Inverse determination of heat input during the friction stir welding process

Determining the input heat required to achieve a satisfactory standard during the friction stir welding (FSW) process is a novel study. This study proposes a computational method for predicting an appropriate heat input during the FSW process to reduce the effect of heat-induced defects caused by heat response. The method was deduced from a finite element method based on an inverse algorithm. No preselected functional form for an unknown function and no sensitivity analysis are required in the algorithm. One example was used to demonstrate the characteristics of the proposed method. The numerical results indicated that the predicted heat input is adequate for the welding process.