Temperature distribution prediction in 5052 H34 aluminum alloy joints welded by friction stir welding process

Abstract

The Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process has been the subject of intense research and has gained relevance in the productive sector due to its technical and economic advantages. Initially used by automotive and aerospace industry, the process went from a simple welding technique for thin sheets of aluminum alloys to an adaptable process of extensive use for joining alloys of light metals, titanium, steel and other thin hard metals. The virtual models are the most indicated in the initial phase of industrial projects because it minimizes losses, such as: material, labor and time. Therefore, the objective of this work is to validate the virtual FSW process welding model, available in the commercial software Altair?, defining the initial and boundary conditions in order to represent the tested scenario. The thermal histories derived from the simulation were compared with the results of the thermal cycles measured during the thin sheet welding, by means of statistical analysis of the results and relative deviations. We found values of 0.9311 and 0.9546 for the coefficient R2 for the forward and backward side respectively, which showed a good correlation between the computed results and experimental counterparts.