Residual stresses in Linear Friction Welding of aluminium alloys

Highlights: • A fully-coupled implicit thermo-mechanical model for LFW has been developed. • Model employs semi-automatic re-meshing to accommodate large deformation. • Model is validated by the multi-detector polychromatic synchrotron X-ray data. • A general function to describe the Residual Stresses (RS) distribution is provided. • A characteristic length scale is found in the RS distribution function. - Abstract: In the present study, the residual stresses distribution in the Linear Friction Welded (LFW) pieces were studied using Finite Element (FE) simulation and high energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Fully-coupled implicit thermo-mechanical analysis simulation procedure was employed, with semi-automatic re-meshing using Python scripting to accommodate large deformation and output contour tracking methods for extracting deformed configurations. Model validated by the multi-detector polychromatic synchrotron X-ray experimental data were used to study the distribution of residual stresses distribution in the Linear Friction Welded (LFW) pieces to provide a general function to describe the residual stresses distribution. A characteristic length scale was found in the plot