This paper presents a 3D numerical model to study the material flow in the friction stir welding process. Results indicate that the material in front of the pin moves upwards due to the extrusion of the pin, and then the upward material rotates with the pin. Behind the rotating tool, the material starts to move downwards and to deposit in the wake. This process is the real cause to make friction stir welding process continuing successfully. The tangent movement of the material takes the main contribution to the flow of the material in friction stir welding process. There exists a swirl on the advancing side and with the increase of the translational velocity the inverse flow of the material on the advancing side becomes faster. The shoulder can increase the velocity of material flow in both radial direction and tangent direction near the top surface. The variations of process parameters do have an effect on the velocity field near the pin, especially in the region in which the material flow is faster.
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