Experimental research and numerical simulation of friction stir welding process of 6082-T6 aluminium alloys

Abstract

In this paper experimental research and numerical simulations were performed, in order to determine the forces in the process of joining of materials using Friction Stir Welding - FSW process. The paper presents the joining of 6082-T6 sheet aluminium alloy, with thickness of 7.8 mm. Experimental research and numerical simulation are designed to be realized in two phases. In the first phase tool plunges into material and moves vertically downwards and the second phase includes welding of the material when the tool moves horizontally in the longitudinal direction. In these phases measurement of the force components that occur during the process of FSW (Downward Force - Fz, Longitudinal Force - Fx and Side Force - Fy), as well as the numerical simulation of the process have been conducted. For the numerical simulation software package DEFORM-3D has been applied. Simulation is performed for all points of experimental plan. Values of shoulder diameter, pin diameter, angle of pin slope, rotation speed and welding speed are varied in the experiment. The experiment was carried out in laboratory at ambient temperature in conditions similar to production. Current paper provides an analysis and comparison of the researched parameters obtained by experimental procedure and by numerical simulation. © 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.