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D.H. Lammlein PhD Dissertation - Vanderbilt University

D.H. Lammlein PhD Dissertation - Vanderbilt University

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In demonstrating the effectiveness of FSW on small diameter hemispheres, this<br />

experiment has shown that FSW is applicable to highly curved surfaces and surfaces with<br />

curvature in two degrees of freedom like a sphere. The demonstration of FSW on this<br />

particularly difficult geometry extends the range of FSW application. This has<br />

applications to things like aerospace structures and pressure vessels.<br />

Although the small diameter butted hemisphere joint presents a FSW case with<br />

many intrinsic difficulties, in one way it is possibly less difficult than it could be. The<br />

sphere is curved equally in two degrees of freedom allowing it to mate ideally with a<br />

cupped tool even as the cupped tool is rotated about the long axis of the tool as in<br />

welding. This is not the case with a pipe where there is no tool shoulder geometry which<br />

maintains this ideal tool to work mate when the tool is rotated. The pipe therefore<br />

presents another important FSW situation with inherent difficulties.<br />

In this work it was demonstrated that small diameter pipe sections can be joined<br />

effectively with a simple FSW tool. The scrolled shoulder and threaded probe tool was<br />

used to make full penetration welds on 4.2” diameter and wall 0.2” thickness pipes. The<br />

welds were exceptional superficially and achieved tensile strengths in excess of 70% of<br />

the parent material over the limited parameter range tested. The work done here extends<br />

the use of FSW to small diameter pipe with a wide range of application such as in the<br />

petroleum industry.<br />

Finally, it was shown that the FSW is well understood in that equations governing<br />

the process are refined to the extent that they can reliably produce what is seen<br />

experimentally. CFD models utilizing process governing equations of limited complexity<br />

can be used to reliably model and predict the relevant aspects of the FSW process. This<br />

was demonstrated over a wide variety of FSW work geometries including t-joints, butted<br />

plates, butted hemispheres, and butted pipes. Additionally, a variety of tool geometries<br />

were tested including conically shaped FSW tools, tools with scrolled shoulders, and<br />

tools with threaded probes. It was demonstrated that the thermal contours of the tool and<br />

work can be reliably produced in CFD. It was also demonstrated the flow field in the<br />

work around the FSW tool can be reliably shown in CFD models. The FSW process<br />

forces were also predicted using CFD with a reasonable degree of accuracy. These<br />

process equations and CFD models are valuable because the experimental evaluation of a<br />

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