Numerical analysis and experimental study on friction stir welding (Case studies on aluminum alloy and mild steel)

In this paper, numerical analysis and experimental study on Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is considered. Generalized Differential Quadrature (GDQ) method was used to solve the equations of the material flow during the process. This method which is known as the highest-order finite difference scheme is one of the meshless method and has a very high convergence speed respect to ordinary finite difference and finite element methods. After validating the application of this procedure with the results of experiments on aluminium alloy, friction stir welding of mild steel considered and the results compared with the published results of other researchers. Numerical analyses show that at high rotational speed of the welding tool the analysis of the process should be done in 3-dimentional framework. The results of FSW on aluminum features along with the welding results on steel ones considered in order to better understanding of the process nature of dissimilar alloys. Results of this study show that the macroscopic behavior of both materials during friction stir welding is the same. Furthermore, viscosity spectrum shows high fluidity of steel in the range of solidity to melting temperatures, so the ratio of rotational to welding speeds (ω/v) in friction stir welding of steel work pieces could be higher which it should be mentioned whenever joining of aluminium to mild steel work pieces is planned.