J Fail. Anal. and Preven.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-019-00766-z
TECHNICAL ARTICLE—PEER-REVIEWED
Numerical Simulation on the Effect of Friction Stir Welding
Parameters on the Peak Temperature, Von Mises Stress,
and Residual Stresses of 6061-T6 Aluminum Alloy
Noureddine Zina . Samir Zahaf . Sabik Abdelhadi Bouaziz . Abdessamad Brahami .
Mustapha Kaid . Boualem Chetti . Zahra Najafi Vafa
Submitted: 11 August 2019
Ó ASM International 2019
Abstract The friction stir welding (FSW) has become an
important welding technique to join materials that are
difficult to weld by traditional fusion welding technology.
The model used in this study is a simplified version of the
thermo-mechanical model developed by Zhu and Chao for
FSW with aluminum alloy A6061-T6. Zhu and Chao pre-
sented nonlinear thermal and thermo-mechanical
simulations using the finite element analysis code ANSYS
APDL 16.2. They initially formulated a heat transfer
N. Zina  S. A. Bouaziz
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Polytechnic
School of Oran Maurice Audin, Oran, Algeria
N. Zina
e-mail: noureddinez71@yahoo.fr
S. A. Bouaziz
e-mail: bouazizsabik@gmail.com
S. Zahaf (&)  B. Chetti
Department of Science and Technology, University of Khamis
Meliana, Ain Defla, Algeria
e-mail: samir.zahaf@univ-dbkm.dz;
zahafsamir1983@gmail.com
B. Chetti
e-mail: b.chetti@univ-dbkm.dz
A. Brahami  M. Kaid
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Djillali
Liabes, Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria
A. Brahami
e-mail: abdouda2002@gmail.com
M. Kaid
e-mail: mustapha_kaid@yahoo.fr
Z. Najafi Vafa
Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of
Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
e-mail: zahranajafivafa.64@gmail.com
problem using a moving heat source and later used the
transient temperature outputs from the thermal analysis to
determine residual stresses in the welded plates via a 3-D
elastoplastic thermo-mechanical simulation. Two welding
cases with two different parameters the feed rate and the
rotation speed are analyzed. In the first part, we fixed the
speed of advance and varied the speed of rotation
(140 mm/min, 600, 1000, 1400 rpm) and in the second part
fixed the speed of rotation and varied the speed of advance
(600 rpm, 80, 100, 140 mm/min). The objective of this
paper is to study the variation of transient temperature and
distribution of Von Mises stress and evaluate the residual
stress in a friction stir welded plate of AA 6061-T6. We
have used the thermo-mechanical model developed by Zhu
and Chao and implemented our program under the code
ANSYS APDL. We see that the peak temperature obtained
from simulation is approximately near the measured one.
However, the peak temperature at the welded joints
increased by increasing the rotation speed with the same
tool profile and constant value of welding speed. The
residual stresses are affected by the FSW processes,
otherwise, by the welding temperature and mixing which
have a relationship with the welding parameters. An
increase in the welding speed apparently lead to an increase
in the residual stress. The residual stresses found by this FE
model have never exceeded the value of 54% of the elastic
limit. We concluded that the model gives a good result in
terms of stress. The results of the simulation are in good
agreement with that of experimental results.
Keywords FSW process  Numerical simulation 
Von mises Residual stress  Temperature 
Welding parameter  Finite element method
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Introduction
Friction stir welding (FSW) is a relatively new, state-of the
art solid state joining process. This metal jointing tech-
nique is derived from the conventional friction welding. In
a typical FSW, a rotating cylindrical pin tool is forced to
plunge into the plates to be welded (i.e., workpiece) and
moved along their contact line; this is shown in Fig. 1.
During this operation, frictional heat that is generated by
contact friction between the tool and workpiece softens the
material.
The plasticized material is stirred by the tool and forced
to ‘‘flow’’ to the side and the back of the tool as the tool
advances. As the temperature cools down, a solid contin-
uous joint between the two plates is then formed. Because
the highest temperature in the FSW process is lower than
the melting temperature of the workpiece material, FSW
yields fine microstructures, absence of cracking, low
residual distortion and no loss of alloying elements that are
the main advantages of this solid phase process. Never-
theless, as in the traditional fusion welds, a softened heat-
affected zone and a tensile residual stress parallel to the
weld also exist.
Although it is a new welding technology, the FSW has
been extensively studied in both the academic and indus-
trial communities for most aluminum alloys including
difficult-to-weld alloys such as AA2195 (with lithium) and
AA7075. To date, most of the researchers focused their
attentions on the heat transfer or temperature analysis of
FSW. Tang et al. [1] presented the experimentally mea-
sured temperature distributions of the workpiece in an
FSW. Gould and Feng [2] proposed a simple heat transfer
model for predicting the temperature distribution in the
Fig. 1 (A) Scheme of friction stir welding process, (B) scheme of
FSW process steps: (a) rotating tool before plunging, (b) plunging
and then tool shoulder touches the workpiece surface producing
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workpiece of the FSW. Chao and Qi [3, 4] developed a
moving heat source model in a finite element analysis and
simulated the transient temperature, residual stress and
residual distortion of the FSW process. Furthermore,
Colegrove et al. [5] and Frigaard et al. [6] developed three-
dimensional heat flow models for the prediction of tem-
perature fields in the FSW. Midling [7], Russell and
Sheercliff [8] investigated the effect of tool shoulder
material and pin tool on heat input during the FSW. Most
currently, Donne et al. [9] reported the measured residual
stresses in friction stir welds for 2024-T3 and 6013-T6
aluminums. Dong et al. [10] carried out a coupled thermo-
mechanical analysis of the FSW process using a simplified
two-dimensional axisymmetric model. Chao et al. [11]
investigated the variations of heat energy and temperature
produced by the FSW in both the workpiece and the pin
tool. All investigations show that the FSW process of
aluminum alloys yields welds with low distortion, high
quality and low cost. Consequently, better structural per-
formance is the primary advantage of this technology’s
applications. For example, a demonstration of the tremen-
dous potential and successful applications of aluminum
FSW in airframe structures can be found by Talwar et al.
[12]. In principle, the FSW process can be applied to
joining other alloy materials such as steels and titanium as
well. Of course, it is well known that current tool materials
used in the FSW for aluminums are not adequate for pro-
duction applications in many of the harder alloy materials.
However, when adequate wear-resistant tool materials
become available, the benefits of the FSW may promote its
rapid implementation in the production of ferrous struc-
tures and structures made from other more refractory
materials. While work to develop the necessary tool
frictional heat, (c) rotating tool traverses along the workpiece and (d)
pulling out from the workpiece
J Fail. Anal. and Preven.

