The Sheet Metal Formability of AA-5083-O Sheets Processed by Friction Stir Processing

The aim of this study is to determine the sheet metal formability of AA-5083-O sheets processed by the Friction Stir Processing (FSP). The FSP process was studied and a FSP tool was built. Processing quality was verified by the metallography in the processing region, which established the voids presence. Tensile tests were carried out on FSP and non-FSP specimens, and the results showed that FSP specimens have 30% greater resistance than non-FSP ones. The formability of FSP sheets was produced in MSC-MARC and Abaqus and these software products were compared by using the nonlinear FEM code. The Forming Limit Diagram was built with the results from both software products. A device to process FSP sheet metals was developed and the sheets were processed to validate the results from the software. The tools made for the bulge tests were circular and ellipse-shaped. After the bulge tests, the commercial sheets showed close approximation to those obtained from the software. The FSP sheets broke when inferior pressure was applied because of the defects in the FSP process. The results of the FSP presented the same formability of commercial sheets, however, with 30% greater strength