Study of damage initiation and fracture in aluminum tailor welded blanks made via different welding techniques

The present paper addresses microstructural evaluation of failure in multi-gauge aluminum alloy tailor welded blanks (TWBs), welded using non-vacuum electron beam and neodymium:yttrium–aluminum–garnet laser techniques. The limiting dome height test is used to evaluate formability of the TWBs. Three gauge combinations utilizing AA5754 sheets are considered (2 to 1 mm, 1.6 to 1 mm and 2 to 1.6 mm). Different weld orientations have been …