materials continues, it is also important to make progress in
the development of the FSW process for steels. For
instance, experimental studies of austenitic stainless steels
[13] revealed the microstructures, residual stresses and
strength of the friction stir welds. To further understand the
fundamental mechanisms associated with the welding for-
mation process and improve the welding quality for the
FSW of steels, numerical modeling and simulations of
transient temperature and residual stresses are valuable and
necessarily needed. In this paper, a three-dimensional
model based on a finite element method (FEM) is proposed
to analyze residual stress distribution in the weld, study the
thermal impact and evolution of the stresses of Von Mises
in the weld by considering the mechanical effect of the
tool. (Only the shoulder is included at this time.)
This study is accomplished by parametrically studying
the effects of varying welding parameters, primarily the
traverse and rotation speed of the tool. The entire welding
process is simulated using the commercial finite element
package ANSYS APDL 16.2. For the boundary conditions,
we chose the rotation speed of 500 rpm and three tool feed
speeds (80, 100, 140 mm/min) so that we can compare and
validate the FE model. The coordinate system adopted in
our case is related to the workpiece. Based on the three-
dimensional finite element method (FEM), a code is
developed to predict the temperature and residual stresses.
The results for both temperature and residual stresses are
compared with the available experimental data to validate
the present modelization.
Materials and Methods
Geometry Configuration
The welding process is shown in Fig. 1, where V is the
traverse speed of the tool, and x is its rotational speed. The
tool is made of AISI A2 steel and consists of the shoulder
with the diameters of R0 = 16 mm, respectively. The
welded plates are 6061 Al alloy; each is in a rectangular
shape with a size of 200 9 50 9 3.18 mm. The tool is
considered a rigid solid, and the workpiece is considered a
ductile material characterized with elasticity, plasticity and
a kinetic hardening effect. The temperature-dependent
properties of the 6061 Al alloy are used up to 571 °C based
on Ref. [8] and are given in Table 1. The stress–strain
curves of 6061-T6 at various temperatures are plotted in
Fig. 2 [8].
Inverse Analysis Method for Heat Transfer
At the present work, thermal and thermo-mechanical
analysis is adapted, which is similar to the numerical
simulation of the conventional arc welding [17, 18]. The
heat transfer analysis was performed first, and the transient
temperature outputs from this analysis are saved for the
subsequent thermo-mechanical analysis. In the thermal
analysis, the transient temperature field T is a function of
time t and the spatial coordinates (x, y, z) and is determined
by the three-dimensional nonlinear heat transfer equation
[19]:
 2 
o T o2 T o2 T oT
k þ þ þ Qint ¼ cq ðEq 1Þ
ox2 oy2 oz2 ot
where k is the coefficient of thermal conductivity, Qint is
the internal heat source rate, c is the mass specific heat
capacity, and q is the density of materials. Heat flux to the
system is put in by a moving source on the boundary of the
weld line. This heat produced by the friction contact
between the pin tool and the plates is concentrated locally
and propagates rapidly into remote regions of the plates by
conduction according to Eq 1 as well as convection and
radiation through the boundary.
It is assumed that the heat flux, q(r), is linearly dis-
tributed in the radial direction of the pin tool shoulder and
has the following form [4]:

