A Comparative Study of Material Flow Behavior in Friction Stir Welding Using Laminar and Turbulent Models

Friction stir welding has been quite successful in joining aluminum alloy which has gained importance in almost all industrial sectors over the past two decades. It is a newer technique and therefore needs more attention in many sectors, flow of material being one among them. The material flow pattern actually helps in deciding the parameters required for particular tool geometry. The knowledge of material flow is very significant in removing defects from the weldment. In the work presented in this paper, the flow behavior of AA6061 under a threaded tool has been studied. The convective heat loss has been considered from all the surfaces, and a comparative study has been made with and without the use of temperature-dependent properties and their significance in the finite volume method model. The two types of models that have been implemented are turbulent and laminar models. Their thermal histories have been studied for all the cases. The material flow velocity has been analyzed to predict the flow of material. A swirl inside the weld material has been observed in all the simulations.