WE Colloquium: Anthony Reynolds, Friction Stir Processing: Unlearned Lessons and Possibilities for the Future

Herty Bicentennial Chair in Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Un of South Carolina

Abstract

Friction stir processing and related technologies have now been in existence for more than twenty-five years. In this presentation several aspects of these technologies will be discussed. First, what sets FSP type processes apart from most other deformation processing techniques will be described. This will require definition and discussion of fully thermo-mechanically coupled processes compared to weakly or uncoupled processes. Second, the nature of the friction stir processing/welding heat source will be examined in some detail. This is, surprisingly, still a matter of some confusion even in the FSW community. Systematic comparison of stationary and conventional shoulder processes will be used to illuminate details of how heat is, and is not, generated during these processes. Finally, challenges and opportunities in the use of friction, or high shear, based processes such as friction extrusion will be examined. Examples will include marker studies of wire extrusion for elucidation of strain levels during extrusion and the use of friction extruded wire as a feedstock for additive manufacturing processes.

Bio

 

Professor A. P. (Tony) Reynolds is currently the Frank B. Herty Bicentennial Chair in Engineering at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Carolina. He obtained his PhD in Materials Science from the University of Virginia in 1990.  Subsequently, he spent five years at NASA-Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia working in aerospace alloy development and development of specialized mechanical test techniques for fatigue and fracture evaluation.  In 1995 he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Carolina where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2007.  Since 1998, Tony has been performing research primarily in the area of friction-based processes for joining, forming, and microstructural modification: since 2004 he has been the USC site director for the Center for Friction Stir Processing which originated as a NSF-I/UCRC.  During his time at USC Tony has been PI on more than $10M of funded research, and published numerous papers (over 7500 citations, H-index=45).  Sponsors of his research include NASA, ONR, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Airbus, Bombardier, Alcoa, Alcan, Constellium, Kasier Aluminum and many others.  He is on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Fatigue, Science and Technology of Welding and Joining, and Metallurgical and Materials Transactions, A.  Tony has mentored eleven PhD’s and eighteen master’s students to completion of their degrees. He has also supervised fourteen visiting scholars from outside the U.S.

A comprehensive listing of his archival publications can be accessed here:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5LrehasAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao