Experimental and numerical analysis of refill friction stir spot welding of thin AA7075-T6 sheets

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Authors

  • Venkata Somi Reddy Janga
  • Mokhtar Awang
  • Mohd Fadillah Yamin
  • Uceu F.H. Suhuddin
  • Benjamin Klusemann
  • Jorge F. dos Santos

The refill friction stir spot welding (refill FSSW) process is a solid-state joining process to produce welds without a keyhole in spot joint configuration. This study presents a thermo-mechanical model of refill FSSW, validated on experimental thermal cycles for thin aluminium sheets of AA7075-T6. The temperatures in the weld centre and outside the welding zone at selected points were recorded using K-type thermocouples for more accurate validation of the thermo-mechanical model. A thermo-mechanical three-dimensional refill FSSW model was built using DEFORM-3D. The temperature results from the refill FSSW numerical model are in good agreement with the experimental results. Three-dimensional material flow during plunging and refilling stages is analysed in detail and compared to experimental microstructure and hardness results. The simulation results obtained from the refill FSSW model correspond well with the experimental results. The developed 3D numerical model is able to predict the thermal cycles, material flow, strain, and strain rates which are key factors for the identification and characterization of zones as well for determining joint quality.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7485
JournalMaterials
Volume14
Issue number23
Number of pages20
ISSN1996-1944
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.12.2021

Bibliographical note

The APC charges were covered under Yayasan UTP, grant No 015LCO-129.

Acknowledgments: The authors offer their profound thanks to Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS for financial aid. This investigation has been conducted under the scope of DAHLIAS (Development and Application of Hybrid Joining in Lightweight Integral Aircraft Structures) project, funded by the European Union’ s HORIZON 2020 framework programme, Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking, and AIRFRAME ITD under grant agreement No 821081.

    Research areas

  • DEFORM-3D, Finite element modelling, Friction stir spot welding, Hardness measurement, Microstructure analysis, Refill friction stir spot welding, Simulation of joining process, Temperature measurements
  • Engineering

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