Zhi Supplement June 2017.

qxp_Layout 1 5/10/17 3:51 PM Page 185

WELDING RESEARCH
SUPPLEMENT TO THE WELDING JOURNAL, JUNE 2017
Sponsored by the American Welding Society and the Welding Research Council

Effect of Moisture on the Ultrasonic Welding of

Carbon­Fiber­Reinforced Polyamide 66 Composite
Amplitude was proposed as an indication in monitoring weld quality

BY Q. ZHI, X. R. TAN, AND Z. X. LIU

such as hydrolysis, plasticization, mi-

ABSTRACT crocracking, and even the glass transi-
tion temperature (Refs. 16–18). These
The influence of moisture absorption on the weldability of carbon­fiber­reinforced
changes would alter the moduli of the
Polyamide 66 (Cf/PA66) was investigated via ultrasonic welding in a lap­joint configura­
tion. Results showed the joint strength decreased significantly when moisture absorption material, which is of great importance
was up to 1 wt­% and decreased slightly with low moisture. The water molecules de­ to its weldability.
creased the hydrogen bridge bond in polymer chains, which not only plasticized the com­ Chaichanawong (Ref. 19) discov-
posite but also changed the loss modulus of the composite. The fracture surface obser­ ered that the microstructure of the
vations showed the increase in moisture resulted in a decreased weld area, increased fracture surface changed to ductile
voids, and severe deformation around the voids, especially for high moisture content (> 1 fracture from brittle fracture, and the
wt­%). As a result, the joint with high moisture exhibited interfacial fracture. This delete­ elastic modulus decreased after im-
rious effect of moisture on the weldability of Cf/PA66 can be reversed by completely mersion in water. Timmaraju (Ref. 20)
redrying before welding. The amplitude during welding decreased with increasing mois­ revealed the significant plasticization
ture and displayed a similar varying tendency as that of tensile strength and weld area of
effect of water on the moduli and
joint. The joint strength increased linearly with the amplitude and was influenced slightly
by moisture when the amplitude was larger than 100 m during welding. Therefore, the damping factor with an increase in im-
amplitude was proposed as an indication in monitoring weld quality. bibed moisture. Sateesh (Ref. 21) dis-
covered the flexural modulus of a wa-
ter-bathed specimen was significantly
decreased due to the degradation of
KEYWORDS the glass-fiber-reinforced plastics.
Typically, it has been established that
• Carbon­Fiber­Reinforced Polyamide 66 • Ultrasonic Welding • Moisture the weld quality of the joint is related
• Amplitude to the moduli (i.e., storage and loss
modulus) of the material (Refs. 10,
Introduction gory, has been used in industrial mass 22). The loss modulus of the material
production for many years because of is proportional to the viscoelastic
The request for affordable, light- its efficiency, reliability, and good cos- heating (Ref. 23). As a result, the vari-
weight, and high-performance engi- metic quality (Refs. 8, 9). ations in the material moduli could
neering structures has promoted the There are many influential factors produce an influential effect on heat
development of fiber-reinforced poly- in the UW process, such as welding pa- generation during the UW process,
mer composites (Refs. 1, 2). In particu- rameters, material dimensions, and which would produce a profound effect
lar, carbon-reinforced polyamide 66 mechanical properties (Refs. 10–12). on the weld area of the joint and joint
(Cf/PA66) is being increasingly used in Mechanical properties of the material strength, accordingly.
automotive and aerospace applications becomes the determining factor when For normal storage of Cf/PA66 com-
due to its recyclability, thermal stabili- the welding parameters and material posite, the humidity and temperature
ty, and good mechanical properties dimensions are optimal. However, the levels undergo variations in different
(Refs. 3–5). To obtain complex Cf/PA66 mechanical properties of Cf/PA66 seasons, weather conditions, and places.
components, which often consist of composite can be easily affected by hy- To store the material in a fixed humidity
smaller parts, joining techniques such grothermal exposure (Refs. 13–15). It and temperature state the whole time
as mechanical fastening, adhesive has been reported in the literature would definitely increase the financial
bonding, and fusion bonding are usual- that the imbibed moisture into materi- burden. Based on this point of view, this
ly used (Refs. 6, 7). Ultrasonic welding al may bring reversible and/or irre- paper reports experimental findings of
(UW), which belongs to the fusion cate- versible changes in specific properties, an investigation regarding the effect of

