Repository logo
 
Loading...
Profile Picture
Person

da Fonseca Matos Pragana, João Pedro

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 30
  • A self-clinching fastener for hidden lap joints
    Publication . Sampaio, Rui F. V.; Pragana, João; Bragança, Ivo M. F; Silva, Carlos M. A.; Martins, P. A. F.
    This paper presents a new self-clinching fastener to connect two sheets (or plates), made from similar or dissimilar materials, placed over one another by means of a mechanical form-closed joint that is hidden inside the sheets. The development of the fastener, the definition of its main design variables and the identification of its workability limits are carried out by means of a combined experimental and numerical simulation work based on finite elements. It is shown that self-clinching by pressing the two overlapped sheets against each other to displace material around the annular groove of the fastener shank and create undercuts in both sheets requires an appropriate choice of the design variables. Wrong values of the design variables resulting in lack or excess of material displaced by plastic flow gives rise to inappropriate lap joints that cannot be used in production. The new proposed fastener allows, for the first time ever, joining by forming with the use of auxiliary elements that are harder than the sheet materials to fabricate invisible joints with no material protrusions in applications requiring minimum installation space
  • Double-sided injection lap riveting
    Publication . Pragana, João; Sampaio, Rui F. V.; Chantreuil, Justin; Bragança, Ivo; Silva, Carlos; Martins, Paulo
    This article presents a double-sided injection lap riveting process for fixing two overlapped sheets with tubular rivets at room temperature. The rivets are injected by compression into the dovetail ring holes that are previously machined in both sheets, and, in contrast to other joining by plastic deformation processes making use of auxiliary elements, the resulting joints are hidden inside the sheets without material protrusions above or below their surfaces. The new process is applied in the fabrication of aluminum busbar joints for energy distribution systems, and comparisons are made against conventional bolted joints that were fabricated for reference purposes. The work combines experimentation and finite element modelling, and results allow concluding that, in addition to invisibility and savings in assembly space, there are important gains in the thermo-electrical performance of the new joints that are of paramount importance for electric distribution applications.
  • Revisiting the fracture forming limits of bulk forming under biaxial tension
    Publication . Sampaio, Rui F. V.; Pragana, João; Bragança, Ivo; Silva, Carlos; Martins, Paulo
    The formability limits of bulk metal forming in principal strain space and in the effective strain vs. stress-triaxiality space are characterized by an uncertainty region in which cracks may be triggered by tension (mode I of fracture mechanics) or by out-of-plane shear (mode III). The problem in obtaining experimental data in this region has been known for a long time and the main objective of this paper is to present a new upset formability test geometry that can effectively contribute to the characterization of the formability limits of bulk metal forming parts subjected to biaxial tension. Alongside with this objective, this paper also presents an analytical expression for converting the fracture forming limit line corresponding to crack opening by mode III in principal strain space into a hyperbolic fracture limit curve in the effective strain vs. stress-triaxiality space. The overall methodology employed by the authors combines experimentation along with analytical and numerical modelling, and the contents of the paper is a step towards diminishing the actual lack of knowledge regarding failure by fracture in bulk metal forming parts subject to stress-triaxiality values beyond uniaxial tension. Results show that a new uncoupled ductile fracture criterion built upon combination of the integrands of the Cockcroft-Latham and McClintock criteria can be successfully used to model the physics of the bulk metal forming limits for the entire range of stress-triaxiality values corresponding to cracking on free surfaces.
  • Integration of forming operations on hybrid additive manufacturing systems based on fusion welding
    Publication . Pragana, João; Cristino, Valentino A. M.; Bragança, Ivo; Silva, Carlos; Martins, Paulo
    This paper is focused on the integration of metal forming operations in hybrid systems that combine additive manufacturing (AM) by gas metal wire arc and subtractive manufacturing by machining. The investigation is carried out in AISI 316L stainless steel wire and draws from tensile testing to incremental sheet forming of truncated conical shapes. Commercial sheets from the same material are utilized for comparison purposes. Thickness measurements, digital image correlation (DIC), circle grid analysis (CGA) and microstructural and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations are carried out to understand how different is the mechanical behaviour of the deposited metal from that of commercial metal sheets and how significant is the influence of the deposited metal microstructure on its overall formability. Results confirm that integration of metal forming operations in hybrid AM routes is feasible despite the formability of deposited metal being smaller than that of the commercial metal sheets due to the strong anisotropy induced by the dendritic based microstructure of the deposited metal. Incremental forming of two deposited parts also allows concluding that integration of metal forming operations in hybrid AM systems is a step towards green and sustainable manufacturing by extending their field of applicability to the fabrication of complex ready-to-use parts requiring combination of different processes.
  • Resistance element welding of sandwich laminates with hidden inserts
    Publication . Calado, Francisco N.; Pragana, João; Bragança, Ivo; Silva, Carlos M. A.; Martins, Paulo A. F.
