Professor Andrew Balland his colleague Dr Fengshou Gu, of the University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Efficiency and Performance Engineering, teamed up with Professor Xiaocong He of Kunming University of Science and Technology’s (KUST) Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre in order to investigate the technique known as Friction Stir Welding (FSW).
The article reviews the latest developments in the numerical analysis of friction stir welding processes, the microstructures of friction stir welded joints and the properties of friction stir welded structures and the authors conclude that FSW can be used successfully to join difficult-to-weld materials, but that the technique and scientific understanding of it is still at an early stage in its development.
“So far, the development of the FSW process for each new application has remained largely empirical. Scientific, knowledge-based numerical studies are of significant help in understanding the FSW process.”
Many challenges remain in the development and analysis of FSW, and they add that the digest they present in the Progress in Materials Science is the basis for further research.