Among the emerging new welding techniques, friction stir welding (FSW) is used frequently for welding high-strength aluminum alloys that are difficult to weld by conventional fusion-welding techniques. This paper investigated the effects of tool-positioning factors on the maximum temperature generated in the dissimilar FSW joint of AA6061-T6 and AA7075-T6 aluminum alloys. Three factors of plunge depth, tool offset, and tilt angle were used as the input parameters. Numerical simulation of the FSW process was performed in ABAQUS software using the coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian (CEL) approach. Central composite design (CCD) based on response surface methodology (RSM) was used to analyze and design the experiments. Comparison of the numerical and experimental results showed that numerical simulations were in good agreement with the experimental ones. Based on the statistical model results, plunge depth, tilt angle, and tool offset were the most significant factors on maximum process temperature, respectively. It was found that increasing the plunge depth caused a sharp increase in the maximum process temperature due to increased contact surfaces and the frictional interaction between the tool and workpiece.

The present study investigates the effect of two parameters of process type and tool offset on tensile, microhardness, and microstructure properties of AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy joints. Three methods of Friction Stir Welding (FSW), Advancing Parallel-Friction Stir Welding (AP-FSW), and Retreating Parallel-Friction Stir Welding (RP-FSW) were used. In addition, four modes of 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 mm of tool offset were used in two welding passes in AP-FSW and RP-FSW processes. Based on the results, it was found that the mechanical properties of welded specimens with AP-FSW and RP-FSW techniques experience significant increments compared to FSW specimens. The best mechanical and microstructural properties were observed in the samples welded by RP-FSW, AP-FSW, and FSW methods, respectively. Welded specimens with the RP-FSW technique had better mechanical properties than other specimens due to the concentration of material flow in the weld nugget and proper microstructure refinement. In both AP-FSW and RP-FSW processes, by increasing the tool offset to 1.5 mm, joint efficiency increased significantly. The highest weld strength was found for welded specimens by RP-FSW and AP-FSW processes with a 1.5 mm tool offset. The peak sample of the RP-FSW process (1.5 mm offset) had the closest mechanical properties to the base metal, in which the Yield Stress (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), and elongation percentage (E%) were 76.4%, 86.5%, and 70% of base metal, respectively. In the welding area, RP-FSW specimens had smaller average grain size and higher hardness values than AP-FSW specimens.

In this study, the effects of two geometrical parameters of the re-entrant auxetic cells, namely, internal cell angle ($\theta$) and H/L ratio in which H is the cell height, and L is the cell length, have been studied on the variations of Poisson’s ratio and fatigue life of Aluminum 7075-T6 auxetic structures. Five different values of both the H/L ratio and angle $\theta$ were selected. Numerical simulations and fatigue life predictions have been conducted through the use of ABAQUS (version 2022) and MSC Fatigue (version 11.0) software. Results revealed that increases in both the H/L ratio and angle $\theta$ improved the average value of Poisson’s ratio. Increasing the H/L ratio from 1 to 1.4 and $\theta$ from 50° to 70° increased the values of Poisson’s ratio, respectively, 7.7% and 80%. In all angles, increasing the H/L values decreased the fatigue life of the structures significantly. Furthermore, in all H/L values, an increment in $\theta$ caused a reduction in fatigue life. The effects of H/L and $\theta$ parameters on fatigue life were dominant in the low cycle fatigue regime. Results also showed that the H/L ratio parameter had greater influence as compared to the $\theta$ angle, and the structures with higher auxeticity experienced higher fatigue resistance. It was found that the auxetic property of the structure has a direct relationship with the fatigue resistance of the structure. In all samples, structures with greater auxetic property had higher fatigue resistance.

This study investigates the influence of tool shapes on tensile properties and microstructural features at stirred zone (SZ) and heat-affected zone of Al 6061 joints welded through friction stir welding (FSW) technique. Six novel dual-pin FSW tools were designed and fabricated consisting of two eccentric pins with different shapes of circle–circle, triangle–triangle (TT), rectangle–rectangle, and the combined pins of circle–triangle, circle–rectangle, and triangle–rectangle. Quasi-static tests were conducted on the welded joint samples and stress–strain data were collected. Dual-pin welding tools led to microstructural evolution including growth in the plastic flow and enlargement in SZ. Weld joints fabricated by TT and rectangle-triangle (RT) tools possessed the maximum values of tensile strength and ductility.

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid-state bonding technique. There are many direct and indirect factors affecting the mechanical and microstructural properties of the FSW joints. Tool offset, tilt angle, and plunge depth are determinative tool positioning in the FSW process. Investigating the effect of these factors simultaneously with other parameters such as process speeds (rotational speed and translational speed) and tool geometry leads to a poor understanding of the impact of these factors on the FSW process. Because the three mentioned parameters have the same origin, they should be studied separately from other process parameters. This paper investigates the effects of tilt angle, plunge depth, and tool offset on Ultimate Tensile Stress (UTS) of joints between AA6061-T6 and AA7075-T6. To design the experiments, optimization, and statistical analysis, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) has been used. Experimental tests were carried out to find the maximum achievable UTS of the joint. The optimum values were determined based on the optimization procedure as 0.7 mm of tool offset, 2.7 degrees of tilt angle, and 0.1 mm of plunge depth. These values resulted in a UTS of 281 MPa. Compared to the UTS of base metals, the joint efficiency of the optimized welded sample was nearly 90 percent.