Experimental and Finite Element Modeling of Friction Stir Seal Welding of Tube-Tubesheet Joint

Abstract

Tube-tubesheet joints are critical in some applications, where contact between shell and tube side fluids is not tolerable. To ensure joint tightness, standards (ASME and TEMA) recommend performing a combination of rolling-or expansion of tube-tubesheet and seal welding. Available techniques for seal welding are based on fusion welding that sometimes results in a number of defects such as cracking and porosity formation, and such defects may take a newly fabricated heat exchanger out of service. In this work, friction stir welding (FSW) was used for tube-tubesheet seal joint and simulated using a 3D thermo-mechanical finite element model (FEM). The model was analyzed using a commercial finite element (FE) package. The model included the thermal effect of the tool workpiece interaction along with axial load, ignoring the metal flow around the tool. The material model took into account temperature dependency of thermal and mechanical properties. The model objectives were to evaluate the temperature distribution and residual stress in the workpiece resulting from the thermal cycle and axial load during welding for various process parameters, and to study how residual stresses in adjacent roller expanded tubes are affected during welding. The FE results show that the maximum temperature at the welding zone does not exceed the solidus temperature (except at high tool rotational speeds); the process can thus be classified as cold working. Moreover, adjacent tubes temperature does not exceed the annealing temperature. An experimental setup was designed and manufactured to show the feasibility of the process in this constrained size joints and to validate the numerical results. A test cell and a special FSW tool were designed and manufactured for this purpose. Many tests were performed with welding quality depending on process parameters.