Tensile strength and failure behaviour of clinched joint in cross-tension specimens of similar aluminium alloy sheets

This research investigates experimentally the tensile strength and failure behaviour of clinched joints in cross-tensile specimens made of similar aluminium Al5457-H22 alloy sheets. The cross-tensile specimens were joined by clinching using different tool geometry parameters, and the tensile strength behaviours of the joined sheets were investigated under various tool geometry parameters. Meanwhile, the influence of the tool geometry parameters on the tensile strength was recorded experimentally. Additionally, the failure mechanism was studied under static loading conditions. As a result, macroscopic observation showed that clinched joints’ pull-out failure mode with a circumferential direction crack was observed on a punch fillet radius of 0.3 mm and a punch angle of 2o, which mainly failed due to kinked cracks through the upper sheet thickness. Thus, the cross-tensile specimen test can be an excellent method to analyse the failure behaviour of the clinched joint of aluminium sheets subjected to pure tension.