Table 1 Material properties of AISI A2 steel [14, 15] and aluminum alloy 6061-T6 [16]
Thermal Young’s Yield Thermal
Temperature conductivity (W/ Heat capacity Density modulus strength expansion (lm/ Poisson’s Melting
(°C) m °C) (J/kg °C) (kg/m3) (GPa) (MPa) °C) ratio Point (°C)

AISI A2 23.8 1096 7860 203 10.6 0.23

Steel
Al alloy 0 162 917 2703 69.7 277.7 22.4
6061- 93.3 177 978 2685 66.2 264.6 24.61
T6
204.4 192 1028 2657 59.2 218.6 26.6 0.23 582–652
315.6 207 1078 2630 47.78 66.2 27.6
427.7 223 1133 2602 31.72 17.9 29.6
571.1 253 1230 2574 0 0 34.2

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where E is the Young’s modulus, m is the Poisson’s ratio, a

is the thermal expansion coefficient, sij = r_ ij  1/3 r_ kk dij
are the components of deviatory stresses, and k is the
plastic flow factor. k = 0 for elastic deformation or re \
rs, and k [ 0 for plastic deformation or re C rs, where rs
is the yield stress, and re = (3/2 sij sij )1/2 is the Von Mises
effective stress.
It is well known that the thermo-mechanical analysis for
welding simulation using finite element method is extremely
time-consuming. To reduce computational time and still
Fig. 2 Geometry configuration of friction stir welding maintain reasonable accuracy, many thermo-mechanical
numerical analyses use a ‘‘cut-off temperature,’’ i.e., the
mechanical properties above the cutoff temperature are
assumed to maintain constant values [17]. Tekriwal and
Table 2 Chemical composition AA6061-T6 [20, 21]
Mazumder [17] showed that the residual stresses from FEA
Mg Si Fe Cu Zn Ti Mn Cr Al have only small changes for carbon steels when the cutoff
0.8– 0.4–0.8 0.7 0.15– 0.25 0.15 0.15 0.04– Balance temperature varied from 600 to 1400 °C, but the computa-
1.2 0.40 0.35 tional time is significantly reduced if the cutoff temperature
600 °C is used. A cutoff temperature of 900 °C (i.e., about
two-third of 1400 °C the melting temperature of 304L
stainless steel) is used in the current numerical calculations
12Qr d d
qð r Þ ¼
for i  r  o ðEq 2Þ to reduce unnecessary computational time.
p d03  di3 2 2

where do is the outside diameter of the pin tool shoulder, di
is the pin diameter, and Q is the total heat input energy. In
Eq 2, the heat generated at the pin of tool is neglected
because this heat is very small, e.g., in the order 2% of the
total heat as reported by Russell and Sheercliff [8]. As
such, in the analysis, di = 0 in (2) was used. On the
boundary or the surfaces of the workpiece, convection and
radiation in heat transfer are responsible for heat loss to the
ambient. To consider such heat convection and radiation on
all plate surfaces except for the bottom surface, the heat
flux loss is evaluated by:

thermo-mechanical quantities according to the thickness.
qs ¼ bðT  T0 Þ þ eB T4  T04 ðEq 3Þ
The chemical composition of the 6061-T6 aluminum
alloy is given in Table 2.
Thermo-Mechanical Model
In the thermo-mechanical analysis, the incremental theory
of plasticity is employed. The plastic deformation of the
materials is assumed to obey the Von Mises yield criterion
and the associated flow rule. The relationship of the rate
components between thermal stresses, r_ ij , and strains,
is described by:
Mesh, Loads and Boundary Conditions
The mesh used in the calculations of the present study is
presented in Fig. 3. It is composed of 7891 elements. The
mesh used in the present study is SOLID226 because of it’s
structural capabilities include elasticity, plasticity, large
strain, large deflection, stress stiffening effects, pre-stress
effects and structural–thermal capabilities. Figure 3 illus-
trate the geometry of this element [22].
This mesh is composed of two minimum elements in the
thickness in order to take into account the gradients of the
Near the tool, a very fine mesh zone is imposed in order to
take into account the boundary layer appearing in this zone
(Fig. 4).
The boundary conditions applied to the model concern
both the mechanical aspects and the thermal aspects. It is
considered that we model a welding with a given speed of
advance, v, and a speed of rotation of the tool, x. In the
present model, the surfaces to be joined come into contact.
A standard surface-to-surface contact pair using
TARGE170 and CONTA174 is shown in Fig. 5.
, Because of the frictional contact between the tool and
workpiece who is responsible for heat generation, we

