Numerical simulation of transient temperature and axial deformation during linear friction welding between TC11 and TC17 titanium alloys

Abstract Transient temperature filed and flash during linear friction welding (LFW) between Ti–6.5Al–3.5Mo–1.5Zr–0.3Si (TC11) and Ti–4Mo–4Cr–5Al–2Sn–2Zr (TC17) were investigated by means of ABAQUS/explicit with a two-dimensional (2D) model. The simulations show that in the initial phase the maximum temperature occurs at the point which is about amplitude away from the edge of the friction interface, the temperatures on the TC11 and TC17 sides reach 618 °C and 785 °C at 0.2 s, respectively. In the subsequent phases, the temperature in the center zone becomes higher than that of the edge, up to 1200 °C on the TC11 and 1080 °C on the TC17 at 1.0 s, respectively. In addition, the cooling rate of the flash root is lower than that of the weld center in the forging (deceleration) phase. With the increase of oscillation frequency, in the friction phases the temperature and heating rate of the interface center and the flash rise slightly, in the forging phase the cooling rate increases at the interface center but decreases at the flash and in the whole process the axial shortening increases. The simulations of temperature distribution and axial deformation are agreement with experiments.