Self-piercing riveting of similar and dissimilar titanium sheet materials

Self-piercing riveting is a relatively new high-speed mechanical joining technique. The present paper deals with the join-ability of similar and dissimilar titanium sheets by self-piercing riveting and the mechanical properties of the self-piercing riveted joints. Tensile-shear tests were carried out to characterize the mechanical properties of different self-piercing riveted joints made of the similar titanium sheets and the dissimilar metal sheet combinations. The normal hypothesis tests were performed to examine the rationality of the test data. The load-bearing capacity, energy absorption, and failure modes of different titanium sheet self-piercing riveted joints were studied. Results showed that the load-bearing capacity of self-piercing riveted joints with titanium as upper sheets are higher than that of the self-piercing riveted joints with titanium as lower sheets.