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Fig. 3 SOLID226 geometry

Fig. 5 Contact pair between the two surfaces

Fig. 4 Finite element model meshing

choose a standard surface-to-surface contact pair between

the tool and workpiece. The CONTA174 element is used to
model the contact surface on the top surface of the work-
piece, and the TARGE170 element is used for the tool, as
Fig. 6 Contact between the workpiece and the tool
shown in Fig. 6.
The thermal boundary conditions are expressed either in
terms of imposed temperature or in terms of heat. They are Lateral: A convective heat, corresponding to the
applied on the various surfaces constituting the border: exchange with the unmodelized part, is applied: Qlat = hlat
Input: An input temperature equal to the ambient tem- (T  Tamb).
perature, Tamb, is imposed.
Output: A zero heat flux, Q = 0, is imposed.

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Lower surface: A convective heat corresponding to the
exchange with the support plate is applied: Qlow = hlow
(T  Tamb).
Fig. 7 Configuration and boundary conditions
Fig. 8 Temperature evolution as a function of distance: (a) a comparison of the predicted temperature—FEM model—and the experimental
data, (b) mapping of the temperature during welding
Fig. 9 Temperature evolution as a function of time: (a) a comparison of the predicted temperature—FEM model—and the experimental data,
(b) mapping of the temperature during welding
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Upper surface: A convective heat corresponding to the
exchange with air is applied: Qair = hair (T  Tamb) with
hair = 20 Wm2 K1 commonly accepted in the literature
[23]. (We do not take into account the clamping.)
Pin and shoulder: A zero heat, Q = 0, is imposed.
The mechanical boundary conditions are expressed
either in terms of imposed speed or in terms of pressure or
displacement. They are applied on the various surfaces
constituting the border. As shown in Fig. 7, null displace-
ments are imposed at both ends of the plates and at the
bottom surface of these two plates. In the first part, a fixed
rotational speed is imposed w = 500 rpm for the tool, with
a board speed equal to 2 mm/s. The feed speed of the tool
is also set at 140 mm/min, the preheating time is 4.5 s, and
these parameters are chosen to enable us to validate our
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numerical model with the experimental results of C Chen
et al. [24].
Subsequently, we played on the welding parameters,
such as angular speed and linear speed, to make a com-
parative study of these results. We chose angular speeds of
600, 1000, 1400 rpm for a welding speed of 100 mm/s.
Linear velocities of 80, 100 and 140 mm/min for an
angular velocity of w = 1000 rpm are studied. In the sec-
ond part, we chose angular speeds of 600 rpm for a
welding speed 80, 100 and 140 mm/min studied.
Results and Discussion
Temperature Distribution
The validation of the present model was accomplished by
comparing the temperature values obtained by the FE
simulation with those of C. Chen [7]. Figure 8a shows a
temperature distribution along the lateral direction (for
nodes 1.5 mm below the top surface of the plate with a
linear speed of 140 mm/min). It is obvious from Fig. 8a
that the numerical results found are almost identical with
those of the experimental results. Figure 8b shows the
cross-sectional temperature maps during welding.
We can notice that the two curves of Fig. 7a, of the
numerical model and the experimental results, are very
close. We note also that the simulated maximum temper-
ature is 482 °C, and the maximum experimental
temperature is 457 °C. This shows that the maximum rel-
ative error is 6% for the maximum temperature. This value
is acceptable.
Fig. 10 Temperature evolution as a function of time: (a) a comparison of the predicted temperature of the different rotational frequency, (b)
mapping of the temperature at x = 1400 rpm, (c) mapping of the temperature at x = 1000 rpm, (d) mapping of the temperature at x = 600 rpm
Figure 9a shows a comparison of experimental data and
FE modeled value, of the temperature evolution as a
function of time, for the parameter discussed above at mid-
position along tool movement in welding line at time 40 s.
At the same time, 40 s, the temperature mapping is illus-
trated in Fig. 9b.
Figures 8 and 9 show a comparison between the
experimental results and the FE model, and we can see that
there is a good agreement between the measured temper-
ature and the calculated temperature, which indicates that
the model developed for the prediction of the history of the
temperature provides satisfactory results.
After validation of the FE model, we changed the
rotation speed for a fixed linear velocity in order to see the
influence of the rotation frequency on the temperature.
Figure 10a shows the evolution of the temperature as a
function of time for rotational speeds 1400, 1000 and
600 rpm. It is clear that each time we increase the fre-
quency of rotation, the temperature systematically
increases, and this has a good agreement with the literature
[25]. Figures 9c, d and 10b show the distribution of the
temperature at the weld at time t = 40 s for rotation fre-
quencies 1400, 1000 and 600 successively.
The existence of the residual forces has a significant
effect on the mechanical properties especially on the fati-
gue properties. Hence, we have focused on studying the
residual stress distribution generated by the FSW process.
The residual stress profiles of the 80, 100 and 140 mm/min
welding speeds are shown in Figs. 11, 12 and 13,
respectively.
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Fig. 11 Simulation results of temperature profiles for pure aluminum 6061-T6 at different transverse speeds (constant rotational speed of
600 rpm)

