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Numerical and experimental evaluation of bending test of friction stir welded

of brass alloy

Conference Paper · March 2010

DOI: 10.13140/2.1.1515.1680

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 10th Iranian Conference on Manufacturing Engineering
ICME 2010
March 1st - 3rd 2010
Babol Noshirvani Babol Noshirvani University of Technology Society of Manufacturing
University of Technology Engineering of Iran

Numerical and experimental evaluation of bending test of friction

stir welded of brass alloy

N. Sadeghian *, 1, M. Mousavi Mashhadi 2

1. Ph.D. Student, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tehran, nsadeghian@ut.ac.ir
2. Professor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Tehran University

Abstract
In this paper, the standard bending test of friction stir welded thin plate of brass analyzes
by finite element method. It is demonstrated to have voids due stirrer pin and established
that theirs distribution is linear in thin plate weld. By considering experiments results in
tensile standard test, the linearity of distribution agreed successfully. The mechanical
properties of weld metal achieved by conducting standard tensile test and. Also, the
stress concentration accurse in TMAZ-SZ limit of weld and this is fully establishes in
tensile test of thin plate of brass welds by FSW.

Keywords: Friction stir welding (FSW)- Bending test- Void distribution- Tensile
test- stress concentration

1. Introduction
Friction stir welding (FSW) was invented at The Welding Institute (TWI) of UK in 1991
as a solid-state joining technique, and it was initially applied to aluminum alloys [1].
The basic concept of FSW is remarkably simple. A non-consumable rotating tool with
a specially designed pin and shoulder is inserted into the abutting edges of sheets or
plates to be joined and traversed along the line of joint (Fig. 1). The tool serves two
primary functions: (a) heating of workpiece, and (b) movement of material to produce
the joint. The heating is accomplished by friction between the tool and the workpiece
and plastic deformation of workpiece. The localized heating softens the material
around the pin and combination of tool rotation and translation leads to movement of
material from the front of the pin to the back of the pin. As a result of this process a
joint is produced in „solid state.

Fig. 1 Schematic of friction stir welding [1]

FSW is considered to be the most significant development in metal joining in a

decade and is a „„green‟‟ technology due to its energy efficiency, environment
 10th Iranian Conference on Manufacturing Engineering
ICME 2010
March 1st - 3rd 2010
Babol Noshirvani Babol Noshirvani University of Technology Society of Manufacturing
University of Technology Engineering of Iran

friendliness and versatility. As compared to the conventional welding methods, FSW

consumes considerably less energy. No cover gas or flux is used, thereby making the
process environmentally friendly. The joining does not involve any use of filler metal
and therefore any aluminum alloy can be joined without concern for the compatibility
of composition, which is an issue in fusion welding. When desirable, dissimilar
aluminum alloys and composites can be joined with equal ease. In contrast to the
traditional friction welding, which is usually performed on small axisymmetric parts
that can be rotated and pushed against each other to form a joint, friction stir welding
can be applied to various types of joints like butt joints, lap joints, T butt joints, and
fillet joints [2].
In this article, friction stir welding applied to brass (CuZn30) similar plates. Because
of good thermal conduction of brass plates, it is spread usage alloy in thermal heat
exchanger industries. As we know a suitable weld joint is of which must to have
acceptable mechanical and physical structure properties. Any standards prefer visual
and qualified techniques to establish mentioned requirements as simple as methods.
One of these important simple tests is about flexural properties of weld zone entitled
“bending test”. American society of welding (AWS) and ASTM have been published
special procedures to this area. As told, by rotating softened material around the pin
and by movement the voids can be produce in stirring zone (SZ) and cause to defect
for weld. To prohibition of this phenomenon we should to confirm weld before it‟s and
industrial applications. Then quality controlling and optimization can be occurring by
this simple test. We are now to analyze the test of FSWed plate by numerical
package. In this research we suppose that void distribution is linear and then
modeling and meshing have been done and the results discusses later.

2. Experimental Procedures
Brasses are Cu-Zn alloys, containing up to 40 % Zn. The alloying with Zn increases
the strength of Cu by solid solution strengthening. Zn has a high solid solubility in the
phase, formed by Cu atoms. Thus, the microstructure of alloys up to 36 % Zn content
consist of a single phase a and known as a-brasses, while the microstructure of
alloys containing more than 36 % Zn consist of a+b phases. Brasses offer very
useful properties, such as high strength, conductivity, formability, wear resistance
and corrosion performance. The best combination of ductility and strength is
achieved with 30 % Zn content and, therefore, Cu-30 %Zn alloy possesses excellent
deeply drawing. Chemical composition and mechanical properties of CuZn30 brass
presented in tables 1 and 2 respectively.