JUNE 2017 / WELDING JOURNAL 185-s

Zhi Supplement June 2017.qxp_Layout 1 5/10/17 3:51 PM Page 186
WELDING RESEARCH
Fig. 1 — Schematic for ultrasonic welding of injection­molded carbon
fiber/polyamide 66 composites (dimensions in mm).
moisture uptake on the weldability of
ultrasonic welded Cf/PA66 composite.
The changes in the material properties
and the microstructure of the weld joint
are also examined. To determine the
critical water content, which has a slight
influence on weld strength, an indica-
tion of amplitude during welding is
proposed.
Experimental Procedure
Materials
Commercial pure PA66 pellets and 2-
mm-long carbon fiber (24K, T300 type,
Toray Carbon Magic Co. Ltd.) were dried
in an oven for 8 h at 80°C. The dried
pellets and carbon fiber were injection
molded into the 30 wt-% carbon-fiber-
reinforced PA66 plaques with dimen-
sions of 138 × 38 × 2.3 mm.
Moisture Absorption
The specimens were conditioned in
a climatic chamber, where both tem-
perature and relative humidity can be
monitored, to absorb different levels
of water in the specimens. These con-
ditioned specimens were divided into
seven groups that were marked as W0,
W1, W2, W3, W4, W5, and W6, respec-
tively. The moisture absorption equi-
librium in air is much less than in wa-
ter (Ref. 20), thus this study revealed
the workpiece with moisture content
up to 2.6 wt-%.
The specimens in the W0 group
186-s WELDING JOURNAL / JUNE 2017, VOL. 96
Fig. 2 — Schematics of the standard dog­bone and single lap­
shear specimens (dimensions in mm).
were dried in a vacuum oven at 70°C
for 48 h to remove surface-absorbed
vapor, and W1 specimens were stored
in the normal environment for 30
days. Specimens for W2 to W5 were
conditioned in various humid environ-
ments to obtain a certain humidity de-
gree. W6 specimens were the redried
W4 specimens in the vacuum oven at
70°C for 96 h to desorb water com-
pletely. Since conditioning time may
affect the crystallization of the car-
bon-fiber-reinforced polyamide, all
specimens were conditioned for the
same duration of 48 h. The specimens
were weighed before and after the
moisture absorption to ensure that
water content was consistent with the
conditioning. The percentage of the
moisture uptake, M, was calculated for
each measurement as follows:
mt –m0
M (% ) =
100
m0
where mt is the mass of the sample af-
ter being conditioned and m0 is the
Table 1 — Moisture Absorptions for Specimens under Different Conditioning Procedures
Conditioning Group Temperature
(°C)
W0 70
W1 30
W2 50
W3 50
W4 50
W5 70
W6 70
mass of the sample in the dry state.
The resulting level of humidity in de-
pendency of the conditioning proce-
dure is listed in Table 1.
Ultrasonic Welding
Ultrasonic welding was performed
using a KZH-2026 multifunction UW
machine with a nominal power of 2.6
kW and a nominal frequency of 20 kHz.
The welding setup used in this study is
schematically shown in Fig. 1. The
piezoelectric converter converts the
electrical signal into mechanical vibra-
tions. To transfer the ultrasonic waves
to the workpiece, the transducer was
connected to the horn that was placed
at right angles in contact with the work-
pieces to be welded. The support frame
of the transducer-booster-horn system
was attached to a pneumatic piston that
( 1) provided vertical movement along with
the static force (i.e., weld pressure) ap-
plied through the horn to the work-
pieces. The machine was also equipped
with data acquisition systems that com-
Relative Humidity Moisture Content
(%) (wt­%)
— 0
50 0.4
60 0.9
80 1.7
100 2.6
60 2.4
— 0
Zhi Supplement June 2017.qxp_Layout 1 5/10/17 3:51 PM Page 187
Fig. 3 — Static failure modes of the ultrasonic welded carbon
fiber/polyamide composite with 30 wt­% fiber (dry and wet): A —
Workpiece breakage; B — interfacial failure.
bined with pressure sensor, displace-
ment sensor, and timer were integrated
in the controller of the ultrasonic weld-
ing machine.
The output amplitude of the welding
machine was set to 25 m. The ampli-
tude of the horn was also 25 m when
vibrated in air. The amplitude curve
during welding was collected from the
horn displacement. When the ultrason-
ic vibration was conducted to the
Cf/PA66 composite, the high-frequency
vibration resulted in a large amplitude
in the Cf/PA66 composite due to the
hysteresis effect of the composite and
applying it to the horn. Therefore, the
measured amplitude was the combina-
tion of the horn and composite surface
amplitudes. The horn amplitude was
relatively small; thus, the measured am-
plitude can be regarded as the ampli-
tude of the composite surface during
welding (hereinafter referred to as am-
plitude). The welding horn used in this
study was made of enhanced 7075 alu-
minum alloy with a size of 18 mm in di-
ameter and a total length of 134 mm as
well as a goose length of 54 mm as
shown in Fig. 1.
Quasi­static Test
Quasi-static tests were performed
by loading each specimen to failure in
an MTS 810 tensile tester according to
ASTM D1002-2001. For the quasi-
static tensile specimens of the com-
posite treated with various moisture
(nonwelded specimen), standard dog-
Fig. 4 — Effect of water absorption on the tensile stress­strain of
carbon­fiber­reinforced polyamide 66.
bone specimens with a gauge of 25
mm in length, 6 mm in width, and 2.3
mm in thickness based on ASTM D638
were used, as shown in Fig. 2A. For the
