Temperature based validation of the analytical model for the estimation of the amount of heat generated during friction stir welding

Friction stir welding is a solid-state welding technique that utilizes thermomechanical influence of the rotating welding tool on parent material resulting in a monolith joint - weld. On the contact of welding tool and parent material, significant stirring and deformation of parent material appears, and during this process, mechanical energy is partially transformed into heat. Generated heat affects the temperature of the welding tool and parent material, thus the proposed analytical model for the estimation of the amount of generated heat can be verified by temperature: analytically determined heat is used for numerical estimation of the temperature of parent material and this temperature is compared to the experimentally determined temperature. Numerical solution is estimated using the finite difference method - explicit scheme with adaptive grid, considering influence of temperature on material's conductivity, contact conditions between welding tool and parent material, material flow around welding tool, etc. The analytical model shows that 60-100% of mechanical power given to the welding tool is transformed into heat, while the comparison of results shows the maximal relative difference between the analytical and experimental temperature of about 10%

Radiant absorption characteristics of corrugated curved tubes

The utilization of modern paraboloidal concentrators for conversion of solar radiation into heat energy requires the development and implementation of compact and efficient heat absorbers. Accurate estimation of geometry influence on absorption characteristics of receiver tubes is an important step in this process. This paper deals with absorption characteristics of heat absorber made of spirally coiled tubes with transverse circular corrugations. Detailed 3-D surface-to-surface Hemicube method was applied to compare radiation performances of corrugated and smooth curved tubes. The numerical results were obtained by varying the tube curvature ratio and incident radiant heat flux intensity. The details of absorption efficiency of corrugated tubes and the effect of curvature on absorption properties for both corrugated and smooth tubes were presented. The results may have significance to further analysis of highly efficient heat absorbers exposed to concentrated radiant heating. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 42006