    This paper presents a new resistance element welding process capable of producing invisible lap joints between steel-polymer-steel composite laminates. The process involves pre-drilling a flat-bottom hole in each laminate to remove the polymer core and one of the steel sheets, and positioning a cylindrical insert inside the two adjoining holes for subsequent resistance welding. Finite element modeling is utilized to construct the weldability lobe and to identify the parameters that lead to the formation of acceptable joints. Experimental results confirm the applicability of the process to produce invisible lap joints without signs of material protrusions or local indentations resulting from squeezing the polymer out to create contact between the steel sheets. Destructive peel and shear tests allow determining the maximum forces that the joints can safely withstand and comparing their performance against alternative joined by forming lap joints in which the mechanical interlocking is also hidden inside the laminates.
  • Influence of corrosion on the electrical and mechanical performance of hybrid busbars
    Publication . Sampaio, Rui F. V.; Bragança, Ivo; Pragana, J. P. M; Silva, C. M. A.; Fernandes, João C. S.; Martins, Paulo A. F.
    This paper is focused on the electrical and mechanical performance of aluminum-copper hybrid busbars subjected to corrosion over time. Two different types of hybrid busbars with joints produced by conventional fastening with M8 hexagonal socket head bolt-nut pairs made from medium carbon steel and by a new injection lap riveting process with semi-tubular rivets made from the material of the softer conductor are used and subjected to salt spray and electrochemical tests. Electrical resistance measurements performed on hybrid busbars taken from the corrosion testing cabinet at the end of each exposure period allow concluding that the new injection lap riveted hybrid busbars have a better electrical performance over time due to the elimination of fasteners with a higher electrical resistivity than aluminum and copper and to the elimination of the aluminum-steel and copper-steel galvanic pairs. The capability of the injection lap riveted hybrid busbars to withstand shear forces after corrosion testing also revealed to be adequate and like those of the original (uncorroded) hybrid busbars.
  • A new joining by forming process to produce lap joints in metal sheets
    Publication . Pragana, João; Silva, Carlos; Bragança, Ivo; Alves, Luís; Martins, Paulo
    This paper proposes a new joining by forming process to produce lap joints in metal sheets. The process combines partial cutting and bending with mechanical interlocking by sheet-bulk compression of tabs in the direction perpendicular to thickness. The lap joints are flat with all the plastically deforming material contained within the thickness of the two sheets partially placed over one another. The design of the lap joints is performed by a simple analytical model and the overall concept is validated by means of numerical modelling and experimentation. Destructive shear tests demonstrate the effectiveness and performance of the new proposed lap joints. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of CIRP.
  • Resistance element welding of sandwich laminates with hidden inserts
    Publication . Calado, Francisco N.; Pragana, João; Bragança, Ivo; Silva, Carlos; Martins, Paulo A. F.
    This paper presents a new resistance element welding process capable of producing invisible lap joints between steel-polymer-steel composite laminates. The process involves pre-drilling a flat-bottom hole in each laminate to remove the polymer core and one of the steel sheets, and positioning a cylindrical insert inside the two adjoining holes for subsequent resistance welding. Finite element modeling is utilized to construct the weldability lobe and to identify the parameters that lead to the formation of acceptable joints. Experimental results confirm the applicability of the process to produce invisible lap joints without signs of material protrusions or local indentations resulting from squeezing the polymer out to create contact between the steel sheets. Destructive peel and shear tests allow determining the maximum forces that the joints can safely withstand and comparing their performance against alternative joined by forming lap joints in which the mechanical interlocking is also hidden inside the laminates.
  • A strain acceleration method to identify the onset of diffuse necking
    Publication . Sampaio, Rui F. V.; Pragana, João; Bragança, Ivo; Silva, Carlos; Martins, Paulo
    This paper presents an innovative ‘strain acceleration method’ for determining the onset of diffuse necking in sheet forming tests using data obtained from digital image correlation (DIC). The method identifies the onset time of diffuse necking and provides the corresponding in-plane principal strain values by detecting a local extreme in the second derivative of the minor principal in-plane strain with respect to time at the edges of the sheet surface region where diffuse necking occurs. Results obtained from applying the method to tensile testing on two different materials and comparisons with available methods based on force-time or principal strain rate evolutions confirm its accuracy and validity. The new method was implemented in a computer software to be used for research and education that also enables determination of localized necking and fracture and plotting the strain loading paths in principal strain space.
  • Hybrid wire‑arc additive manufacturing of conformal cooling channels: a feasibility study
    Publication . Pragana, João; Bragança, I. M. F; Silva, C. M. A.; Martins, P. A. F.
    This paper investigates the feasibility of hybridizing wire-arc additive manufacturing with metal forming to create conformal cooling channels in moulds for hot material processing. An axisymmetric mould is used as a prototype test case and plastic deformation by flaring of the additively deposited inner tubular element is utilized to create the overhangs for connecting with the outer tubular element that are needed to fabricate the cooling channels. Finite element modelling of plastic deformation by flaring of the additively deposited material is carried out to identify the different modes of deformation and to determine the maximum allowable radius of the overhangs. Results show that the proposed hybridization of wire-arc additive manufacturing with plastic deformation by flaring adds flexibility to the design and fabrication of conformal channels in the as-built mould by eliminating the use of support structures and avoiding the use of complex deposition strategies. Finishing of the functional surfaces of the as-built mould by turning ensures the required accuracy and surface quality.