Research of the friction stir welding process of aluminium alloys

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigation and a numerical modelling of the friction stir welding (FSW) process on aluminium alloy AW 1050 and TL091T4 plates. The experiments were done in order to analyse the influence of different welding parameters on the horizontal welding force. The modelling of the FSW process of AW 1050 aluminium alloy was carried out and the temperature, von Mises stress, equivalent plastic strain and horizontal welding force variation over time were obtained. A compar-ison between the experimental and the modelled horizontal welding force showed a good agreement. The obtained re-sults of the presented study lead to a conclusion that the pre-sumptions taken in the modelling are reasonable, therefore, the FEM modelling could be used for prediction of rational FSW parameters in order to define lower weld force, which leads to a decrease of tool wear.