Table 1: Chemical composition of the brass CuZn30 (CW508L-EN 1652)[3]

Table 2: Mechanical properties of base material (CuZn30) [3]

 10th Iranian Conference on Manufacturing Engineering
ICME 2010
March 1st - 3rd 2010
Babol Noshirvani Babol Noshirvani University of Technology Society of Manufacturing
University of Technology Engineering of Iran

Brass plates with70 % Cu-30 % Zn were friction stir butt welded. The mechanical
properties of brass plates used in this study are given in Table 1. Both plates welded
in this study were 2 mm thick and friction stir welding was performed with a tool
rotational speed of 710 rpm at traverse speed. A slightly conical tool without
threads made of hot work steel with 1 mm depth hardened was used in the joining of
both plates. The reason for choosing a slightly conical tool is to determine whether it
is possible to employ higher rotational and travel speeds in friction stir welding of
brass plates by increasing the surface area of the tool, thus increasing the frictional
heat. Generally, conical tools are used in friction stir joining of thicker plates. To carry
out FSW process, two brass plates with 2 mm in thickness, 130 mm length and 70
mm in width, were place on a steel-made flat fixture. These two brass plates were
then clamped with a vice so that they would not separate during welding process,
Fig. 1. During the experiments it had been used a milling machine which has high
rotation speed to rotate stirrer tip. Besides, specimen to be welded had been cut by
sharp-edge cutting machine in desired dimensions. The joining trials were made
using a vertical milling machine in machining workshop of Mechanical engineering
department of university of Tehran. In figure 1 the apparatus of welding.

Fig.1: Friction stir welding apparatus of brass plates [4]

Moreover, standard flat tensile specimens were extracted from both base plates and
welded plates and tested at room temperature (loading rate being 10 mm/min) to
determine the joint performances, Fig. 2. The weld metal mechanical property
achieved as in table 3.

Table 3: Mechanical properties of weld material of CuZn30 [4]

Tensile Yield strength Modulus of
Material Elongation [%]
strength [MPa} [MPa] elasticity [GPa]
FSWed
185 84 20
CuZn30

Two standard bending specimens (30 mm wide and 200 mm long) were also
extracted from each welded plate (Fig. 3)[4], both specimens were bended up to 30
 10th Iranian Conference on Manufacturing Engineering
ICME 2010
March 1st - 3rd 2010
Babol Noshirvani Babol Noshirvani University of Technology Society of Manufacturing
University of Technology Engineering of Iran

mm, one specimen with weld root being outside and the other with weld root inside,
to determine whether cracking occurs or not in both bending conditions.

Fig.2 Dimensions of tensile test specimen [5]

It is important to define the mechanical properties of weld of brass during ASTM (or
AWS) conditions. In Fig. 3 illustrates the details of guided bending test.

Fig. 3: Schematic fixture for standard guided bend test [6]

Now modeling the bending specimen by finite element method is demonstrated as in

Fig. 4. Welded plates and two supports have been modeled and a uniaxial lateral
bending applies to it. The location of applied displacement is in the mid span of beam
(welded zone). Then a 3-D structural solid element has been defined, i.e. SOLID186.
Its properties, geometry and shape functions explained in below.

Fig. 4: modeling of three point bending test for FSWed plate of brass
 10th Iranian Conference on Manufacturing Engineering
ICME 2010
March 1st - 3rd 2010
Babol Noshirvani Babol Noshirvani University of Technology Society of Manufacturing
University of Technology Engineering of Iran

2-1-Element description: SOLID186

SOLID186 is a higher order 3-D 20-node solid element that exhibits quadratic
displacement behavior. The element is defined by 20 nodes having three degrees of
freedom per node: translations in the nodal x, y, and z directions. The element
supports plasticity, hyperelasticity, creep, stress stiffening, large deflection, and large
strain capabilities. It also has mixed formulation capability for simulating deformations
of nearly incompressible elastoplastic materials, and fully incompressible hyperelastic
materials. SOLID186 is available in two forms:
Structural Solid (KEYOPT (3) = 0), Layered Solid (KEYOPT (3) = 1)
SOLID186 Structural Solid is well suited to modeling irregular meshes (such as those
produced by various CAD/CAM systems). The element may have any spatial
orientation. The drawing of element illustrates in Fig. 5. Also, the shape functions are
used for 20 node solid elements are as in Fig. 6 [7].

