Temperature Analysis of Water-Cooled Friction Stir Welding Using Spray Nozzle on Aluminium 2014 Alloy

Abstract

AbstractIn-process cooling during Friction Stir Welding (FSW) has been the subject of focus in recent times because of the need to improve the various properties of conventional friction stir welded joints by reducing the excess heat dissipation. Using different cooling media during the in-process cooling of Friction Stir Welding leads to different cooling rates being induced in the tool-work piece interface. This in turn results in considerable changes across the temperature distribution along the weld line. In the present study, in-process cooling during the friction stir welding of Aluminium Alloy 2014 (AA2014) is performed using a nozzle designed to produce a spray with water and compressed air. K-type thermocouples coupled with Arduino UNO are placed on both Advancing Side (AS) and Retreating Side (RS) of the weld in order to measure the temperature distribution along the weld line. It is found that when a spray with water being maintained at a flow rate of 60 ml/min and the air at a pressure of 3 bar is used during welding, the peak temperature in the weld decreases which can attributed to the combined cooling effect caused by water and compressed air. The different phases of Friction stir welding along with cooling are simulated using a Finite Element Model (FEM) that has been developed in ABAQUS/CAE module using Coulomb’s law of Friction formulation and Johnson–Cook constitutive and damage evolution model. An Explicit analysis with various mechanical and thermal boundary conditions has been performed for simulating the actual welding process. The experimental results obtained are then validated using the simulated results.KeywordsFriction stir weldingIn-process coolingTemperature distributionAA2014Spray coolingFinite element modelling