PARAMETER OPTIMIZATION AND TEMPERATURE PREDICTION OF FRICTION STIR WELDING FOR ALUMINUM ALLOY; EXPERIMENT, SIMULATION

One of the most efficient methods for joining of aluminum alloys is friction stir welding (fsw) process. in fsw, welding parameters and tool geometry affect the weld strength. heat is generated by friction between the tool and the workpiece, is important to predict and identify the mechanical and micro-structural changes. in this study, first using the taguchi approach a design of experiment technique to set the optimal process parameters is investigated. it is shown that with increasing the shoulder diameter, the tensile strength increases and with increasing the tool rotational speed the tensile strength decreases. the traverse speed has less effect. moreover temperature distribution is investigated experimentally. results are compared with the software based on finite element method, analytical method, and analytical-empirical method. the capabilities, weaknesses, and accuracy of each method are discussed and suggestion is given.