Friction stir welding (FSW) is a recently developed solid-state joining process that uses a specially shaped rotating tool to produce lap or butt joints. At the National Research Council, an inter-institute collaboration was started in 2007 with the goal of exploiting the NDE expertise and applying it for the characterization of friction stir welds for various industrial applications. In partic...

Strength reduction in structures like an aircraft could be resulted as cyclic loads over a period of time and is an important factor for structural life prediction. Service loads are emphasized at the regions of stress concentration, mostly at the connection of components. The initial flaw prompting the service life was expected by using the Equivalent Initial Flaw Size (EIFS) which has been re...

A mode-dependent embedded-process-zone (EPZ) model has been developed and used to simulate the mixed-mode fracture of plastically deforming adhesive joints. Mode-I and mode-II fracture parameters obtained from previous work have been combined with a mixed-mode failure criterion to provide quantitative predictions of the deformation and fracture of mixed-mode geometries. These numerical calculat...