CHARACTERIZATION AND MODELING OF ALUMINIUM AND COPPER JOINED BATTERY PACK FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

In this thesis, in collaboration with company Comau, it has been experimentally studied Aluminium and Copper joint of a battery pack for Automotive Applications. The experiments leads to joints welded through Remote Laser Welding process in a dedicated laboratory in Comau, Grugliasco. In the first chapters, it has been given a literature review of Laser welding and its applications in automotive field. There have been studied three parameters : Temperature limit, Tensile Strength and Electric Resistance. Furthermore, it has been investigated a possible function relation between Tensile Strength and Electric Resistance. The tests are conducted for 3 type of Samples: 1- three layers joint ( Aluminum -Copper coated with Nickel and Copper) 2- two layers joint ( Aluminum and Copper coated with Nickel) 3- two layers joint ( Copper coated with Nickel and Copper) The output are outlined in comparative dashboards for different set of parameters for each sample joint. There have been conducted Magnification of the samples of 50x and there have been compared. It is outlined a 2D map for each kind of joint where in abscissa axis there is Electric Resistance and in ordinate axis there is Tensile Strength for different set of parameters of each sample. They are very useful for future application since they give a visual impact of the results. Finally, it has been outlined the market trends of Laser Welding with a new source type, called Blue Laser. In addition, it has been shown a new way of predicting Electric Resistance and Tensile Strength through Thermography acquisition and further analysis with the implementation of Machine Learning with Matlab software.