Le soudage FSW (Friction Stir Welding) est un procédé de soudage en phase solide pressenti pour des applications de transport en générale aérospatial et naval. Malgré le nombre considérable d’études qui ont été réalisées depuis son avènement en 1991, le contrôle du procédé n’est pas encore effectif.Ce travail a consisté en une partie expérimentale visant à la génération, par un outil trigone, de joints soudés dont la microstructure a été corrélée à l’écoulement de matière pendant le procédé. La connaissance de cet écoulement de matière a permis dans la deuxième partie d’enrichir le modèle thermofluide développé en périodique pour prédire la microstructure des joints de soudure FSW, notamment les "onion rings". Finalement, l’occurrence des "onion rings" a été corrélée à la vitesse de déformation maximale atteinte par les particules de la zone soudée, prédite par le modèle. Par ailleurs, un travail d’affinement du champ de vitesse en voisinage du pion est réalisé en modélisant l’outil trigone. Ce qui permet en plus de l’interaction (entrainement) outil/matière par frottement, d’intégrer une interaction par obstacle. Cette approche devrait permettre, en perspectives de ce travail, une meilleur description thermomécanique locale et par voie de conséquence microstructurale. / Friction Stir Welding is a solid state joining process developed for transport applications as aerospace and naval. Since its introduction, a large number of investigations have been carried out but the process is not fully controlled. This work including experimental section in which welds have been generated by trigonal tool. The microstructure of these welds has been correlated with the material flow during the process. By understanding the material flow, the transient thermofluid model developed in the second section has been significantly enriched. This modeled has been developed for predicting the microstructure of the weld, especially, the "onion rings". Finally, the occurrence of "onion rings" has been correlated with the maximal strain rate reached by any particle in the weld seam, simulated by the model. However, the velocity has been refined at the vicinity of the tool through the trigonal pin modelling. This was helpful to move the material not only by friction but also by obstacle at the interaction tool/material. The above approach should enable, in this work layout, a better local thermomechanical description and consequently microstructural.

<div>Aluminum 6061 is extensively used in industry and welding and additive manufacturing (AM) of Al6061 offer flexibility in manufacturing. Solid-state welding and AM processes can overcome the shortcomings of fusion-based processes, such as porosity and hot cracking. In this thesis, friction stir welding and friction stir additive manufacturing, which are both based on the concepts of friction stir processing (solid-state), were studied. The welding parameters for a sound weld during friction stir welding of Al6061-T6 alloy were determined based on the experimental and numerical analysis. Formation of tunnel defects and cavity defects was also studied. A Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) finite element model was established to analyze the process, where the workpiece was modeled as an Eulerian body, and the tool as Lagrangian. The model was validated by conducting experiments and correlating the force measured by a three-axis dynamometer. The experimentally validated simulation model was used to find an optimum parameter set for the sound weld case.</div><div>To demonstrate the friction stir additive manufacturing process, a 40 mm × 8 mm × 8 mm (L×B×H) material was fabricated by adding five 1.6 mm thick plates. A similar coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian based finite element model was used to predict the effects of sound process parameters, such as the tool’s rotational speed and the translational speed. The temperature predicted by the model was used to predict the microhardness distribution in the sample and to further elucidate the hardness change in the weld zone, which showed a good agreement with the experimental results. The microstructure of the samples was analyzed, and the mechanical properties of the additive manufactured samples were characterized and compared with those of other AM techniques via tensile tests and tensile shear tests.</div>

