Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187

4th International Conference on Materials Processing and Characterization

Thermal modelling and effect of process parameters in friction stir

welding
Tanmoy Medhia*, Barnik Saha Royb, Subodh Debbarmac, S.C.Sahad
a
Research Scholar, Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering, NIT Agartala, Barjala, Jirania, Tripura (W), Pin:799046, India
b
Assistant Professor, Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering, NIT Agartala, Barjala, Jirania, Tripura (W), Pin:799046, India
c
PhD Scholar, Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering, NIT Agartala, Barjala, Jirania, Tripura (W), Pin:799046, India
d
Professor, Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering, NIT Agartala, Barjala, Jirania, Tripura (W), Pin:799046, India

Abstract

The friction stir welding is an innovative process also coined as green technology. The physical understanding of the process
can be described by the combined effort of experimental examination and modelling of the same. The primary thing in the
process is to carry out the thermal modelling in order to understand the temperature distribution in the material. In the present
experimental investigation a Tribometer has been used to understand the variation of co-efficient of friction between a high
strength tool (die steel) with a base metal of 6061-T6 aluminium alloy, in order to develop a realistic thermal model. A thermo-
mechanical model using the obtained value of coefficient of friction is developed using a Finite Element package, Comsol
Multiphysics. The thermal analysis is done and also the effect of various welding parameters on the same is studied.

2015
2014Elsevier
The Authors.
Ltd. AllElsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
rights reserved.
Selectionand
Selection and peer-review
peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of theofconference
the conference committee
committee membersmembers the 4th International
of the 4thofInternational conference conference
on Materialson
Materials and
Processing Processing and Characterization.
Characterization.

Keywords:Co-efficient of friction; friction stir welding; aluminium alloy; simulation; thermal modelling.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-8730852667

E-mail address: tanmoymedhi@gmail.com

2214-7853 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the conference committee members of the 4th International conference on Materials Processing
and Characterization.
doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2015.07.112
 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187 3179

1. Introduction

Friction stir welding (FSW), patented by The Welding Institute (TWI) [1] in1991,is a new technique for material
joining and processing. Since its invention, FSW evolved as a widely used technique in the joining of aluminum
components. There have been wide spread benefits resulting from the application of FSW in aerospace, shipbuilding,
automotive and railway industries as FSW produces welds that are high in quality, strength, and also inexpensive to
make.
The heat input during the process plays a significant role in the development of quality welds due to which it
must be controlled. The coefficient of friction () has a distinct influence on the quality of heat developed by
friction. It has been reported that a constant value of co-efficient of friction is required for a detail study [2,3]. The
severe plastic deformation during the process generates high temperatures around the tool which leads to
recrystallization of the material. Hence the evaluation of temperature field is one of the most stressed areas in
friction stir welding [4]. There are many properties of the final weld that are in direct correlation with the thermal
history experienced by the plate. Due to this the thermal modelling is coined as the central part of modelling [4].
Nandan et.al [5] investigated the three dimensional heat transfer in mild steel both experimentally and theoretically.
A moving coordinate was introduced for the three dimensional thermal modelling by Song et.al [6] to reduce the
difficulty in modelling the moving tool. Zhu et.al [7] conducted a nonlinear thermal simulation done for friction stir
welding of 304L stainless steel at various rotational speeds to know the variation in transient temperature and
residual stress in the welded plate. Heurtier et.al [8] presented a thermo-mechanical model where heat input from the
tool shoulder was incorporated in order to estimate the temperatures at various weld zones, with the help of a semi-
analytical model. Colegrove [9] described the application of Comsol Multiphysics in predicting the temperature
distribution in the model and thereby linking it to a simple microstructural model to predict the mechanical
properties. To enhance the properties of weld the dissimilar materials joining or mixing of materials with certain
composites is friction stir welded and observed for joint analysis as well as checked for improved mechanical
properties [10, 11].
The objective of this research is to study the heat transfer in the welded plate by friction stir welding. The study
of the thermal history in the plate is carried out by detail experimentation and then a model based approach is
followed to create the numerical model of the same and then to quantify the relationship between the welding
parameters namely the sticking condition, rotational speed and tool traverse speed for friction stir welding (FSW).
The thermal profiles generated are investigated numerically and compared with published experimental results.

