Temperature distribution study during the friction stir welding process of Al2024-T3 aluminum alloy

Heat flux characteristics are critical to good quality welding obtained in the important engineering alloy Al2024-T3 by the friction stir welding (FSW) process. In the present study, thermocouples in three different configurations were affixed on the welding samples to measure the temperatures: in the first configuration, four thermocouples were placed at equivalent positions along one side of the welding direction; the second configuration involved two equivalent thermocouple locations on either side of the welding path; while the third configuration had all the thermocouples on one side of the layout but with unequal gaps from the welding line. A three-dimensional, non-linear ANSYS computational model, based on an approach applied to Al2024-T3 for the first time, was used to simulate the welding temperature profiles obtained experimentally. The experimental thermal profiles on the whole were found to be in agreement with those calculated by the ANSYS model. The broad agreement between the two kinds of profiles validates the basis for derivation of the simulation model and provides an approach for the FSW simulation in Al2024-T3 and is potentially more useful than models derived previously.