Numerical simulation of Friction Stir Welding of three dissimilar aluminium alloys

FSW process is increasingly required in industrial environment. This innovative process has a lot of advantages: can be performed without melting of material, uses a non-consumable tool, performed good mechanical properties, can weld dissimilar materials and have a low environmental influence. On the other hand, FSW process has several disadvantages: an excessive tool wear, weld speeds slower, expensive equipment and limitations for high melting temperature materials. To achieve the expected results during industrial applications, welding process behaviour must be properly understood. The Finite Element Simulation is a technique which would help to understand the process variation during the welding and the result could be used to notice the effect of process parameters on weld quality. In this study an attempt is made to develop a FE model using ABAQUS V6.13/Explicit with help of CEL formulation, Johnson-Cook material law and Coulomb's Law of friction. The model will obtain a perspective on circumstance of processing before carrying out the welding process, would predict the effect of input process parameters on outputs parameters like: temperature. The simulation results are used to obtain the optimized process parameters. Numerical model validation is performed by comparing the value of temperatures from FE simulation with the experimentally recorded temperatures.