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Al 7050-T7451 alloy with good combinations of strength, stress corrosion cracking resistance and toughness, is used broadly in the aerospace/aviation industry for fatigue-critical airframe structural components. However, it is also considered as a highly anisotropic alloy as the crack growth behavior along the short transverse direction is very different from the one in the long transverse direction, due to the inhomogeneous microstructure with the elongated grains distributed in the work material used in the sheet/plate applications. Further processes on these materials are needed to improve its mechanical and material properties and broaden its applications. The material with ultra-fine or nano grains exhibits improved wear and corrosion resistance, higher hardness and better fatigue life, compared to the one with coarse grains. In recent times, the development of novel processing technologies has gained great attention in the research community to enhance the properties of the materials employed in the aerospace, biomedical, precision instrument, automotive, nuclear/power industries. These novel processing technologies modify the microstructure of this alloy and improve the properties. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the effects of cryogenic processes, including friction stir processing (FSP), machining and burnishing, on Al 7050-T7451 alloy to solve the inhomogeneity issue and improve its surface integrity. FSP is applied to modify the microstructure of Al 7050-T7451 alloy for achieving more homogeneous structure with near ultra-fine grains (UFG) which were less than 2 µm, particularly in cryogenic FSP with liquid nitrogen as the coolant. Approximately 10% increase could be observed from the hardness measurement from the samples processed by cryogenic FSP, in contrast to dry FSP. Also, the texture change from Al (200) to Al (111) could be achieved in all the samples processed by dry and cryogenic FSP. Cryogenic machining and burnishing processes were also applied to enhance the surface integrity of the manufactured components with near-UFG structure. The highest cutting temperature was reduced by up to 44.7% due to the rapid cooling effect of liquid nitrogen in cryogenic machining, compared with dry machining. Nano grains were produced in the refined layers induced by cryogenic burnishing. And, up to 35.4% hardness increase was obtained within the layer depth of 200 µm in the cryogenically-burnished surface. A numerical finite element method (FEM) model was developed for predicting the process performance in burnishing. Less than 10% difference between the experimental and predicted burnishing forces was achieved in the simulation of cryogenic burnishing, and reasonable predictions were also achieved for temperatures, severe plastic deformation (SPD) layers.

Commercially pure titanium can take up to six months to successfully manufacture a six-inch in diameter ingot in which can be shipped to be melted and shaped into other useful components. The applications to the corrosion-resistant, light weight, strong metal are endless, yet so is the manufacturing processing time. At a cost of around $80 per pound of certain grades of titanium powder, the everyday consumer cannot afford to use titanium in the many ways it is beneficial simply because the number of processing steps it takes to manufacture consumes too much time, energy, and labor. In this research, the steps it takes from the raw powder form to the final part are proposed to be reduced from 4-8 steps to only 2 steps utilizing a new technology that may even improve upon the titanium properties at the same time as it is reducing the number of steps of manufacture. The two-step procedure involves selecting a cylindrical or rectangular die and punch to compress a small amount of commercially pure titanium to a strong-enough compact for transportation to the friction stir welder to be consolidated. Friction stir welding invented in 1991 in the United Kingdom uses a tool, similar to a drill bit, to approach a sample and gradually plunge into the material at a certain rotation rate of between 100 to 2,100 RPM. In the second step, the friction stir welder is used to process the titanium powder held in a tight holder to consolidate into a harder titanium form. The resulting samples are cut to expose the cross section and then grinded, polished, and cleaned to be observed and tested using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and a Vickers microhardness tester. The results were that the thicker the sample, the harder the resulting consolidated sample peaking at 2 to 3 times harder than that of the original commercially pure titanium in solid form at a peak value of 435.9 hardness and overall average of 251.13 hardness. The combined results of the SEM and EDS have shown that the mixing of the sample holder material, titanium, and tool material were not of a large amount and therefore proves the feasibility of this study. This study should be continued to lessen the labor, energy, and cost of the production of titanium to therefore allow titanium to be improved upon and be more efficient for many applications across many industries.

Friction stir processing (FSP) has been developed based on the basic principles of friction stir welding (FSW), a solid-state joining process originally developed for aluminum alloys. What is attractive about FSP is that it can be incorporated in the overall manufacturing cycle as a post-processing step during the machining operation to provide localized modification and control of microstructures in near-surface layers of metallic components. FSP has emerged as an important post-processing technique, and has been identified as a process that may have a high impact, and perhaps is a disruptive manufacturing process. In this study, FSP has been applied to Al cast alloy A206, which is a high strength, widely used cast alloy in the manufacturing industry. Motivations behind this work are to (1) investigate the feasibility of FSP on manipulating the cast microstructure and strengthening the material, and (2) to explore the viability of FSP to produce a localized particle reinforced zone in cast A206 aluminum components. The thesis will show that we have optimized FSP for processing of Al alloys to locally manipulate the cast microstructure, eliminate casting defects, and attain grain refinement and second phase homogenization. We have established the mechanism leading to the microstructure evolution and have evaluated the resultant mechanical properties, i.e. hardness, tensile property and fatigue properties. We have also synthesized a localized composite material in the A206 work piece with three different reinforcement materials via FSP. These results will be presented and discussed.

