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Abstract
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Recently, some efforts have been made to study and develop the polymeric friction stir spot welded (FSSW)
joints. The application of this type of welding process in the single strap joints of low density polyethylene
(LDPE) plates is the main subject of this paper in which, the failure loads of different polyethylene FSSW single
strap joints fabricated with different welding parameters are studied experimentally and numerically. To do so, a
full factorial design of experiments is used, and the effects of welding parameters such as tool rotational speed,
plunge rate, dwell time and tilt angle are investigated. A large deformation assumption is used to develop a finite
element model of the FSSW single strap joint. It is observed that a good consistency exists between experimental
and numerical results with errors of less than 8%. Also, it has been shown that the tool plunge rate and tilt angle
have remarkable effects on the strength of the FSSW single strap joint. By selecting an appropriate combination
of welding parameters, joint strength is improved by a factor of 11 with respect to the case study with the
weakest strength.
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