welded joints, single-lap specimens
with the dimensions of 138 × 38 × 2.3
mm with an overlap of 25 mm were
used, as shown in Fig. 2B.
To minimize the bending stresses
inherent in the testing of single-lap
welded specimens, filler plates were at-
tached onto both ends of the specimen
using masking tape to accommodate
the sample offset. Load vs. displace-
ment results were obtained, as the
specimens were loaded at a stroke rate
of 2.0 mm/min. Joint strengths of the
welded workpieces were evaluated by
peak load. Three replicates were per-
formed, and the average joint
strengths were reported.
Characterization of the Material
The morphologies of the weld be-
fore/after tensile testing were charac-
terized by scanning electron mi-
croscopy (SEM, JSM 6700F). All the
samples were sputter-coated with plat-
inum for 50 s before SEM analysis to
induce conductivity. The crystal struc-
tures of the dry and wet specimens
were identified by x-ray diffraction
(XRD, X’Pert PROX) with a copper tar-
get. The scanning speed was 10
deg/min and scanning angle (2)
was from 15 to 35 deg for all the
specimens.
The dynamic mechanical analysis
WELDING RESEARCH
was carried out to investigate the ef-
fects of temperature and frequency on
viscoelastic properties of the carbon-
fiber-reinforced polyamide 66 compos-
ite. Specimens with dimensions of 38
× 8.5 × 2.3 mm were subjected to
three-point bending with a span
length of 20 mm. An oscillating force
was applied (maximum 4 N) to give
constant amplitude of deflection of 30
m. Measurements were conducted
over the temperature range of 23° to
200°C with a heating rate of 2°C /min
and under fixed frequencies (1, 2, 5,
10 Hz). The moduli at 20 kHz were ex-
trapolated by the time temperature
superposition.
Results
Effect of Moisture Absorption
on Weld Quality
To investigate the influence of hu-
midity levels with various tempera-
tures on the weldability of carbon-
fiber-reinforced polyamide 66, all the
conditioned specimens were ultrasonic
welded with the same welding parame-
ters of 3000 J weld energy under a
weld pressure of 0.17 MPa. The results
are listed in Table 2. As shown, the
peak load of the welded joints were
slightly affected by the humidity when
the humidity level was low (i.e., 1 wt-
%), whereas the peak load started to
decrease significantly when the mois-
ture content was above 1.7 wt-%. The
peak load of the joint made with the
JUNE 2017 / WELDING JOURNAL 187-s
Zhi Supplement June 2017.qxp_Layout 1 5/10/17 3:52 PM Page 188
WELDING RESEARCH
Fig. 5 — The interaction between water and polyamide.
redried sample (i.e., W6) was similar to
that of the dried sample (i.e., W0).
Combined with the results listed in
Table 1, it can be found that the ten-
sile property of the joint varied with
the moisture content of the specimen,
while the temperature had a slight in-
fluence on the peak load. Comparing
the tensile properties of W0 with W4,
the peak load decreased by approxi-
mately 40% when the moisture con-
tent was up to 2.6 wt-%. These charac-
teristics confirmed that the polyamide
composite was sensitive to moisture
(Refs. 15, 17).
It is noted that the weld area of the
joint is closely related to the joint
strength (Refs. 24, 25). In this case,
the weld area of the joint decreased
with the increasing humidity, but to
an obvious lesser degree when com-
pared to that of the peak load. This
odd phenomenon may be related to
the mechanical property of the materi-
al and the microstructure of the faying
interface, which will be discussed later.
Failure Mode Analysis
The effect of humidity level on fail-
ure mode of the joint was also exam-
ined and initial observations showed
there were two main failure modes for
the welded joints. Figure 3 shows the
typical fracture modes of workpiece
breakage (WB) and interfacial failure
(IF) of the joint. From the experimen-
tal examinations, the workpiece break-
age was likely for the joints made with
the workpieces with moisture absorp-
tion below 1 wt-% (i.e., W0, W1, W2)
whereas the interfacial fracture was
188-s WELDING JOURNAL / JUNE 2017, VOL. 96
Fig. 6 — The XRD patterns of the dry and wet Cf/PA66 composite.
Table 2 — Peak Load, Weld Area, and Failure Mode for Joint Made with Specimens under
Different Conditioning Procedures
Conditioning Group Peak Load
(kN)
W0 6.3
W1 6.2
W2 5.9
W3 5.2
W4 3.8
W5 4.1
W6 6.2
dominant for the workpieces with
higher moisture content. This differ-
ence in failure mode was likely related
to the mechanical properties of the
polyamide 66 composite and the weld
joint microstructure.
Figure 4 presents the tensile curves
of the composite with various water
contents. Referring to Fig. 4, tensile
strength, elastic modulus, and strain at
failure of the composites were influ-
enced by the amount of absorbed water.
The tensile strength and the elastic
modulus decreased while the elongation
at break of composite increased with
further increase in water absorption.
This change in the mechanical property
of carbon-fiber-reinforced polyamide 66
was mainly because of its hydrophilic
nature. When the polyamide composite
encounters water, the polar nature of
the water molecules cause them to be
attracted to the amide groups and de-
crease the hydrogen bridge bond in
polymer chains as shown in Fig. 5 (Refs.
19, 26). To analyze the effect of water
absorption on the microstructure of
polyamide 66 composite, the dry and
