Study of the Correlation between the Process Parameters and the Mechanical Characteristics of the Aluminum Sheets Welded by the FSW Process

Abstract

In recent years, friction stir welding (FSW) methods have been used to obtain good joint mechanical and process properties. The development of FSW for lap joint manufacturing will expand the number of applications that can benefit from this technology. The objective of the present work is to the modeling of parameters influencing the temperature during friction stir lap welding joints. The area of physical understanding is the influence of the tool pin geometry and material on the temperature field, microstructural refinement, resulting material flow, and the influence of flow variations on the subsequent mechanical properties of FSW butt lap joints in aluminum 3003 Alloy. The results obtained allowed us to propose a mathematical model to study the interactions between different factors. Thus, it was shown that the most influential parameters are respectively the rotation speed and weld speed. The study also presents the influence of different parameters welding on the structure of lap joints. The hardness in the welded region is significantly lower with respect to the base material. The fracture shows the characteristics of ductile-brittle mixed fracture.

Keywords

• Friction stir welding
• Lap joint
• Aluminum 3003
• Temperature
• Tensile shear test
• Predicting