Issue 47

K. Hachellaf et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 47 (2019) 459-467; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.47.36 459 Mechanical behavior analysis of a Friction Stir Welding (FSW) for welded joint applied to polymer materials Hachellaf Kaddour, Meddah Hadj Miloud, Ould chikh El Bahri, Lounis Abdellah University of Mascara, LSTE Laboratory, 29000, Mascara, Algeria. kaddour.hachellaf@univ-mascara.dz , http://orcid.org/0000-0001-2345-6789 hmmeddah@yahoo.fr , http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2345-6790 b.ouldchikh@univ-mascara.dz , http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2345-6791 lounisabdallah@gmail.com , http://orcid.org/0000-0004-2345-6792 A BSTRACT . Welding is a technique of fusion joining the material involving a process of inter-molecular diffusion adhesion. Polymer welding is an assembly method among several known assembly techniques such as gluing. This welding process applies to thermoplastics; they have the rheological or softening characteristics during melting. This process is fast and controlled in order to obtain a solid and durable mechanical connection on the series parts. This study focuses on the weldability of high density polyethylene (HDPE) using the friction stir welding technique. A parametric choice was made to optimize the operating parameters namely the shape of the welding tool, the speed of rotation and the speed of advance of the tool. Monotonic tensile tests were used to compare the mechanical characteristics between a HDPE test specimen and a specimen taken from an FSW weldment. It emerges from this study that the FSW welding introduces a weakening of the joints characterized by a clear decrease of the deformation at break. K EYWORDS . Polymers; Tensile tests; FSW; Vickers hardness test. Citation: Hachellaf, K., Meddah, H. M., Ouldchikh, El. B, Lounis, A., Mechanical behavior analysis of a Friction Stir Welding (FSW) for welded joint applied to polymer materials, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 47 (2018) 459-467. Received: 02.10.2018 Accepted: 14.12.2018 Published: 01.01.2019 Copyright: © 2018 This is an open access article under the terms of the CC-BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. I NTRODUCTION riction stir welding is a recent permanent assembly process considered as a major technology in the industry, this type of welding is applied to thermoplastic materials including polymers, its principle is based on the softening phenomenon following the melting caused by the heating of the material (Fig. 1.a) assembled with a non- consumable special rotating tool (Fig. 1.b). The principle is to provide heat to the metal base by friction of the metal by a pin fixed on a base that rotates in the joint plane of the parts to be assembled. A metal layer in plastic and pasty form is formed under the base and around the pin. This process which performs the assembly at a temperature below the melting temperature of the metal to be bonded deforms less than the fusion processes. In addition, the mechanical characteristics of the welded materials remain close to the initial values of the base F