TWI

A fully coupled thermomechanical formulation was proposed for the numerical modelling of friction stir welding (FSW) to facilitate the efficient simulation of different types of material flows and accurate computation of the resulting thermomechanical fields. The mechanical problem was described by an incompressible continuity equation and the quasistatic linear momentum equation. The material behaviour was characterised by Norton-Hoff and Sheppard-Wright rigid thermo-visco-plastic constitutive models, taking into account thermal contact, heat convection-radiation through the boundaries and heat generated by plastic dissipation. A pressure stabilised mixed linear velocity/linear pressure finite element method was employed to solve the mechanical problem. A kinematic framework based on a combination of arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian, Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches was adopted for different parts of the computational domain. FSW with several circular and non-circular pin shapes was analysed. Issues discussed include temperature profile asymmetry around the welding tool and heat generation asymmetry around the tool pin surface.

9th International Symposium, 15-17 May 2012, Session 8B: Modelling II, Paper 02