Fig. 5: SOLID186 structural solid geometry [7]

Constitutive equation for problem solution is as:

(1)

In which, K is the assembled stiffness matrix of body in global coordinate system,

also, d is the displacement matrix of nodes. R at the right-hand of equation is the
overall (bulk and traction) forces. Then the procedure of achievement of stiffness
matrices in elements and assemblage to global stiffness matrix mentioned detailed in
references. The closed form of stiffness matrix is as:
(2)
(3)

In which, D is the elasticity of 3-D body. The strain matrix members derived from
shape function that proposed to element and illustrated in Fig. 5.
Displacement of nodes in body shall achieve by salutation the constitutive equation
and in element by the equation as:
(4)

This equation is same as constitutive one but in local element coordinate system and
the “e” subscription denotes to element.
Mesh of modeled structure shown in Fig. 7. There are three zones in meshing
structures: welding metal and two zones for base metal. The weld zone divide into
 10th Iranian Conference on Manufacturing Engineering
ICME 2010
March 1st - 3rd 2010
Babol Noshirvani Babol Noshirvani University of Technology Society of Manufacturing
University of Technology Engineering of Iran

three sections as modeled the stir zone (SZ), and thermomechanical affected zone
(TMAZ) and heat affected zone (HAZ). Also, in SZ create voids for vacancies
produces during friction stir welding by stirrer pin. The void distribution suppose linear
and voids dimensions set to approximately . To meshing the voids it is
required to fine elements in SZ. The total number of elements is 46616 and total
number of nodes is 67627. Then by solution of 202854 DOF the results for analyze of
bending test achieved. The results have been discussed in next section.

Fig. 6: Shape functions of SOLID186 element [7]

Fig. 7: Meshing of friction stir welded brass plate

3. Results and Discussion

In this research elastic behavior of thin plate of a brass alloy has been analyzed by
finite element method. Then by modeling the standard bending test as AWS the void
propagation of friction stir welded plate evaluated and compared to its experimental
results. A linear distribution of voids in-plane supposed and then it was good
 10th Iranian Conference on Manufacturing Engineering
ICME 2010
March 1st - 3rd 2010
Babol Noshirvani Babol Noshirvani University of Technology Society of Manufacturing
University of Technology Engineering of Iran

agreement between experimental results and analyzing work. We found that in a thin
plate the void distribution is near to a linear pattern and in thick ones it‟s not enough
good proposals to. Another result from FEM solution is predicting the starting of
rapture region by accumulation of voids, dislocations and slag due to stirring pattern
produces in welding time by pin. And magnitude or stress ratio for predicting stress
concentrations can be achieved.
Nodal displacements of welded plate shows in Figs. 8, 9 in X, Y directions and sum
of displacements As indicated in Fig. 7 there is continues in displacement at base
metal, HAZ, TMAZ and stirred zone (SZ) boundaries. And this is fully agreement with
experimental observations.
But the continuing not seen in tension stress after bending moment applied to plate.
This is because of stress concentration produces during welding by rotation of tool
and its pin surface patterns. The effective stress contour illustrated in Fig. 10. As
shown in Fig. 10 the stress concentration occurs either in TMAZ and HAZ zones
neither base metal nor stirred zone. Recent observation is important in rapture point
of weld in uniaxial tensile test and really occurrence taken place. Then there is a
good agreement in analysis of yielding of welded plate.

Fig. 8: Displacement contours of thin FSWed brass plate in X & Y-directions

 10th Iranian Conference on Manufacturing Engineering
ICME 2010
March 1st - 3rd 2010
Babol Noshirvani Babol Noshirvani University of Technology Society of Manufacturing
University of Technology Engineering of Iran

Fig. 9: Total displacement contours of thin FSWed brass plate

Fig. 10: Von-mises stress contour of thin plate of brass FSWed

4. Conclusion
Suitable weld design and acceptable calculations need to be checked by simple and
workable method. One of the most valuable standard test methods is bending test for
welded structures. By noting that, currently FSWed plates are most spread using
plates in industries. Then it‟s a suitable idea to applying the traditional test method to
recent welding method. And it shall be comparable by other conventional welding
methods such as fusion welding. In this research we evaluated finite element method
to numerical solution of thin plate to understand void distributions in stirring zone. Our
findings show that in thin plate its linear distribution has good agreement with
experimental results and to have a suitable strength of weld we will use parameters
of welding processes to improve the weld.
Also, the presented solution shown us for thicker plates considering a 3-D distribution
shall be need. And void geometry has insignificant effect in void propagation.

References
1. Thomas WM, et al. “Friction Stir Butt Welding”, International Patent Appl. No.
PCT/GB92/02203 and GB Patent Appl. No. 9125978.8, Dec. 1991, U.S. Patent
No. 5460,317.
2. Mishra R.S., Ma Z. Y. “Friction stir welding and processing”. Mater. Sci. Eng. R.
2005; 50: pp. 1–78.
3. C. Meran “The joint properties of brass plates by friction stir welding”, Materials
and Design 27 (2006) 719–726.
4. M. K. Besharati Givi, N. Sadeghian, M. Hajikaram, “Friction stir welding of and its
affecting on mechanical and surface properties of friction sir welded thin plates of
brass” [in persian], 10th ICME conference, Babol Noshirvani University of
Technology, 2010.
5. ASTM E8-04: Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials
6. ASTM E190-92(1997): Standard Test Method for Guided Bend Test for Ductility of
Welds
7. ANSYS user manual

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