Fine tuning of dwelling time in friction stir welding for preventing material overheating, weld tensile strength increase and weld nugget size decrease

Abstract

After successful welding, destructive testing into test samples from Al 2024-T351 friction stir butt welds showed that tensile strength of the weld improve along the joint line, while dimensions of the weld nugget decrease. For those welds, both the base material and the welding tool constantly cool down during the welding phase. Obviously, the base material became overheated during the long dwelling phase what made conditions for creation of joints with the reduced mechanical properties. Preserving all process parameters but varying the dwelling time from 5-27 seconds a new set of welding is done to reach maximal achievable tensile strength. An analytical-numerical-experimental model is used for optimising the duration of the dwelling time while searching for the maximal tensile strength of the welds.