Transient behaviour of torque and process efficiency during inertia friction welding

ABSTRACT

Process efficiency is a crucial parameter for inertia friction welding (IFW). A new method is developed to determine the efficiency by comparing the workpiece torque used to heat and deform the joint to the total torque. Particularly, the former is measured by torque load cell attached to the non-rotating workpiece, while the latter is determined from the deceleration rate of flywheel. The efficiency measured for IFW of AISI 1018 steel is inputted into analytical heat balance calculation of the upset length and finite element thermo-mechanical modelling of the extruded flash profile. The calculated results are consistent with the respective experiment data. The transient behaviour of torque and efficiency is discussed based on the energy loss and the bond formation.

KEYWORDS:

• Inertia friction welding
• process efficiency
• torque
• finite element modelling
• solid-state joining

Acknowledgements

Dr Michael C. Maguire and his colleagues at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California USA are acknowledged for their support of inertia friction welding experiments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Daniel J. Tung http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5995-558X

W. Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4543-2563

Additional information

Funding

Financial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) I/UCRC Manufacturing and Materials Joining Innovation Center (Ma²JIC) and U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is acknowledged. Work by O. Senkov was supported through the Air Force on-site contract FA8650-15-D-5230 managed by UES inc, Dayton, OH USA.