Quantitative wear analysis of H13 steel tool during friction stir welding of Cu-0.8%Cr-0.1%Zr alloy

Abstract

Joining of high strength materials using friction stir welding (FSW) is difficult due to severe tool wear and change in the shape/size of the tool. However, quantitative understanding of tool wear during FSW of high melting point metallic materials is very limited. Here we present quantitative wear analysis of H13 steel tool during FSW of CuCrZr alloy. Higher amount of total tool wear is observed for faster tool rotational speeds, and slower traverse speeds. Progressive wear rate shows similar relationship with these process parameters during initial traverse stage. With further tool traverse the wear rate decreases significantly and is not much affected by the process parameters. The quantitative wear study provides insights about tool wear during FSW process and would be useful to better estimate and improve tool life. This would also be helpful to optimize the process parameters and tool shape to reduce tool wear during FSW of high strength materials.

Pankaj Sahlot

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Pankaj Sahlot is Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department at Pandit Deendayal Energy University Gandhinagar, India. In PhD, He worked on experimental and numerical study of tool wear during Friction stir welding (FSW) under the guidance of Dr. Amit Arora at IIT Gandhinagar, India. He also visited University of North Texas Denton, USA for six months as a visiting researcher during PhD. His research work related to experimental and numerical study of Friction Stir Welding processes has been published in various reputed journals and conferences. He received award for Academic Excellence from Prof. C. N. R. Rao during M.Tech at IIT Hyderabad, India.