Temperature Estimation and Validation During Spot Welding of Thin AA6063-T6 and CRCA/IS-513 Sheets Using a Consumable Additive Layer and a Pin Less FSSW Tool

In this investigation, a novel spot welding method has been used in which thin AA 6063-T6 and CRCA/IS-513 steel sheets are FSSW with the help of a consumable additive layer. In this method, the faying surfaces of the base materials are placed at a specific gap between their edges and a consumable sheet is placed on top of the base materials. The plasticized consumable material is extruded into the gap as the pin less FSSW tool plunges into the consumable sheet and gets bonded with base sheets as an additive layer. The method is an alternative to joining dissimilar sheets like aluminium and steel with no contact established between the tool and steel base material resulting in no tool wear. This study uses experimental and numerical investigations to validate the peak temperature generated during the FSSW process. DEFORM-3D, a finite element (FE) code, is used to perform FE simulations of the FSSW process. FSSW simulation and experimental findings show a good correlation for the peak temperature. The peak temperature predicted by the simulation has been found by optimizing the shear friction factor (m) and heat transfer coefficient at the tool-workpiece interface (h). Temperature prediction is accurate for m = 0.4 and h = 300 w/m2 °C. At the end of the work, the influence of m and h has been understood, and the values can be used further for numerical analyses of the process to estimate strain, strain rate, stress, and material flow fields accurately.