Numerical Simulation of Friction Stir Welding of Aluminum Alloys: A Brief Review

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is the latest innovative and most complex process which is widely applied to the welding of lightweight alloys, such as aluminum and magnesium alloys, and most recently, titanium alloys, copper alloys, steels and super-alloys. Friction stir welding is a highly complex process comprising several highly coupled physical phenomena. The experiments are often time consuming and costly. To overcome these problems, numerical analysis has frequently been used in the last ten years. In this paper is presented a brief review of scientific papers in recent years on numerical simulation of Friction Stir Welding of aluminum alloys. The main elements analyzed by FSW simulation, and briefly in this paper are: temperature and residual stress distribution; work tool geometry (size and shape of the pin); distribution of equivalent plastic deformation; main areas resulted after welding; distribution of microstructure (grain size); parameters and optimization of the FSW process.

Numerical Simulation Model for FSW Employing Particle Method – Effect of Tool Angle on Fluid Motion

The friction stir welding (FSW) is known as non-melting joining. It used widely in the field of industry. Numerical analysis models for FSW also have been developed. In these models, the most frequently used method is a grid method (finite element method or finite difference method). However it is difficult or troublesome to calculate the advective term both for momentum and temperature employing these methods. It is also difficult to calculate the big deformation of the material's free surface. Moreover, complex process is required to analyze the dissimilar joining with respect to dealing with substance transfer. In this paper, to avoid these difficulties, particle method is adopted for FSW simulation. In particle method, advective term, substance transfer, and surface deformation are calculated automatically mainly because that Lagrangian approach is used. To verify the effectiveness of this method, fluid motion around the tool is examined by particle trace. As a result, relations between the rotating speed of the tool and area of plastic flow is evaluated.

Investigation of Vibration Assisted Friction Stir Welding

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a relatively new solid state joining method that can be used to achieve very good weld quality. This technique is energy efficient, environment friendly, and versatile. The FSW process utilizes a rotating tool in which includes a pin and shoulder to perform the welding process. FSW applications in high strength alloys, such as stainless steel remain limited due to large welding force and consequent tool wear. It has been shown that applying the ultrasonic vibration on some processes such as turning and drilling the resultant forces are decreased and process condition is improved. In this paper the influence of applying vibration on FSW is investigated in simulating tools. For FSW modeling a proper transfer function of axial force has been proposed. The resultant axial force of conventional FSW and Vibration Assisted FSW (VAFSW) are compared in frequency and time domain state spaces. A good correlation between FSW simulation and experiments is observed. For further investigation of VAFSW the response surface of design of experiment (DOE) method is utilized. The influence of changing VAFSW process parameters is investigated. The simulation results indicate that vibration helps to decrease the welding force. Using DOE method the effects of implemented frequency and vibration speed amplitude in FSW are found.