Friction stir welding has been successfully used to weld the dissimilar metals. A few investigations have been carried out on the friction stir lap welding of Al to Cu, but the basic issue of how the position of the metals would affect the joint strength is still not resolved. In the present study, the 7070 Al and the commercially pure copper are lap joined using friction stir lap welding technology. Two test cases are considered. The distinction refers to the position of Al with respect to Cu. Microstructural analyses are carried out to gain intermetallic compounds and some microcracks. The effect of position of materials on the heat generation is investigated and justified through the temperature measurements. Mechanical properties of each sample are characterized using both shear and hardness tests. The results reveal that the maximum fracture load of the joint is obtained when Al is placed on the top of Cu.

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Summary The main objective of this paper is to develop an analytical solution based on the perturbation method to solve the continuity and momentum equations governing the flow in gas channels of a PEMFC having circular and elliptical cross sections. The equations are solved in both the anode and cathode gas channels with appropriately defined perturbation parameters to obtain the velocity profile in these channels. It was observed that by changing the circular cross section to an elliptical one (ie, increasing the value of perturbation parameter), the axial velocity increases. As a result, the penetration of species into the reaction areas decreases. Then, the effect of species penetration speed on the performance of PEMFC is discussed. Increasing the penetration speed (ie, radial velocity) of the reactant gases causes the maximum value of the gas velocity in the channel to decrease. This would imply that the diffusion rate of the reactant species to the reaction areas, and thereby the cell performance would be optimized. Apart from the analytical solution, 3‐D numerical solution of the governing equations using collocated finite volume method along with the SIMPLE algorithm is also performed. The results are validated against the available published data. The numerical results confirm that by converting the circular cross section to the elliptical one, while other conditions are fixed, the PEMFC produces less current density.

A comprehensive numerical study was conducted to investigate heat transfer enhancement during the melting process in a 2D square cavity through dispersion of nanoparticles. A paraffin-based nanofluid containing various volume fractions of Cu was applied. The governing equations were solved on a non-uniform mesh using a pressure-based finite volume method with an enthalpy porosity technique to trace the solid-liquid interface. The effects of nanoparticle dispersion in a pure fluid and of some significant parameters, namely nanoparticle volume fraction, cavity size and hot wall temperature, on the fluid flow, heat transfer features and melting time were studied. The results are presented in terms of temperature and velocity profiles, streamlines, isotherms, moving interface position, solid fraction and dimensionless heat flux. The suspended nanoparticles caused an increase in thermal conductivity of nano-enhanced phase change material (NEPCM) compared to conventional PCM, resulting in heat transfer enhancement and a higher melting rate. In addition, the nanofluid heat transfer rate increased and the melting time decreased as the volume fraction of nanoparticles increased. The higher temperature difference between the melting temperature and the hot wall temperature expedited the melting process of NEPCM.