Eulerian simulation of friction stir welding in 7075 aluminum

An Eulerian simulation of friction stir welding was developed, where heat from friction is modeled using the Norton friction law. The Norton law has been used to model hot forging operations, where the shear stress at the interface between the tool and the workpiece is a function of the local flow stress of the material, the relative sliding velocity at the interface, and a friction coefficient alpha(f). Different levels of friction coefficient were used to determine temperature profiles at steady state conditions. Temperature predictions were in the range of 500-600 degrees C under the tool shoulder and around the pin, where a level of friction of af = 0.2 appears to provide the most reasonable results compared to experiment.