COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS FOR MODELLING FSW AND AN IMPROVED TOOL FOR NDT

The good quality of Friction Stir Welding (FSW) joints enables the significant development of industrial applications of solid state welding technologies. This high quality standard is even more significant when FSW is compared to the fusion techniques. Nevertheless, in FSW joints some defects may arise which are very sensitive to small variations in some process parameters. Moreover, the results from computational modelling of the FSW are only valid for non-defective welds. Thus, in order for modelling of the process to contribute to the industrial consolidation of the FSW process, the experimental implementation results need to be supported by a reliable, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) system. This work addresses an integrated scheme of two computational tools which enables the support of a faster establishment of process parameters, addressing the material flow analysis, with numerical coupling between fluid dynamics and solid mechanics; using the analytical iSTIR code; and a new, NDT, eddy currents probe, able to detect the typical FSW root imperfections.