with and without the addition of adhesive prior to welding. X-ray computed tomography was used to detect the resulting internal
weld porosity such as voids as well as to follow the damage evolution during interrupted fatigue testing. The following conclusions
can be drawn from the present study,
1) The nugget size of the dissimilar aluminum alloy spot welds is larger in the spot welds with the addition of adhesive. However,
the maximum load carrying capacity in tension-shear testing is unaffected.
2) There is evidence of damage growth and coalescence within the nuggets, but the main fatigue crack initiates at the edge of the
nugget and penetrates through the Aural2 die casting sheet in the thickness direction.
3) The structural stress range–fatigue life data for AA5754 to Aural2 dissimilar aluminum alloy spot welds with and without adhesive
falls onto a single master curve indicating that the nugget size which corresponds to the tensile and bending strength
dominates the fatigue life and that adhesive-induced porosity within the weld nugget does not harm fatigue performance