2. Present Investigation

2.1. Determination of coefficient of friction

A tribological test was carried out for an AA6061-T6 sample by using a ball on disc tribometer (CSM instrument,
Switzerland), which operates in a linear rotating mode. A 100 Cr steel ball of 0.006 m diameter was used as a sliding
counter probe. The tribometer set up is shown in Fig. 1. The load, sliding speed and total sliding distance was fixed
at 2N, 0.02 ms-1 and 30 m respectively. The relative humidity during the test was 65%.

Fig. 1 Tribometer setup

3180 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187

2.2. Modelling approach

A physics-based modelling approach was followed in order to utilize the three dimensional numerical method to
solve the continuity equation and simultaneously analyse the temperature distribution due to heat flow by varying
the process parameters. The model was generated by Comsol Multiphysics. The tool material selected for modelling
was a proprietary CPM-1V tool steel due to its good hardness and heat transfer characteristics having 0.032 m
shoulder diameter, 0.01 m pin diameter and 0.009 m pin height. The model tool is true to the actual tool except that
the model geometry does not include a recessed region around the pin or rounded edges. AA6061-T6 was selected
of size 0.3mX0.1mX.01m as the base material in the model due to its excellent joining characteristics, high strength,
good workability, high corrosion resistance and wide applications in aerospace field.

2.2.1 Governing equation

The model is generated using the heat transfer module in Comsol and is simultaneously solved by the steady
state thermal energy conservation equation for i = 1, 2 and 3, representing x, y and z directions, respectively, is
expressed as [5]:

wuiT  wT w wT
UC p  UC pU  k  Qb  Qint erfacial (1)
wxi wxi wxi wxi

Where,
= density(kgm-3)
Cp= Specific heat at constant pressure (Jkg-1K-1)
ui= Material velocity in i-direction (ms-1)
T= Temperature (K)
U= Welding speed (ms-1)
k= Thermal conductivity of the workpiece (Wm-1K-1)

Here, Qb denotes the heat generation rate per unit volume, due to the plastic deformation in the workpiece away
from the interface and Qinterfacial denotes the source term due to interfacial heat generation rate per unit volume at the
tool pin-work piece interface. Equation (1) is selected as the governing equation as the process is a complex thermo-
mechanical one.
As the governing equation in 3D Cartesian coordinates is discretized using finite element method, the workpiece
is divided into small triangular grids by meshing the whole plate. The model takes in temperature dependent
material properties of the tool and work piece, weld parameters and geometry of the tool and work piece as input
and returns temperature as output. Fine grids present near the tool progressively become coarse away from the tool
as shown in Fig. 2. Convergence is usually achieved within 400 iterations with a tolerance factor of 1e-6 which
requires about 10 minutes in a PC with 2.10 GHz Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo CPU and 3 GB of RAM memory.

Fig.2. A typical grid mesh used for present investigation

 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187 3181

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Evaluation of coefficient of friction

The variation of Co-efficient of friction () with different temperature i.e 100C, 200C and 300C is shown in
Fig. 3 (a-c) respectively. A variation for the value of from 0.4-1.2 is observed. The experimental results reveal that
the temperature of the base material to have a remarkable influence on the Coefficient of friction, which is attributed
with initiation of metallurgical changes experienced by the base metal. At initial temperature the Co-efficient of
friction is between 0.4 to 1.2 and when the temperature exceeds 200C, the Co-efficient of friction increases steadily
from 0.8-1.2.

(a) (b)

(c)

Fig. 3. Variation of coefficient of friction at (a) 100C; (b) 200C; (c) 300C

Fig. 4 (a-c) shows the microstructure of the top surface of deformation of the sample under the interaction area of
the rotating tool with the base metal at 100C, 200C and 300C respectively. At high temperature the yield pressure
of the base material is found to be increased as a result there was deformation of the material at the local level and
increasing the debris. As a result the tool was not able to rotate and stopped.

