Influence of Tumbling-Induced Geometric Anisotropy on the Mechanical Performance of Self-Piercing Rivet Joints

Conventional self-piercing riveting (SPR) produces rotationally symmetric joints with largely uniform mechanical behavior. While this provides robust performance in many applications, increasing demands for material-efficient lightweight design, complex load paths and hybrid material systems require more versatile joining strategies. Recent experiments have demonstrated that an adapted tumbling SPR (T-SPR) process can intentionally induce non-rotationally symmetric joint geometries and thereby extend process limits beyond those of conventional SPR. Such asymmetric joints offer the potential to tailor load-bearing capacity and energy absorption to specific load directions, which could be particularly advantageous in crash-relevant or multi-material applications. Building on these findings, the present study shifts the focus from geometry control to the systematic evaluation of the mechanical performance of asymmetric T-SPR joints. Specimens were produced using T-SPR with tailored combinations of tumbling angle and velocity. The joints are manufactured with a versatile tumbling self-piercing riveting tool. To assess the resulting mechanical properties, cross tensile and tensile shear tests are conducted. From the resulting force-displacement curves, typical mechanical properties such as ultimate load, load-bearing capacity, displacement at failure and absorbed energy are derived. The mechanical performance of asymmetric joints is evaluated in comparison with symmetric reference joints produced by tumbling self-piercing riveting. This enables both the demonstration of direction-dependent mechanical behavior of asymmetric joints compared to symmetric references and a systematic evaluation of how geometric anisotropy affects load-bearing capacity, absorbed energy and failure characteristics.

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Periodical:

Materials Science Forum (Volume 1185)

Pages:

19-28

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4028/p-aok1H1

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Online since:

April 2026

Authors:

Jessica Sarris*, Michael Lechner

Keywords:

Asymmetric Tumbling, Self-Piercing Riveting (SPR), Tumbling Self-Piercing Riveting (T-SPR), Versatile Joining

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Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

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* - Corresponding Author

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