Title: A finite element modelling of laser bending of friction stir welded aluminium 5052-H32 sheets

Authors: Uday S. Dixit; Besufekad Negash Fetene

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, Assam, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati-781039, Assam, India

Abstract: The bending of sheet by laser line heating is gaining popularity among researchers. In this work, laser bending of friction stir welded 2-mm thick 5052-H32 aluminium alloy sheets is first studied experimentally and then a finite element model using ABAQUS® is developed for the prediction of bend angle. During friction stir welding process, the weld zone undergoes some thinning and its mechanical properties also differ from base material. The present work considers these aspects. First, the properties of the material and absorptivity are obtained in an inverse manner from a few experiments. The computational efficiency of the model is improved by adopting some techniques available in the literature. The agreement between experimental and numerically predicted bend angle is very good.

Keywords: laser forming; laser bending; friction stir welding; FSW; finite element method; FEM; modelling; aluminium alloys; aluminium sheets; sheet metal bending; bend angle prediction; absorptivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2016.079589

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2016 Vol.9 No.3, pp.215 - 236

Received: 14 Jan 2016
Accepted: 10 Feb 2016

Published online: 04 Oct 2016 *

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