(a)
3182 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187

(b)

(c)
Fig. 4. Microstructure of the top surface at (a) 100C; (b) 200C; (c) 300C

3.2. Thermal modelling

The results were predicted by the outcome of the effects of tool translation, boundary conditions and the thermal
properties of welded AA 6061-T6. A 3-dimensional model corresponding to the tool rotational speed of 800 rpm
and welding traverse speed of 0.00083 ms-1 is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig.5. Temperature distribution in Al6061-T6 plate at a rotational speed of 800 rpm and welding speed of 0.00083 ms-1

Based on the position of the thermocouples as indicated in the Figure 9, temperature readings from different
thermocouple position were recorded by Lab view software.

Fig. 6. Thermocouple position in the advancing side of the plate based on the direction of tool rotation
 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187 3183

3.2 Experimental and numerical validation

The computed thermal cycles in AA6061-T6 at the fifth monitoring location is compared with the experimental
data having rotational speed of 1000 rpm and traverse speed of 0.00125 ms-1. Good agreements between the
experimentally determined and the computed results at different monitoring locations indicate that the model can be
used to examine the temperature profile and the cooling rates (Fig.7).

Fig. 7. Validation of numerical results with experimental results

3.2.2 Temperature distribution for variable sticking condition

The thermal profile generated due to temperature distribution in the longitudinal direction on the top surface of
the workpiece for different sticking condition is shown in Fig. 8. The temperature profiles on the longitudinal
direction are compressed in front of the tool and expanded behind the tool. This is due to the fact that heat is
transferred easily to the front side of the tool as it is the cold region of the workpiece compared to the preheated
region of the workpiece which is behind the tool. The top surface experiences maximum temperature which
decreases along the depth of the pin.

Fig. 8. Temperature distribution for variable sticking condition in longitudinal direction

3184 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187

3.2.3 Temperature distribution for various rotational speeds

In Fig. 9, the thermal profiles were drawn along thermocouple position 4 by varying the tool rotational speed
(rpm). It is seen that with the increase in rotational speed, the heat generated in the weldment increases thereby
increasing the peak temperature. Other things remain the same.

Fig.9. Variation of temperature in Al6061-T6 plate for varying rotational speed

The effect of rotational speed on the temperature distribution in longitudinal direction on the top surface is as
shown in the Fig. 10. It is clear from the graph that the temperature variation is in direct relation with the rotational
speed i.e the temperature increases with increase in rotational speed. This can be described by the fact that high
amount material shearing takes place at high rotational speeds due to extensive plasticization around the shoulder
periphery. Hence at this point the temperature increases.

Fig. 10. Temperature distribution for different rotational speed in longitudinal direction

3.2.4 Temperature variation for various tool traverse speed

Fig. 11 shows the variation of temperature at thermocouple position 4 with time for varying tool traverse speed.
 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187 3185

The temperature distribution along the longitudinal direction on the top surface of the weldment due to varying tool
traverse speed ranging from 0.001ms-1 to 0.006ms-1 is shown in Fig. 12. It is clear from both the graph that at
higher tool traverse speed the peak temperature is low and vice-versa. This can be attributed by the fact that if the
tool is welding at a low travel speed it will get more time to interact with the weldment and hence more heat
induction will take place per unit length at the weld zone and simultaneously efficient distribution will also take
place. Also the curve becomes much steeper in terms of heating and cooling cycle which is clear from Fig. 11.

Fig. 11. Variation of temperature in Al6061-T6 plate for varying welding speed at the same thermocouple position

Fig. 12. Temperature distribution for different tool traverse speed in longitudinal direction

3.2.5 Uncertainties in heat generation

3.2.5.1 Role of variable sticking condition

Fig. 13 shows the heat generation obtained in model when the contact state is varying from full sliding to full
sticking. The total heat generation is varying between 1650000 Watts for full sliding condition to 1675000 Watts for
full sticking condition for welding speed of 0.00083ms-1 and rotational speed of 800 rpm. This shows that the
sticking condition produces more heat than sliding conditions. It can be also said that there is very less change in
total heat generation at the two extreme contact conditions. Moreover it is also clear from the graph that friction is
3186 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187

responsible for the heat generation initially during full sliding and as the sticking condition increases the heat
generation due to plastic dissipation i.e viscous heating becomes dominant. But still the mystery of exact contact
condition is unknown and contribution regarding this area is required.

