Abstract:

The rotational tool is put forward, which is composed of the one-spiral-flute shoul­der and the rotational pin with screw. Using the turbulent model of the FLUENT software, material plastic flow behavior during the process of friction stir welding of Ti6Al4V alloy is researched by the numerical simulation method and then the effect of rotational tool geometry on material flow during the welding process is attained. The results show that the flow direction of the material near the rotational tool is mainly the same as the rotational direction of the tool while the material near tool flows more violently than the other regions. For the tapered rotational pin, the flow velocity of material inside the workpiece decreases with the increase of the distance away from the workpiece surface because of the change of pin diameter. For the rotational tool, the flute added to the shoulder and the screw added to the pin can greatly increase the flow velocity of material during the welding process while the peak value of the flow velocity of material appears on the flute or the screw. Moreover, the rotational tool with the one-spiral-flute shoulder is better than the tool with the concentric­circles-flute shoulder. Decreasing the width of pin screw and increasing the diameter of pin tip are both good for the increase of flow velocity.

Key words: Friction stir welding, Titanium alloy, Plastic flow, Numerical simulation