Les assemblages soudés sont de plus en plus envisagés pour remplacer les assemblages par rivetage dans l’objectif d’alléger les structures aéronautiques. La technique de soudage par Friction Stir Welding (FSW) est la solution choisie pour souder sans apport extérieur de matière et en phase solide. Des assemblages soudés autogènes et hétérogènes d’alliages d’aluminium des familles 2XXX (Al-Cu-Mg et Al-Cu-Li) et 7XXX (Al-Zn-Mg) ont été étudiés. La sensibilité à la corrosion de ces soudures et leur tenue mécanique sous l’effet de l’environnement ont été évaluées avec une approche multi-échelle. Pour cela, des essais normalisés de corrosion ont d’abord été réalisés, suivis d’une analyse plus fine par des techniques électrochimiques locales qui a permis de quantifier la réactivité des différentes zones de la soudure. D’autre part, une analyse microstructurale a permis d’expliquer les comportements en corrosion de chacune de ces zones. Nous avons ainsi montré que, dans le cas des soudures autogènes, la microstructure était responsable des phénomènes de corrosion localisée tandis que, dans le cas des soudures hétérogènes, l’attaque était plus homogène sous l’effet de couplages galvaniques macroscopiques. / In order to lighten aircraft structures, welded joints are more and more considered to replace riveted joints. The Friction Stir welding process is the appropriate solution to join without addition of outer material and in semi-solid phase. Similar and dissimilar welded joints of 2XXX (Al-Cu-Mg and Al-Cu-Li) and 7XXX (Al-Zn-Cu) aluminium alloys were studied. Corrosion sensitivity of these welds and their stress corrosion cracking were evaluated with a multiscale approach. For this, first, normalized corrosion tests were performed; then, a finer analysis was carried out using local electrochemical techniques which allows to quantitate the reactivity of the different weld zones. In other hand, a microstructural analysis allowed to explain corrosion behaviours of each weld zone. We showed localized corrosion phenomena were restricted in the similar FSW joints because of microstructural heterogeneities whereas attack in dissimilar welds was more homogeneous under the effect of macroscopic galvanic coupling.

Friction stir welding (FSW) and aluminium alloy 2139-T8 are currently being considered for use in future military vehicles. However, stringent regulations on weld integrity under extreme loading conditions limit the adoption of new technologies. Moreover, current finite element (FE) based methods do not give reliable predictions of strain distribution in welds, which makes it difficult to assess the performance of structures. Therefore, an extensive research program was carried out to develop a generalised finite element (FE) based methodology to predict the response of welded structures under complex loading configurations. The methodology enables the complex distribution of mechanical properties arising from welding, which is linked to microstructural variation, to be incorporated into a macro scale structural model. The method is general, and is applicable for any heat treatable aluminium alloy under a range of joining processes. To achieve this, the microstructure of 2139-T8 alloy was characterised at a range of length scales, with particular emphasis on the size and distribution of strengthening Omega precipitates. 2139-T8 was subjected to bead on plate FSW to enable characterisation of the effects of processing on the local microstructure. In addition, kinetic data for 2139-T8 was generated, allowing a simple softening model to be developed; this allowed the post-weld strength distribution to be predicted. The model was also used to recreate bulk specimens of 2139-T8 with equivalent local weld microstructure, which was verified by transmission electron microscopy. Material with equivalent microstructure was used to estimate the local mechanical property distributions across the weld, including the initial yield stress and plastic response; the mechanical properties of 2139-T8 are known to be representative of 2139-T84. From observations of this combined data, a methodology was developed to enable the estimation of the complex mechanical property distributions arising during welding. Furthermore, an automated computer program was written to implement the property distributions into FE based models. The methodology was verified using data generated for 2139-T8 and was used to simulate the response of FSW 2139-T8 loaded in uniaxial tension. The simulations were verified experimentally using digital image correlation (DIC) and the methodology was shown to demonstrate increased accuracy and reliability over existing FE methods, with respect to strain predictions. In addition, the method eliminates the need to calibrate the structural model to a particular loading configuration. Theoretically, the models are insensitive to loading and this property was tested by extending the model to simulate the strain distribution of large scale welded panels subject to explosive blast loading. The simulations were verified against blast tests where FSW 2139-T84 panels were subjected to blast loading from the detonation of plastic explosive. The results indicate that the modelling methodology developed is capable of producing accurate and reliable predictions of strain distribution in welded structures under complex loading configurations.