Effects of Nonconventional Tools on the Thermo Mechanical Response of Friction Stir Welded Materials

Abstract

An investigation on the effect of two alternative friction stir welding (FSW) tool designs, namely, Bobbin tool and DeltaN tool, on the temperature profile, residual stress (RS), and distortion fields developing during FSW process is presented. The study is based on the semianalytical calculation of the total heat generated during FSW. Subsequently, the calculated heat energy is applied as thermal load in a threedimensional finite element (FE) thermomechanical model for the calculation of temperature history, RSs, and distortions. The overall methodology is validated through the comparison of the numerical results to respective experimental temperature measurements and distortions observations.