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Temperature Distribution
In the present study, the simulated temperature history of
FSW for pure aluminum A6061 at different process
parameter combinations is presented in Fig. 11. The
numerical investigations of heat generation during friction
stir welding (FSW) of pure aluminum A6061 were
performed.
Figure 11 shows temperature variation with distance for
different welding speeds (80 mm/min, 100 mm/min and
140 mm/min), at constant rotational speed of 600 rpm. It is
Fig. 12 Residual stress profiles as function of distance of welding speed 80 mm/min
evident from Fig. 11 that keeping the applied force and the
rotational speed constant, as the welding speed increases,
the peak temperature decreases.
However, to attain a good processed zone, the optimum
operating temperature for material Al6061 is between 409
and 507 °C. As the coefficient of friction and radius of the
shoulder and pin are constant for the current investigation,
the increase in welding speed has to be compensated by
decreasing the applied force. Similarly, as the welding
speed increases, the contact time per unit area of tool–
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Fig. 13 Residual stress profiles as function of distance of welding speed 100 mm/min

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Fig. 14 Residual stress profiles as function of distance of welding speed 140 mm/min

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b Fig. 15 Von Mises stress distributions in the workpiece at time
t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 120 and 126.5 s for
w = 600 rev/min and v = 80 mm/min
workpiece interface is reduced thus reducing the peak
temperature.
The simulated temperature history of FSW for pure
aluminum A6061 at different process parameter combina-
tions is presented in Fig. 11. However, at constant
rotational speed of 600 rpm, it was observed that higher
transverse speeds lead to lower temperatures in the stir
zone and also increasing the transverse speed from 80 to
140 mm/min leads to significant variation in the thermal
history as shown in Fig. 11 where the maximum temper-
ature of 507.52 °C is observed at 80–600 rpm.
These observations were consistent with other studies
[19]. It was clear that softening degree of the stir zone was
affected by the peak temperature and the process duration
at high temperature. The exposed duration at three process
parameters (80, 100 and 140 mm/min—600 rpm) was
126.5, 112.5 and 96.5 s, respectively. It is clear that the
cooling rate in 80 mm/min-600 rpm is higher than other
two transverse speeds (100 and 140 mm/min). Further,
higher transverse speed will reduce the processing time and
subsequently, the workpiece will stay less time at higher
temperatures.
Analysis of Residual Stress Distribution in the Weld
Residual stresses have a fundamental role in welded
structures because they affect the mechanical response of
parts (i.e., corrosion resistance, fatigue life and many other
material characteristics).
Residual stress distribution, also in FSW process where,
though the heat input is lower than traditional welding
techniques, the constraints applied to the parts to weld are
more severe, should be deeply studied. Technical literature
reports numerous research papers that deal with the
experimental evaluation of residual stress distribution in
FSW joints. Dalle Donne et al. [18], employing different
techniques, have measured residual stress distribution on
FSW 2024Al-T3 and 6013Al-T6 joints.
They have shown that longitudinal and transverse
residual stresses have a ‘‘M’’-like distribution across the
weld. Moreover, the longitudinal residual stresses are
higher than the transverse ones regardless on traverse
speed, tool rotation speed and pin diameter. Peel et al. [3],
employing synchrotron x-ray method, have measured the
residual stress in FSW AA5083 welded joints. The results
show that there is a tension state in the weld bead in both
longitudinal and transverse residual stress directions.
Furthermore, they have proven that the longitudinal
stresses increase with increasing the traverse speed. Suton
et al. [19] and also Donne et al. have proven that the lon-
gitudinal is the most important component in the residual
stresses analysis in FSW process and that the transverse is
about 70% of the longitudinal component. In order to have
a wider understanding of the FSW process, some
researchers have recently simulated the FSW process by
numerical models.
Moreover, these numerical models have also the aim to
develop the process through the research of optimal
parameters minimizing the amount of trial and error.
Khandkar et al. [14] have made an uncoupled thermo-
mechanical model for some aluminum alloys and 304 L
stainless steel based on torque input for calculating tem-
perature and then residual stress. Chen et al. [15] have
developed a 3D numerical model to study the thermal
impact and evolution of the residual stresses in the welded
joints.
However, the previously described numerical simula-
tions are only thermal or thermo-mechanical models in
which, for example, the tool mechanical force is not con-
sidered. These effects are important and should be included
into the thermo-mechanical simulations.
The existence of the residual forces has a significant
