Development of an electric vehicle battery module laser welding process using SYSWELD and validation by test data
2022-01-0376
03/29/2022
- Content
- With lightweight design in modern electric vehicles to achieve high energy efficiency, high strength and thin materials are widely adopted. For battery modules, 5000 and 6000 aluminum are typically utilized as a structural material with a thickness range between 1 to 5 mm. Laser welding is one of the most optimum welding tools for joining such a thin material due to its unique advantages, e.g., high welding speed, high accuracy, high energy yet the smallest heat affect zone, etc. This paper aims to develop an FE modeling procedure using SYSWELD to simulate the laser welding process used in electric vehicle battery module manufacturing. A sequentially-coupled thermo-mechanical analysis procedure is developed based on the welding processes for 6063 T6 aluminum alloys and the dissimilar joint between 6063 T6 and 5083 aluminum alloys. Different heat source models for laser welding are studies and compared. The effectiveness of the developed modeling procedure is confirmed by a large number of coupon level weld strength tests. Finally, a module-level box pull test is simulated and validated by the test data with the knowledge obtained from the welding modeling procedure.
- Citation
- Song, S., JIANG, W., and Ding, P., "Development of an electric vehicle battery module laser welding process using SYSWELD and validation by test data," SAE Technical Paper 2022-01-0376, 2022, .