On the formation of onion rings in friction stir welds

Onion rings are the most prominent features of most friction stir welds. The origin and the effect of these on properties are not clearly understood. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explain the formation of onion rings. The formation of onion ring is found to be a geometric effect due to the fact that cylindrical sheets of material are extruded during each rotation of the tool and the cutting through the section of the material produces an apparent ‘Onion Rings’. It is postulated that the tool appears to wait for a very short time to produce frictional heat and extrude a cylindrical shaped material around to the retreating side of the joint. The spacing of the markings has been found to be equal to the forward motion of the tool in one rotation.