effect on the mechanical properties especially on the fati-
gue properties. Hence, the importance of studying the
distribution of residual stresses in FSW welds. The residual
stress profiles of the 80, 100 and 140 mm/min welding
speeds are shown in Figs. 12, 13 and 14, respectively.
We see that for the three Figs. 12, 13 and 14, the par-
ticular profile of the component rres (zz) is a relatively
symmetrical profile containing peaks. The two extremities
peaks located on either side of the zone which has been in
contact with the shoulder: The maxima of the peaks are
spaced apart by 20 mm, while the diameter of the shoulder
is equal to 15 mm. The peak values of rres (zz) are 123,
134 and 145 MPa for the speeds 80, 100 and 140 mm/min,
respectively.
We made a qualitative comparison of the results found
by the present FE model with those of the experiment of
Wang et al. [20]. Having not considered the same welding
configuration used by this author, we have concentrated to
compare the profile peaks, as well as the position of these
peaks located outside the area delimited by the shoulder,
we can say that the model demonstrate a good numerical
prediction.
Concerning the quantitative value of the residual stres-
ses obtained, a comparison of the different welding speeds
can be made, comparing the values of the residual stresses
with respect to the elastic limit at ambient temperature. For
the alloy in question, the elastic limit is 270 MPa, and the
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b Fig. 16 Temperature distributions (°C) in the workpiece at time
t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 112.5 s for
w = 600 rev/min and v = 80 mm/min
maximum residual stresses at speeds 80, 100 and 140 mm/
min are 122, 134 and 147 MPa, respectively.
The estimated residual stresses are thus between 45 and
54% of the yield stress at ambient temperature. In their
work, Wang et al. [20] performed two tests: the first with a
low welding speed and the second with a high welding
speed. They concluded that the residual stresses measured
are, respectively, at 53 and 73% of the elastic limit taken
equal to 276 MPa for a 6061 aluminum alloy. Thus, the
value between 45 and 54% obtained in the simulation is
acceptable with regard to the experimental results. This
value of 50% is also found in the works of Lawrjanie et al.
[21].
Analysis of the Distribution of Von Mises Stresses
and Temperature Field in the Welding Cord
The stress will form in the weld during welding since the
expansion of material occurs during the heating of the
welded plates, followed by the contraction during the
cooling of the welds. Furthermore, the rotational and the
transverse movements of the tool will cause additional
stress in the weld due to the mechanical constraint of the
plates by the fixture.
One of the most important features of the proposed
model is the ability to predict the stress distributions (active
stress and residual stress) over the whole FSW process.
Figure 15 shows the Von Mises stress plots (N/m2) at 12
characteristic time points t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80,
90, 100 and 112.5 s from the start of the process. At the
commencement of plunging, an axial force was exerted on
the material beneath the tool pin causing an area of high
compressive stress in the workpiece. With the growth of
the heat at the pin–workpiece interface, the material pro-
gressively softens.
For a compression loading P applied on the upper sur-
face of the tool, the equivalent stresses are concentrated
between the two plates and the lower surface of the tool.
For each time t(s), the equivalent stress equal respectively
1740, 1410, 1650, 2130, 2080, 2760, 3220, 2420, 2140,
1430, 1510 MPa, shown in Fig. 15.
We find in this figure, at 10 s, the stress in the plates
under the tool pin nearly approached 1740 MPa, because of
the extremely high temperature in this zone which is equal
to 587.60 °C, indicated by the equations constituent. In
10 s, the maximum stress migrated to somewhere remote
from the pin–workpiece interface.
However, at welding time (20, 30, 40) seconds, the pin
generates strong stresses surrounding the tool while low
stresses were noticed for a welding time of 10 s as shown
by the Von Mises stress plot. After the tool shoulder tou-
ched the workpiece at 4.5 s (preheating time), the
cylindrical high stress layer gradually disappeared since the
material was heated up by the heat generated at the
shoulder–pin interface.
For the same linear welding speed of 80 mm/min,
rotational speed of 600 rpm of the tool and at different
welding time (50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100)seconds, we can
see a high Von Mises stress designated red contour
(Fig. 16). Furthermore, after a welding time of 100 s, it has
been reported that there is a reduction Von Mises stress
which is equal to 1530 MPa.
The model can predict temperature evolution through
the whole process and over the whole volume. Figure 15
shows the temperature distributions in degrees centigrade
(°C) at 12 representative time points t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,
60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 and 126.5 s.
When only the pin was in contact with the workpiece,
the maximum temperature in the workpiece occurred
