Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Friction Stir Welded Aluminium AA6351 Alloy Tensile Properties

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) technique is newly developed solid state type of welding process. This process is gaining more importance and applied in various industries due to quality of joint is good compared to other welding techniques. This process utilises a rotating tool consists of shoulder and probe. The tool is non-consumable and harder than material to be welded. The tool generates heat due to friction between the probe and abutting surface of the workpiece to complete the welding process. Being a solid-state nature, FSW offers numerous advantages and produces a high strength joint when compared to fusion welding processes. In this work, an experimental work is carried out between two aluminium alloy plates to study the influence of rotation speed of the tool on prepared FSW weldments. Aluminium AA6351 alloy plates of 5 mm thickness is joined in butt joint. These two plates were joined by FSW process by changing tool’s rotation speed. The tensile test has been performed for all these weld samples. A numerical investigation is carried out to validate the tensile strength test results.