OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS IN FRICTION STIR WELDING OF DISSIMILAR ALUMINIUM ALLOYS

Abstract: Friction stir welding (FSW) is a method through which frictional heating and plastic deformation normally joined the work pieces at temperatures under the melting temperature of the materials. The recent trend is to join dissimilar materials to take advantage of low cost material in places where high strength high cost material is not needed. In this paper, the work is carried out to assess the impact of axial force and the mechanical properties during friction stir welding of dissimilar joint of aluminium alloys (AA6061 and AA5052 aluminium alloy). The parameters considered are tool rotational speed, tool translational speed and plunge depth. The optimum process parameters were determined with reference to tensile strength of the joint. The anticipated best value of tensile strength was confirmed by conducting the confirmation run using optimum parameters. This study shows that defect free, high efficiency welded joints with best tensile properties can be made using a proper selection of process parameters. Based on the experimental data, empirical relations among the parameters correspond to every output features have been developed using simple regression method.

Keywords: Friction Stir Welding, Aluminium Alloys, Simple Regression Method