Abstract An analytical model is used to study steady state continuous drive friction welding (CDFW). A set of closed-form solutions is derived for the correlations between the process parameters and the thermo-mechanical responses of the plastic region in the welded joint. The analytical model is systematically examined by comparing the analytical solutions of the plastic region thickness, welding power, and average temperature with their corresponding experimental results obtained from the CDFW of aluminum tubes. The generality of the model is also tested by comparing the predicted and measured plastic flow average temperatures for the CDFW steady states of ten kinds of alloy. The consistencies of the comparisons indicate that the analytical model can provide complete and reliable descriptions for the thermo-mechanical behavior during steady state CDFW.