Weld Area Failure Mode
(mm2)
424 WB
416 WB
412 WB
377 IF
340 IF
354 IF
421 WB
wet Cf/PA66 composites were analyzed
using XRD technology. The XRD pat-
terns of the dry and wet specimens are
shown in Fig. 6.
There are two peaks (2 = 20.4,
23.7), 1 and 2, corresponding to
(110) and (010)/(110) crystal faces, re-
spectively, in polyamide 66. The inten-
sities of the peaks decreased with the
increasing water absorption, indicat-
ing the crystalline regions reduced and
then confirmed that the polar attrac-
tion between the amide groups in
polymer chains became weaker. There-
fore, the stiffness of the polyamide
composite diminished and the ductili-
ty increased, which was also observed
in other research (Refs. 13, 20). As can
also be seen in Fig. 4, the stress-strain
curve of the redried sample (W6) was
similar to that of the as dry as molded
(W0), which indicated the water des-
orption somewhat recovered the stiff-
ness, elastic modulus, and strength of
the Cf/PA66 composite. Thus, the peak
load of the joint made with the redried
sample was close to that of the dry
joint as shown in Table 2.
Zhi Supplement June 2017.qxp_Layout 1 5/10/17 3:52 PM Page 189
Fig. 7 — SEM images of the sectional fracture of the joint with 2.6 wt­% moisture con­
tent (W4): A — Fracture surfaces for the welded joints after tensile tests; B — W0; C —
W2; D — W3; E — W4; F — W6.
Because the weld joint is the most
valuable part to investigate, the mi-
crostructures of the sectional surface
and the workpiece-to-workpiece inter-
face of the joint made with dry and
wet specimens were examined and the
results presented in Fig. 7. The mi-
crostructure of the weld joint was dif-
ferent and not as compact as the ma-
trix shown in Fig. 7A. There existed
some random voids at the fractured
faying surface of the joint made with
dry workpieces (i.e., W0), which was
likely formed during manufacture or
due to ultrasonic cavitation (Ref. 27).
With the increase in moisture con-
tent, the voids increased in quantity
and the polyamide 66 resin deformed
around them as presented in speci-
mens W2, W3, and W4. For W4, where
the specimens were conditioned under
100% relative humidity (RH) at 50°C,
the plastic deformation of the
polyamide 66 resin around the voids
was more severe, which could have re-
sulted from the extensive mobility of
the polymer chains caused by moisture
(Ref. 17). The large scale of plastic de-
formations that occurred at the frac-
ture surface of W4 revealed the frac-
ture mode shifted from brittle fracture
to ductile fracture, implying the plasti-
cization effect of imbibed moisture on
the composite (Refs. 20, 26).
For the joint made with redried
specimens (i.e., W6), the appearance
of the fracture surface was similar to
that of the dried specimen (i.e., W0).
This characteristic showed the recov-
erability of the material microstruc-
ture by desorption of water with com-
plete drying, which was consistent
with the tensile results.
Based on the aforementioned re-
sults, the specimens with low humidity
content (e.g., W1, W2) exhibited work-
piece breakage, suggesting that the weld
joint could still bear load. Thus, the
WELDING RESEARCH
slight decrease in peak load of the joints
was mainly because of the decrease in
the ultimate tensile strength of the
composite. When the water absorption
increased to a certain level (i.e., above
1.7 wt-%), the loading capacity of the
weld joint decreased due to the in-
creased voids.
Moisture absorption not only de-
creased the mechanical properties of
the composite but also deteriorated the
weld microstructure. As a result, the
joints made with the specimens that
imbibed a relatively small amount of
moisture displayed workpiece breakage
while the joints with large moisture
content fractured from the deteriorat-
ed weld joint during the tensile test.
On the other hand, though the weld
area of the wet joint had a smaller de-
crease in comparison to peak load with
the increased water absorption, the mi-
crostructure at the faying interface be-
came loose and the mechanical proper-
ties decreased. Therefore, the change
in the weld area was not consistent
with that of peak load.
Relationship between Water
Content and Peak Load
Since water absorption of Cf/PA66
greatly influences the weld quality, it
is essential to establish the relation-
ship between water absorption and
weld quality. In this section, a Voigt-
Kevin model is proposed to thoroughly
understand the ultrasonic welding
process. The relationship between the
amplitude during welding and water
content is found and a threshold level
for water absorption is established.
Modeling the Ultrasonic System
Although a certain amount of mois-
ture absorption has a significant influ-
ence on the weldability of carbon-
fiber-reinforced polyamide 66, it is dif-
ficult and complex to measure the wa-
ter content in Cf/PA66 composite dur-
ing normal storage. In this study, a re-
lationship between the workpiece
strain during welding and water con-
tent was found. The welding system of
Cf/PA66 composite in this investiga-
tion can be simulated by a Voigt-Kevin
model (Ref. 22) as shown in Fig. 8. The
welding machine and workpieces are
represented in terms of springs and
dampers. The equations of motion for
the welding system were
JUNE 2017 / WELDING JOURNAL 189-s
Zhi Supplement June 2017.qxp_Layout 1 5/10/17 3:53 PM Page 190

