Friction joining

K. Young, The Influence of Paint Bake Cycles on the Mechanical Properties of Spot Friction Joined Aluminum Alloys, SAE Technical Paper 2006-01-0968, Society of Automotive Engineers... 

Another variant of the friction welding process, linear friction welding, uses servo-hydrauHcs pumps to vibrate parts back and forth against each other. Bond areas of approximately 1000 mm can be joined the attachment of turbine blades to rotors is a prevalent apphcation of this technology. 

Spin Welding. Spin welding is an efficient technique for joining circular surfaces of similar materials. The matching surfaces are rotated at high speed relative to each other and then brought into contact. Frictional heat melts the interface and, when motion is stopped, the weld is allowed to soHdify under pressure. 

The absolute pressure at the inlet to the pump is usually the atmospheric pressure in the receiver, plus the static head from the water surface to the pump inlet and minus the friction loss through the pipes, valves and fittings joining the pump to the receiver. If his absolute pressure exceeds the vapor pressure of water at the temperature at which it enters the pump, then a net positive suction hand (NPSH) exists. If this NPSH is above the value specified by the pump manufacturer, the water does not begin to boil as it enters the pump suction and cavitation is avoided. If the water entering the pump is at a higher temperature, its vapor pressure is increased and a greater hydrostatic head over the pump suction is needed to ensure that the necessary NPSH is obtained. 

The velocity distribution and frictional resistance have been calculated from purely theoretical considerations for the streamline flow of a fluid in a pipe. The boundary layer theory can now be applied in order to calculate, approximately, the conditions when the fluid is turbulent. For this purpose it is assumed that the boundary layer expressions may be applied to flow over a cylindrical surface and that the flow conditions in the region of fully developed flow are the same as those when the boundary layers first join. The thickness of the boundary layer is thus taken to be equal to the radius of the pipe and the velocity at the outer edge of the boundary layer is assumed to be the velocity at the axis. Such assumptions are valid very close to the walls, although significant errors will arise near the centre of the pipe. 

Transition joints are used to join dissimilar metals where flanged, screwed, or threaded connections are not practical. They are used when fusion welding of two dissimilar metals forms interfaces that are deficient in mechanical strength and the ability to keep the system leak-tight. Transition joints consist of a bimetallic composite, a stainless steel, and a particular kind of aluminum bonded together by some proprietary process. Some of the types in use throughout the cryogenic industry are friction- or inertia-welded bond, roll-bonded joint, explosion-bonded joint, and braze-bonded joint. 

The harmonic oscillator is used as a simple model to represent the vibrations in bonds. It includes two masses that can move on a plane without friction and that are joined by a spring (see Fig. 10.3). If the two masses are displaced by a value x0 relative to the equilibrium distance / , the system will start to oscillate with a period that is a function of the force constant k (N m ) and the masses involved. The frequency, which is independent of the elongation, can be approximated by equation (10.2) where n (kg) represents the reduced mass of the system. The term harmonic oscillator comes from the fact that the elongation is proportional to the exerted force while the frequency i/yib is independent of it. 

The Rouse-Bueche model (97,98) replaces the real molecule of n main chain atoms by a mechanical chain of N +1 beads joined in sequence by N linear springs. The frictional interactions with the medium, which are distributed uniformly along the length of the real molecule to give a molecular frictional coefficient n(0, ate concentrated at regular intervals in the beads. The frictional... 

Inertia (friction) welding in the solid state, which is useful for joining dissimilar metals, i.e., aluminum to steel and stainless steel. At least one of the pieces to be welded must be circular and capable of being rotated at high velocities before being brought into contact with pressure to the second member. 

Fig. 8. Energy loss (in keV) of v = 0.5 a.u. projectiles scattered off a LiF (100) surface under grazing angle of incidence = 1 as a function of the projectile atomic number Z solid circles). The solid line joins the theoretical results obtained for the friction coefficient Q (in a.u.) with = 1.5.

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