Mechanical response of friction stir welded AA2024: experiment and modeling

The mechanical response of heterogeneous structures, such as weldments, is largely governed by the response of the local constituents. In the present paper, the global and local mechanical response of friction stir welded AA2024 is examined experimentally and numerically. Full field strain measurements are obtained on transversely loaded tensile specimens via the digital image correlation technique. Assuming an iso-stress configuration. local constitutive data were determined for the various weld regions and used as input for a 2-D finite element model. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results to assess the viability of the modeling approach and the validity of the iso-stress assumption. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.