PROCESS PARAMETER OPTIMIZATION FOR FRICTION STIR WELDING OF ALUMINIUM 2014-T651 ALLOY USING TAGUCHI TECHNIQUE

Abstract

This work focuses on the joining aluminium alloys (AA-2014 T651) using friction stir welding technique resulting in better mechanical properties within a chosen window of parameters. Experiments were conducted by varying rotational speed (355 rpm, 450 rpm, and 710 rpm), transverse speed (31.5 mm/min, 63 mm/min, 125 mm/min) and tool tilt (0°, 1°, 2°) at three different values. This work presents an approach based on Taguchi technique to establish the optimum conditions resulting in higher weld strengths of the AA-2014 T651 alloy weld joints, within a chosen window of parameters. The optimal parameters were found to be 355 rpm tool rotation speed , 31.5 mm/min traverse speed and a tool tilt of 2°, which resulted in 327.73 MPa tensile strength. From the analysis of variance (ANOVA) it was found that the influence of traverse speed on the tensile strength was 46.6%, while the influence of tool tilt and tool rotation speed were 33.1 % and 18.1 % respectively. Pareto analysis for the combination of parameters have shown more influence on the tensile strength by the traverse speed and tool tilt than that of other combinations. A regression model of the above process along with a regression fit equation was developed for the tensile strength of friction stir welded AA-2014 T651 alloy plates.

Keywords

• Friction stir welding
• Travel speed
• Tool rotation speed
• Tool tilt
• ANOVA
• Taguchi technique