Numerical investigation on the mechanical, thermal, metallurgical and material flow characteristics in friction stir welding of copper sheets with experimental verification

• 3-dimensional material flow was established in FSW process.
• The SZ profile predicted by the simulation, resulted that the stir zone of friction.
• AS material particles had more rotational movement.

The objective of this study was to develop a numerical model for the prediction of temperature distributions, effective plastic strain distributions, and especially material flow in Friction Stir Welding of copper plates. DEFORM-3D was used by incorporating the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulation. Three-dimensional results of the material flow pattern extracted using the point tracking are in good agreement with the experiment. It was shown that the main part of material flow occurs near the top surface. Material near the top surface at the behind of tool stretches from retreating side towards advancing side, leads to non-symmetrical shape of the stir zone. The stir zone shape in FSW of copper alloys, predicted by simulation, does not lean completely towards any sides of welding line.