somewhere adjacent to the edge of the pin bottom surface.
At 4.5 s (preheating time), the shoulder surface started to
contact the workpiece; thereafter, the maximum tempera-
ture moved toward the corner between pin and shoulder
surfaces. At 10 s, the full contact condition was established
between tool surface and top surface of the workpiece,
whereupon the maximum temperature was around the
shoulder workpiece interface.
Figure 16 shows the simulated temperature field during
the steady-state welding process. It can be seen clearly that
the temperature distribution is asymmetrical around the
weld centerline, which is caused by the non-uniform
material flow around the tool.
We see in Fig. 16, the high temperature region locates
under the shoulder, where the energy density is extremely
high. The peak temperature locates at the position of the
advancing side behind the tool, and its value 587 °C is
about 100% of the melting temperature (583 °C) of
Al6061-T6 aluminum alloys. It should be noted that the
temperature distribution characteristics above are similar to
those in the literature [25].
Figure 16 shows the temperature distribution in the two
aluminum plates A6061-T6 treated at a rotational speed of
600 rpm and transverse speeds 80 mm/min at different
welding times t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100
and 112.5 s.
It was observed that the temperature on the advancing
side was slightly higher than those on the recessed side in
all combinations of process parameters. After a dwelling
time, that is to say (preheating time 4.5 s) of 4.5, 10 s, the
temperature was more evenly distributed between the front
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b Fig. 17 Von Mises stress distributions in the workpiece at time
t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 112.5 s for
w = 600 rev/min and v = 100 mm/min
side and the rear side of the tool which is equal to
587.60 °C.
Then, the tool began to cross to join the plates. The
welding process quickly reached a stable state, and the
distribution pattern of the temperature around the tool
showed little variation, as indicated at 10, 20 s in Fig. 16.
On the other hand, we find in this figure the welding
temperature between the two times (10, 20 s) decreases to
392.79 °C. We see in Fig. 16 that the temperature contour
looks almost symmetric along the joint line on both the
Fig. 18 Temperature distributions (°C) in the workpiece at time t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 112.5 s for w = 600 rpm and
v = 100 mm/min
retreating and advancing sides. This means the rotating
motion of the tool will not significantly affect the tem-
perature distribution in the workpiece.
Figure 16 shows the simulated contour of temperature
change during FSW for various process parameters using
ANSYS 16.2. The analysis shows that along the direction
of the FSW, the temperature values increase as the duration
increases. After a 30 s weld time, at 60 s, the temperature
value decreased to 472.18 °C but was better distributed
between the front side and the back side of the tool. A
compression loading P applied on the upper surface of the
tool clearly shows the increase in temperature between the
three times (70, 80 and 90 s) which are equal to (486.74,
494.94 and 493.17 °C); this is shown in Fig. 16.
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b Fig. 19 Temperature distributions (°C) in the workpiece at time
t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 96.5 s for w = 600 rpm and
v = 140 mm/min
Figure 16 shows the temperature distribution along a
longitudinal line at the bead that is above the part to be
welded to the environment of the source of the heat. These
distributions are represented at different times for the alu-
minum alloy A6061-T6. We also observe that after the first
nine instants (100, 110, 126 s), the maximum values of the
temperature become very close to each other, and this is
due to the approximation of the source to the longitudinal
sampling line (measurement).
Figure 17 shows the Von Mises stress plots (N/m2) at
eleven characteristic time points 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,
80, 90, 100 and 112.5 s from the start of the process. At the
commencement of plunging, an axial force was exerted on
the material beneath the tool pin causing an area of high
compressive stress in the workpiece with the growth of the
heat at the pin–workpiece interface, and the material pro-
gressively softens.
At 10 s, the Von Mises stress in the plates under the tool
pin nearly approached 1890 MPa caused by the extremely
high temperature in this area equal to 596.77 °C signified
from the constitutive equations. In 20 s, the distribution of
Von Mises stress in the aluminum plates decreased to a
value that equals 1960 MPa and migrated to a location
remote from the pin–piece interface.
However, (30, 40, 50, 60, 70) seconds, we see in Fig. 17
a cylindrical layer of material surrounding the tool spindle
showed stress of Von Mises very high enough.
After the tool shoulder touched the workpiece at 10 s,
the cylindrical high stress layer gradually disappeared since
the material was heated up by the heat generated at the
shoulder–pin interface. During the welding phase, from 20
to 80 s, no obvious variation of the stress field distribution
around the tool was observed.
