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Computational Analysis of Material Flow During Friction Stir Welding of AA5059 Aluminum Alloys

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Abstract

Workpiece material flow and stirring/mixing during the friction stir welding (FSW) process are investigated computationally. Within the numerical model of the FSW process, the FSW tool is treated as a Lagrangian component while the workpiece material is treated as an Eulerian component. The employed coupled Eulerian/Lagrangian computational analysis of the welding process was of a two-way thermo-mechanical character (i.e., frictional-sliding/plastic-work dissipation is taken to act as a heat source in the thermal-energy balance equation) while temperature is allowed to affect mechanical aspects of the model through temperature-dependent material properties. The workpiece material (AA5059, solid-solution strengthened and strain-hardened aluminum alloy) is represented using a modified version of the classical Johnson-Cook model (within which the strain-hardening term is augmented to take into account for the effect of dynamic recrystallization) while the FSW tool material (AISI H13 tool steel) is modeled as an isotropic linear-elastic material. Within the analysis, the effects of some of the FSW key process parameters are investigated (e.g., weld pitch, tool tilt-angle, and the tool pin-size). The results pertaining to the material flow during FSW are compared with their experimental counterparts. It is found that, for the most part, experimentally observed material-flow characteristics are reproduced within the current FSW-process model.

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Acknowledgments

The material presented in this paper is based on work supported by two Army Research Office sponsored Grants (W911NF-11-1-0207 and W911NF-09-1-0513) and two U.S. Army/Clemson University Cooperative Agreements (W911NF-04-2-0024 and W911NF-06-2-0042).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, 241 Engineering Innovation Building, Clemson, SC, 29634-0921, USA

    M. Grujicic, G. Arakere, B. Pandurangan & J. M. Ochterbeck

  2. Army Research Laboratory—Survivability Materials Branch, Aberdeen, Proving Ground, MD, 21005-5069, USA

    C-F. Yen & B. A. Cheeseman

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    A. P. Reynolds & M. A. Sutton

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  1. M. Grujicic
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  2. G. Arakere
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Correspondence to M. Grujicic.

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Grujicic, M., Arakere, G., Pandurangan, B. et al. Computational Analysis of Material Flow During Friction Stir Welding of AA5059 Aluminum Alloys. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 21, 1824–1840 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-011-0069-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-011-0069-z

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