WELDING RESEARCH

Fig. 8 — Voigt­Kelvin model for the welding system (Ref. Fig. 9 — The temperature dependence of loss modulus for Cf/PA66 com­
22). posite at 20 kHz.

Fig. 10 — Effect of moisture absorption on the ampli­ Fig. 11 — Effect of moisture content on thew amplitude and weld area,
tude during welding. peak load of the joint.

and lower workpieces are the same

x 1 + x 1k1 + x
1c1
m0



x 2 k1
x
2c1 = F (2)
( k1 + k2 ) x 2 + ( c1 + c2 ) x
2
= x 1 k1 = x
1 c 1 = 0 ( 3)
where m0 is the mass of the horn; k1, k2
are the spring constants; and c1, c2 are
the dampings of the materials. x1, x2
are the displacements of the welding
machine/workpiece interface during
welding. x˙ 1, x˙ 2, and x˙˙1 are the first and
second derivative of the displacement.
F is the force that was applied to the
horn, consisting of static normal and
oscillating holding forces. The upper
material, the value of k1, c1 equals that
of k2, c2; therefore, x1 = 2x2. Then
Equation 2 can be rewritten as
x 1 k1 + x
1c1 = 2( F = m0 x

1 ) (4)
x 1k1 , x
1c1 are the stresses of the
spring and damper. The input dis-
placement for the welding machine to
the upper workpiece is sinusoidal,
x 1 = A sin
t ( 5)
x
1 = A
cos
t (6)
For ultrasonic welding,  = 2f, the
vibration frequency was large, which in-
dicated that x˙ 1 was much larger than x1.
Moreover, the difference between stor-
age and loss moduli (i.e., k1, c1) was less
than two orders of magnitude (Ref. 2).
Thus, the damping property of the ma-
terial was the key factor in ultrasonic
welding of thermoplastics. The damp-
ing part determined the measured am-
plitude and the larger amplitude indi-
cated greater heating in the faying inter-
face, thus the weld area was larger. In
conclusion, the heat generation at the
faying interface mainly depended on the
loss modulus of the material.

