ANSYS Friction Welding Simulation

I have already defined the geometry for a rotary friction welding set-up that includes a copper interlayer, and now I need the transient, coupled-field solution completed and fully validated.
The goal is to capture temperature rise, heat generation, contact behaviour, axial shortening and the rotary kinematics in a single run so I can compare every output curve directly with our experimental data.

Scope of work
• Build or refine the Workbench model (Coupled-Field Transient) so it accepts both thermal and mechanical material properties for the two shafts and the copper interlayer.
• Apply the boundary condition I use in the rig: shaft-A is kept movable while shaft-B follows the same “stationary” constraint noted in my current set-up (I will clarify the exact rotational profile during hand-off).
• Achieve numerical stability and mesh independence; the solution must converge without artificial damping or unrealistic contact penalties.
• Extract nodal temperature histories, contact pressure evolution, total deformation (UTS) and torque over time for the full weld cycle.
• Supply the finished ANSYS project file together with a brief report that plots the key results against the experimental curves I will provide.

Acceptance criteria
– Residuals drop to default convergence tolerances each sub-step.
– Maximum temperature, peak torque and final upset length fall within ±10 % of test data.

If you have solved similar thermo-mechanical friction welding problems, your insight will be invaluable; please tell me which solver settings or APDL commands you normally lean on for contact stabilisation.