Prediction of tensile strength of friction stir welded stir cast AA6061-T6/AlNp composite

Over the last two decades, aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) reinforced with particulate form of ceramics have attracted much attention due to their superior mechanical properties. In recent years, friction stir welding (FSW) is largely employed to successfully join the AMCs reinforced with ceramic particulates. An attempt has been made to develop a regression model to predict the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the friction stir (FS) welded AA6061 matrix composite reinforced with aluminium nitride particles (AlNp) by incorporating significant parameters such as tool rotational speed, welding speed, axial force and percentage of AlNp reinforcement in the matrix. A four factor, five level central composite rotatable design has been used to minimize the number of experimental runs. The effects of those factors on UTS of the welded joints have been analyzed using the developed regression model. The developed regression model has been validated by statistical software SYSTAT 12 and statistical tools such as analysis of variance (ANOVA) and student’s t test. It was found that the model was accurate. The developed regression model can be effectively used to predict the UTS of FS welded joints at 95% confidence level. It was observed from the investigation that factors considered in this study independently influenced the UTS of the FS welded composite joints.