190-s WELDING JOURNAL / JUNE 2017, VOL. 96

Zhi Supplement June 2017.qxp_Layout 1 5/10/17 3:54 PM Page 191
Fig. 12 — Relation between peak load and amplitude during welding.
Effect of Moisture on the
Damping Property
The damping property of
polyamide 66 composite can be easily
influenced with the presence of water,
and the loss modulus was the most
common index for damping. Figure 9
presents the loss modulus for dry and
wet carbon-fiber-reinforced specimens
at 20 kHz. The loss modulus of the
Cf/PA66 composite at different tem-
peratures at 20 kHz was obtained by
using the time-temperature superposi-
tion (Ref. 2). The shapes of the loss
modulus curves with various water
contents were similar but shifted to a
lower temperature, which resulted in a
large difference of loss modulus at
room temperature (25°C). The shift in
maximum loss modulus with moisture
absorption was attributed to the hy-
drophilic nature of polyamide 66. The
chains were frozen in fixed positions
in dry polyamide 66. The water ab-
sorption from a humid environment
introduced water molecules into the
amide groups. Hence, the mobility of
the polyamide chains increased, which
lowered the glass transition tempera-
ture (Tg was the corresponding tem-
perature at the maximum loss modu-
lus (Ref. 28)) and the peak loss modu-
lus toward the left.
Because the welding time of the ul-
trasonic process was short (1300 ms in
this study), and the temperature of the
material rose quickly, which was too
short for the state transformation dur-
ing welding, a reference temperature of
25°C was chosen for the damping prop-
erty of the material (Refs. 2, 16) be-
cause of the hysteresis phenomenon.
Referring to Fig. 9, the loss modulus at
20 kHz in room temperature increased
with water absorption, which may affect
the amplitude during welding.
Effect of Moisture on the Amplitude
during Welding
To analyze the effect of water ab-
sorption on the amplitude during
welding, the amplitude with various
moisture contents during ultrasonic
welding was measured and the results
are shown in Fig. 10. The amplitude
decreased slowly and gradually to a
stable state. The decrease in the ampli-
tude for approximately the first 500
ms was probably because it was an un-
steady phase, in which the small asper-
ities at the surface were planished to
obtain intimate contact between parts
(Ref. 29). Afterward, the amplitude
was in a stable state. In addition, the
amplitude curves of the wet work-
pieces (the stable state) were lower
than those of the dried workpieces
(i.e., W0, W6). With the increasing
moisture content, the amplitude de-
creased, which displayed the opposite
trend to that of the loss modulus.
Relation between the Peak Load and
the Amplitude
It is known that the amplitude de-
termines the heat generation at the
faying interface of the welded work-
WELDING RESEARCH
pieces (Refs. 25, 30). With water ab-
sorption, the water molecules in
Cf/polyamide 66 composite influence
the loss modulus of the material while
the loss modulus affects the ampli-
tude. Hence, there may exist a correla-
tion among the water content, ampli-
tude, and the peak load weld area of
the joint. These correlations are plot-
ted as a function of moisture content
and are shown in Fig. 11. As shown,
the amplitude exhibited the similar
varying tendency as that of the peak
load and weld area of joints with in-
creasing moisture content. Therefore,
there would exist a relation between
the amplitude and peak load. Because
the water content was difficult to
measure, amplitude during welding
may be an indication in controlling the
weld quality.
Figure 12 presents the connection
between the amplitude and peak load
of the joint. The red solid line in Fig.
12 is the curve fitted to the data and is
meant to demonstrate the relation be-
tween them. The correlation coeffi-
cient (R2) is 0.98, which indicates the
fitting is reliable. The relation between
the amplitude and peak load can be ex-
pressed as
P = 0.07A – 0.94 (7)
