A coupled thermo-mechanical model of friction stir welding

Abstract

A coupled thermo-mechanical model was developed to study the temperature fields, the plunge force and the plastic deformations of Al alloy 2024-T351 under different rotating speed: 350, 400 and 450 rpm, during the friction stir welding (FSW) process. Three-dimensional FE model has been developed in ABAQUS/Explicit using the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation, the Johnson-Cook material law and the Coulomb’s Law of friction. Numerical results indicate that the maximum temperature in the FSW process is lower than the melting point of the welding material. The temperature filed is approximately symmetrical along the welding line. A lower plastic strain region can be found near the welding tool in the trailing side on the bottom surface. With increasing rotation speed, the low plastic strain region is reduced. When the rotational speed is increased, the plunge force can be reduced. Regions with high equivalent plastic strains are observed which correspond to the nugget and the flow arm

Influence of friction stir welding parameters on properties of 2024 T3 aluminium alloy joints

“…For most of the aluminium alloys, the temperature in the welding zone is within the range 430-500°C. In the second welding stage, the rotating tool is moving along the joining line and continues to generate heat by friction and plastic deformation in the welding zone, along with stirring the material of both plates [13][14][15][16][17]. This enables the materials heated to a high temperature to be mechanically stirred.…”

Experimental studies of parameters affecting the heat generation in friction stir welding process

“…Both types of welding tools are made of steel 56NiCrMoV7. At the minimal tool rotation speed (n = 400 RPM) [4,13,14] and the travel speed achieved "by hand", welding tool A10 performed successful welding. The maximal torque on the welding tool was about M t max = 35 Nm, but non-destructive testing (NDT) of the welds (visual inspection and ultrasound testing) showed numerous imperfections (cavity, incomplete joint penetration) [4,15].…”

Numerical simulation of fatigue crack propagation in friction stir welded joint made of Al 2024-T351 alloy

“…Long and expensive laboratory tests have been replaced with considerably cheaper software packages for calculation of displacements, strains and stresses of complex structures. The application of numerical methods to discretized 2D and 3D structure models, along with laws of fracture mechanics, enabled solving of problems mentioned above in a reliable and comfortable way, as shown in [2][3][4][5][6][7].…”