Temperature Analysis of Friction Stir Welding (AA6061-T6) with Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian Approach.

Abstract

For Friction Stir Welding (FSW), several simplified FEM models have been developed to explain key parts of thermal-mechanical phenomena. In this study, to simulate the FSW process of the AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy, a thermo-mechanical 3-D finite element model based on the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach is used. The CEL method combines the benefits of both the Lagrangian and Eulerian approaches, allowing it to solve large-scale deformation issues. The Abaqus/CAE software is used to simulate the stages of the FSW process using the Johnson–Cook material law and the Johnson-Cook failure model. The CEL approach is used to estimate process parameters based on the model's boundary conditions of the 3-D rigid tool. Thermocouples were installed in the appropriate positions on the AA6061-T6 plate, and temperature is correlated with the simulation results. The temperature generated during the plunging, dwelling, and welding stages of the FSW of AA6061-T6 is 80% to 90% of the melting temperature being evaluated. The experimental data was obtained from the HMT made CNC (Siemens) operated VMC and the same is compared with the results obtained from the overall FEM simulation.