Numerical and Experimental Investigation on Power Input during Linear Friction Welding Between TC11 and TC17 Alloys

Effects of processing parameters on the temperature field and axial shortening of linear-friction-welded joint of TC11 and TC17 titanium alloys are investigated by numerical simulation and experimental methods. The 2D model, which is simplified as a rigid body and a deformable body, is built on the basis of the LFW principle by ABAQUS/explicit software. LFW experiments are developed to verify the rationality of the model by measuring the temperature field and axial shortening. The results show that, during the friction phase, the temperature rises linearly with increasing friction time and decreasing axial shortening, heating rates slightly increase with increasing friction pressures and decrease with increasing amplitudes, and cooling rates increase with increasing friction pressures and amplitudes in the forging phase. The unilateral axial shortenings of TC11 and TC17 increase nearly linearly with increasing power input. The appropriate power input for the welded joint is measured to be in the range of 2.4 × 107 to 3.36 × 107 W/m2 based on the tensile properties and fracture morphologies. The corresponding microstructure of the welded zone (WZ) consists of a large number of fine lath martensites α′ on the TC11 side and coarsened β phases with a small amount of precipitations on the TC17 side.