where P is the peak load of the joint
and A is the measured amplitude dur-
ing ultrasonic welding. As seen, the
peak load increased linearly with the
amplitude.
Examining the results in Fig. 11,
there existed a threshold for the ab-
sorbed water content, 1 wt-% (based on
peak load), which corresponded to the
amplitude of 100 m in Fig. 12. As long
as the amplitude was above 100 m, the
weld quality of the joint was desirable.
However, when the amplitude was
smaller than the critical level (i.e., work-
piece with high moisture content), the
workpiece needed to be desorbed with
complete drying before welding.
Conclusions
1. The joint strength of the UW
joint decreased significantly when
moisture absorption was up to 1
wt-% and decreased slightly with low
moisture.
2. The water molecules decreased
the hydrogen bridge bond in polymer
JUNE 2017 / WELDING JOURNAL 191-s
Zhi Supplement June 2017.qxp_Layout 1 5/10/17 3:54 PM Page 192
WELDING RESEARCH
chains, which not only plasticized the
composite but also changed the loss
modulus of the composite.
3. Fracture surface observations
showed the increase in moisture re-
sulted in a decreased weld area, in-
creased voids, and more severe defor-
mation around the voids, especially for
high moisture content (>1 wt-%).
Thus, joint with high moisture content
exhibited interfacial fracture.
4. The deleterious effect of water
absorption on the weldability of
Cf/PA 66 can be reversed by complete-
ly redrying the workpiece before ultra-
sonic welding.
5. The joint strength increased lin-
early with the amplitude and was in-
fluenced slightly by moisture when the
amplitude was larger than 100 m
during welding. Therefore, the ampli-
tude was proposed as an indication in
monitoring weld quality.
References
1. Powell, C. E., and Beall, G. W. 2006.
Physical properties of polymer/clay
nanocomposites. Current Opinion in Solid
State and Materials Science 10: 73–80.
2. Senthilvelan, S., and Gnanamoorthy,
R. 2006. Damping characteristics of unre-
inforced, glass and carbon fiber reinforced
nylon 6/6 spur gears. Polymer Testing 25:
6–62.
3. Karsli, N. G., and Aytac, A. 2013.
Tensile and thermomechanical properties
of short carbon fiber reinforced polyamide
6 composites. Composites: Part B 51: 270–
275.
4. Botelho, E. C., Figiel, L., Rezende, M.
C., and Lauke, B. 2003. Mechanical behav-
ior of carbon fiber reinforced polyamide
composites. Composites Science and Technol-
ogy 63: 1843–1855.
5. Diao, H., Robinson, P., Wisnom, M.
R., and Bismarck, A. 2016. Unidirectional
carbon fibre reinforced polyamide-12 com-
posites with enhanced strain to tensile fail-
ure by introducing fibre waviness. Compos-
ites: Part A 87: 186–193.
6. Ageorges, C., Ye, L., and Hou, M.
2001. Advances in fusion bonding tech-
niques for joining thermoplastic matrix
composites: A review. Composites: Part A
32: 839–857.
7. Amanat, N., James, N. L., and
McKenzie, D. R. 2010. Welding methods
for joining thermoplastic polymers for the
QIAN ZHI, XINRONG TAN, and ZHONG­XIA LIU (liuzhongxia@zzu.edu.cn) are with the School of Physics and Engineering, Zhengzhou
University, Zhengzhou, China.
192-s WELDING JOURNAL / JUNE 2017, VOL. 96
hermetic enclosure of medical devices.
Medical Engineering & Physics 32: 690–699.
8. Chan, W. X., Ng, S. H., Li, K. H. H.,
Park, W.-T., and Yoon, Y.-J. 2016. Micro-ul-
trasonic welding using thermoplastic-elas-
tomeric composite film. Journal of Materi-
als Processing Technology 236: 183–188.
9. Qiu, J., Zhang, G., Asao, M., Zhang,
M., Feng, H., and Wu, Y. 2010. Study on
the novel ultrasonic weld properties of het-
erogeneous polymers between PC and
PMMA. International Journal of Adhesion &
Adhesives 30: 729–734.
10. Benatar, A., Eswaran, R. V., and Na-
yar, S. K. 1989. Ultrasonic welding of ther-
moplastics in the near-field. Polymer Engi-
neering and Science 29: 1689–1698.
11. Rani, R. M., Suresh, K. S., Prakasan,
K., and Rudramoorthy, R. 2007. A statistical
study of parameters in ultrasonic welding of
plastics. Experimental Techniques 31: 53–58.
