Numerical Simulation of Friction Stir Spot Welding

Abstract

Friction Stir Spot Welding (FSSW) is a solid state joining process that relies on frictional heating and plastic deformation realized at the interaction between a non-consumable welding tool that rotates on the contact surfaces of the workpieces. Friction Stir Spot Welding (FSSW) is an evolving technique that has received considerable attention from automotive industries to replace electric resistance spot welding, which shows poor weldability for advanced high-strength steels as well as aluminium alloys. Because of the interest shown by the industry towards this process, an attempt to optimize it is imperative. But the experiments are often time consuming and costly. To overcome these problems, numerical analysis has frequently been used in the last years. The purpose of this paper is to develop a three-dimensional fully coupled thermal-stress finite element (FE) model of FSSW process for thin aluminium alloy Al 6061-T6. Numerical simulation being helpful for better understanding and observation of the influence of input parameters on the resulting phenomena. It is described the algorithm and are presented the activities needed to be performed in order to develop a valid numerical model for FSSW. The validation of the numerical model being achieved by comparing the resulted temperatures from the numerical simulation with the experimentally determined temperatures for the same material