Fig. 13. Contributions of different forms of heat generation

3.2.5.2 Role of the backing plate

The modelling has been carried out by varying the bottom heat transfer coefficient in the range of 30-3000 Wm-
2K-1 [12], which make the bottom of the plate to behave as a perfect insulator as well as perfect heat sink. Fig. 14
shows the effect of temperature distribution for different values of bottom heat transfer coefficient. It can be
concluded from the graph that maximum flat curve is obtained for the minimum value of heat transfer coefficient.
The sharpness of the peak increases for increasing value of heat transfer coefficient. Moreover, a significant effect in
the cooling rate is also seen. Higher cooling rate is obtained for a high value of heat transfer coefficient. Normally
while modelling, convection is responsible for the heat loss from the bottom surface of the workpiece. But when a
backing plate is kept then the heat loss occurs by conduction. The workpiece backing plate conductance is one of the
uncertain aspect of the thermal model as it cannot be determined accurately by experiments.

Fig. 14. Variation of temperature with different values of bottom heat transfer coefficient which is in Wm-2K-1
 Tanmoy Medhi et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 2 (2015) 3178 3187 3187

4. Conclusion

The coefcient of friction and temperature do have a synergic inuence on each other. The coefcient of friction
in the FSW condition was found to be as high as 1.2 at 300-3500C. A 3-D numerical analysis of heat transfer was
presented for the butt FSW of AA6061-T6 to investigate the weld physical properties. The CFD model was
developed including the flat tool shoulder and a plain cylindrical tool pin. Based upon the sliding/sticking condition
assumption for the FSW tool (state variable 0 1) and after the numerical verifications, the model was tested
considering temperature dependent thermal conductivity, specific heat and yield strength. The exact contact condition
which is prevailing in the process is an uncertain factor where rigorous work is required. The convective heat transfer
is the main mechanism of heat transfer. Though there is certain uncertainty in the value of conductance of the backing plate
which has been depicted. The temperature profiles are more or less symmetric about the weld centreline.

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks all the persons involved directly or indirectly in the research. The financial support and stage
provided for research by NIT Agartala is acknowledged.

References

[1] W.M. Thomas, E.D. Nicholas, J.C. Needham, M.G. Murch, P. Templesmith, C.J. Dawes, G.B. Patent 9125978, (1991).
[2] O. Frigaard, O. Gerong, O.T. Midling, Metallurgical and Material Transactions A 32 (2001) 1189-1200.
[3] C.M. Chen, R. Kovacevic, International J. of Machine tools and Manufacturing 43 (2003) 1319-1326.
[4] H. Schmidt, J. Hattel, Scr. Mater. 58(5) (2008a) 332-337.
[5] R. Nandan, G.G. Roy, T.J. Linert, T. Debroy, ActaMaterialia55 (2007) 883-895.
[6] M. Song, R. Kovacevic, International J. of Machine tools and Manufacturing 43 (2003) 605-615.
[7] X.K. Zhu, Y.J. Chao, J. of Materials Processing Technology 146 (2004) 263-272.
[8] P. Heurtier, M.J. Jones, C. Desrayaud, J.H. Driver, F. Montheillet, D. Allehaux, J. of Materials Processing Technology 171 (2006) 348-357.
[9] P. Colegrove, Proceeding of Comsol Users Conference, 2006, Birmingham.
[10] S. G.Sajan, M. Meshram, Pankaj, P. Srinivas, S. R. Dey, Advanced Materials Manufacturing & Characterization 3 (2013) 189-194.
[11] R. Ramesh, N. Murugan, Advanced Materials Manufacturing & Characterization 3 (2013) 301-306.
[12] V.Soundararajan, S.Zekovic, R.Kovacevic,International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 45 (2005) 1577-1587.