Road map to sustainability of friction stir welded Al-Si-Mg joints using bivariate weibull analysis

Welding is a crucial joining technique that is generally embraced in the fabrication industry. The integrity of weld joints is of great importance because of its safety and economic importance. In this paper, the concept of reliability as it applies to FSW was introduced to reduce repair and maintenance cost. The Friction stir welding (FSW) of Al-Si-Mg alloy was examined. The response of welding parameters on joints integrity was assessed through Weibull analysis of weld strengths. The analysis revealed that the Weibull modulus increases with FSW parameters and 120mm/min welding speed gave the highest value while the 90mm/min speed gave the least. Meanwhile, the reliability of welds was observed to reduce by approximately 30% as the traverse speed increases by 25%. This was due to the presence of defects and recrystallization of the grain morphology. The higher the weld joint reliability the better the sustainability.