated in the plastically deformed region of the aluminium sheet close to the rivet shank in the rivet-sheet interlock region. Scatter in fatigue life and failure modes was observed in SPR lap-shear specimens tested close to maximum tensile load.