This is due to the fact that the temperature distribution
around the tool after 10 s reached a steady state as shown
in Fig. 17. From the observation of the stress evolution
throughout the process, it can be seen that the temperature
imposes a significant effect on the stress and consequently
on the formation of the weld.
Figure 18 shows the evolution of the temperature in the
length of the plate to be welded along the axis (Y) at dif-
ferent time. It is observed that the temperature achieved its
maximum value at the upper surface of the aluminum plate
A6061-T6 which is equal to (526.78, 535.12 °C) at
t = 60 s and t = 70s respectively, due to both the speed of
advance, the speed of rotation and the friction causing an
increase in temperature as a function of time.
At 80 s weld time, the temperature value decreased to
536.5 °C, but was better distributed between the front side
and the back side of the tool. We present in Fig. 18 a
comparison of the temperature distribution on the cord line,
taken at time t = 10 s, t = 20 s, t = 30 s, t = 40 s, t = 50 s
for aluminum alloys Al6061-T6 the values of the temper-
atures in the five instants which are equal to (596.77,
425.40, 438.53, 480.58, 508.49 °C) and it is found that the
maximum temperatures are reached in the core zone of the
cords, with a difference d approximately 596.77 °C.
Figure 18 illustrates the temperature distribution along
the junction line (cord), at t = 90 s, for aluminum alloys
A6061-T6. It is observed that the passage of the FSW tool
causes a rapid increase in the maximum temperature which
equals 527.85 °C; this is shown in Fig. 18.
We note in Fig. 18 at t = 100 s the temperature
decreases to 515 °C. In other words, for t = 112.5 s, the
value of the temperature decreased to 494.62 °C and this
decrease in temperature corresponds to the area of contact
(friction) between the FSW tool and the plates to be
welded.
Figure 19 illustrates the temperature distribution along
the junction line (cord) at different welding times (t = 10,
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 96.5 s) for aluminum alloy
A6061-T6. It is observed that the passage of the FSW tool
causes a rapid increase in the maximum temperature and
this temperature increase corresponds to the area of the
contact (friction) between the FSW tool and the two plates
to be welded.
As in this zone, the temperature gradient is zero,
because the thermal flux resulting from the friction is the
same over the entire surface of the shoulder (of the FSW
tool). We also see that after the first three times (t = 10, 20
and 30 s), the maximum temperature values become very
close to them, and this is due to the approximation of the
source to the longitudinal sample line (measurement).
Figure 20 shows the distribution of Von Mises stress on
the longitudinal line of the cord. These distributions are
represented at different times for the Al6061-T6 aluminum
alloy. We see in this figure, at 10 s, the stress in the plates
under the tool spindle has almost reached 2140 MPa,
because of the extremely high temperature in this zone
which is equal to 618.903 °C, indicated by the constituent
equations.
In 10 s, the maximum Von Mises stress migrated to a
location far from the pin-to-room interface. However, the
welding time (20) seconds, there remained a cylindrical
layer of material surrounding the tool spindle which
exhibited a relatively low stress by supplying to 10 s which
is equal to 1690 MPa as shown by the contour of Von
Mises stress.
The linear speed of welding 140 mm/min with the
rotational speed 600 rpm/min of the indicated tool as the
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b Fig. 20 Von Mises stress distributions in the workpiece at time
t = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 112.5 s for w = 600 rev/
min and v = 100 mm/min
stress distribution of Von Mises at different machining
times (50, 60, 70, 80) seconds are very high contour in red
(see Fig. 20). On the other hand, the welding time after
96.5 s, the Von Mises stress is decreased which is equal to
1690 MPa.
Conclusion
In the present study, numerical simulation of AA6061-T6
aluminum alloys welded by FSW process under different
parameters was investigated and compared with experi-
mental data. Summarizing the main features of the results,
following conclusions can be drawn:
1. The peak temperature obtained from simulation is
approximately near the measured one. Therefore, this
heat transfer model can be used to predict the
temperature distribution during the FSW process.
2. The peak temperature of the welded joints increases by
increasing the welding frequency rotation for the same
tool profile and welding speed.
3. The temperature prediction results are found by the FE
model, and we never reached the fusion temperature of
the material in question.
4. The residual stresses were affected by the FSW process
more particularly by the welding temperature gener-
ated by the speed of rotation and advance, and by the
mixing.
5. An increase in the welding speed apparently leads to
an increase in the residual stress.
6. The residual stresses found by this FE model have
never exceeded the value of 54% of the elastic limit, so
we can say that the model gives good results in terms
of stress.
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