Effects of Process Parameters of Friction Stir Processing on Tensile Strength of AA6063 Aluminum Alloy

In this investigation, the effect of friction stir processing (FSP) parameters such as rotational speed, traverse speed and plunge depth on the tensile strength of AA6063 aluminum alloy was studied. The experiments were carried out as per response surface methodology parametric design concepts to study the influence of various combinations of process parameters. Statistical optimization technique, ANOVA was used to determine the optimum levels and to find the significance of each process parameter. The results indicate that rotational speed (RS), and traverse speed (TS) are the most significant factors, followed by plunge depth (PD) in deciding the tensile strength of friction stir processed aluminum alloy. In addition, mathematical models were developed to establish relationship between different process variables and tensile strength.