12. Parmar, U., and Pandya, D. H. 2016.
Experimental investigation of ultrasonic
welding on non-metallic material. Procedia
Technology 23: 551–557.
13. Tanaka, K., Honda, S. M. H.,
Katayama, T., and Enoki, S. 2013. Effect of
water absorption on the mechanical prop-
erties of carbon fiber/polyamide compos-
ites. Journal of Solid Mechanics and Materi-
als Engineering 7: 520–529.
14. Launay, A., Marco, Y., Maitournam,
M. H., and Raoult, I. 2013. Modelling the
influence of temperature and relative hu-
midity on the time-dependent mechanical
behaviour of a short glass fibre reinforced
polyamide. Mechanics of Materials 56: 1–
10.
15. Jia, N. Y., and Kagan, V. A. 2001.
Mechanical performance of polyamides
with influence of moisture and tempera-
ture — Accurate evaluation and better un-
derstanding. Plastics Failure Analysis and
Prevention, pp. 95–104.
16. Grammatikos, S. A., Zafari, B.,
Evernden, M. C., Mottram, J. T., and
Mitchels, J. M. 2015. Moisture uptake
characteristics of a pultruded fibre rein-
forced polymer flat sheet subjected to
hot/wet aging. Polymer Degradation and
Stability 121: 407–419.
17. Christian, S. J., and Billington, S. L.
2012. Moisture diffusion and its impact on
uniaxial tensile response of biobased com-
posites. Composites: Part B 43: 2303–2312.
18. Sturm, R., Grimberg, R., Savin, A.,
and Grum, J. 2015. Destructive and non-
destructive evaluations of the effect of
moisture absorption on the mechanical
properties of polyester-based composites.
Composites: Part B 71: 10–16.
19. Chaichanawong, J., Thongchuea, C.,
and Areerat, S. 2016. Effect of moisture on
the mechanical properties of glass fiber re-
inforced polyamide composites. Advanced
Powder Technology 27: 898–902.
20. Timmaraju, M. V., Gnanamoorthy,
R., and Kannan, K. 2011. Influence of im-
bibed moisture and organoclay on tensile
and indentation behavior of polyamide
66/hectorite nanocomposites. Composites:
Part B 42: 466–472.
21. Sateesh, N., Rao, P. S., Ravishanker,
D. V., and Satyanarayana, K. 2015. Effect
of moisture on GFRP composite materials.
Materials Today: Proceedings 2: 2902–2908.
22. Benatar, A. 1989. Ultrasonic weld-
ing of PEEK graphite APC-2 composites.
Polymer Engineering and Science 29:
1705–1721.
23. Rani, M. R., and Rudramoorthy, R.
2013. Computational modeling and experi-
mental studies of the dynamic perform-
ance of ultrasonic horn profiles used in
plastic welding. Ultrasonics 53: 763–772.
24. Balkan, O., Demirer, H., and
Yildirim, H. 2008. Morphological and me-
chanical properties of hot gas welded PE,
PP and PVC sheets. Journal of Achievements
in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
31: 60–70.
25. Glowska, A. W., and Pietras, A.
2012. Influence of the welding parameters
on the structure and mechanical properties
of vibration welded joints of dissimilar
grades of nylons. Archives of Civil and Me-
chanical Engineering 12: 198–204.
26. Zhu, L., Wang, C., and Qiu, Y. 2007.
Influence of the amount of absorbed mois-
ture in nylon fibers on atmospheric pres-
sure plasma processing. Surface & Coatings
Technology 201: 7453–7461.
27. Ye, L., Lu, M., and Mai, Y.-W. 2002.
Thermal de-consolidation of thermoplastic
matrix composites — I. Growth of voids.
Composites Science and Technology 62:
2121–2130.
28. Vlasveld, D. P. N., Groenewold, J.,
Bersee, H. E. N., Mendes, E., and Picken, S.
J. 2005. Analysis of the modulus of
polyamide-6 silicate nanocomposites using
moisture controlled variation of the matrix
properties. Polymer 46: 6102–6113.
29. Fernandez Villegas, I. 2014.
Strength development versus process data
in ultrasonic welding of thermoplastic
composites with flat energy directors and
its application to the definition of opti-
mum processing parameters. Composites:
Part A 65: 27–37.
30. Levy, A., Le Corre, S., and Fernan-
dez Villegas, I. 2014. Modeling of the heat-
ing phenomena in ultrasonic welding of
thermoplastic composites with flat energy
directors. Journal of Materials Processing
Technology 214: 1361–1371.