Load bearing capacity of tool pin during friction stir welding

Abstract

Although friction stir welding (FSW) is now widely used for the welding of aluminum and other soft alloys, premature tool failure limits its application to hard alloys such as steels and titanium alloys. The tool pin, the weakest component of the tool, experiences severe stresses at high temperatures due to both bending moment and torsion. It is shown that the optimum tool pin geometry can be determined from its load bearing capacity for a given set of welding variables and tool and work-piece materials. The traverse force and torque during friction stir welding are computed using a three-dimensional heat transfer and viscoplastic material flow model considering temperature and strain rate-dependent flow stress of the work-piece material. These computed values are used to determine the maximum shear stress experienced by the tool pin due to bending moment and torsion for various welding variables and tool pin dimensions. It is shown that a tool pin with smaller length and larger diameter will be able to sustain more stress than a longer pin with smaller diameter. The proposed methodology is used to explain the failure and deformation of the tool pin in independent experiments for the welding of both L80 steel and AA7075 alloy. The results demonstrate that the short tool life in a typical FSW of steels is contributed by low values of factor of safety in an environment of high temperature and severe stress.