FINITE ELEMENT MODELING FOR MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE IN FRICTION STIR WELDING OF AA 1100 AND OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESS PARAMETER BY TAGUCHI METHOD

Renju Mohan, N. R. Rajesh, Satheesh Kumar S

Abstract: In the present work a three dimensional finite element thermal analysis of friction stir welding has been carried out in Comsol Multiphysics software. In the present model only heat generation due to friction is considered. The thermal profile obtained from the simulation has shown good agreement with the previously published experimental results. Three factors viz. axial force, welding speed and rpm each having three different levels was studied. The optimization of the process parameters for maximum temperature has been carried out by Taguchi method based on Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array. In this approach, each response ie. Temperature is transferred to corresponding signal to noise ratio by using Taguchis larger the better criterion (LBT). The optimum welding parameters obtained after the analysis are F=5000N, S=80 mm/min and N= 1600 rpm. A conformation test is conducted by using these process parameters. The maximum temperature obtained was 590.62°C which is 89.4 % of melting temperature of the material.

Keywords: Finite element analysis, Comsol Multiphysics, Friction stir welding, Taguchi etc…

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0305135