Investigations on temperature distribution in welding of Aluminium alloys to steel using FEM

This research study focuses on the objective to establish an analytical model for determining the thermal distribution during friction stir welding (FSW), based on different assumptions of the contact condition between the rotating tool surface and the weld piece. The material flow and heat generation are characterized by the contact conditions at the interface, and are described as sliding, sticking or partial sliding/sticking. The analytical expression for the heat generation is a modification of previous analytical models known from the literature and accounts for both conical surfaces and different contact conditions. Aluminium metal matrix composites and steel 304 (dissimilar material joining) is being used for this study. Three dimensional Finite Element Models have been developed to visualize the temperature distribution across the butt ends of the plates. The results are validated with the experimental results reported in the literature. The result reveals that there exists a good coherence between experimental and simulated results