Microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded Al/Mg2Si metal matrix cast composite

In this research, friction stir weldability of 15 wt.% Mg₂Si particulate aluminum matrix cast composite and effects of tool rotation speed and number of welding passes on microstructure and mechanical properties of the joints were investigated. Microstructural observations were carried out by employing optical and scanning electron microscopy of the cross sections perpendicular to the tool traverse direction. Mechanical properties including microhardness and tensile strength were evaluated in detail. The results showed fragmentation of Mg₂Si particles and Mg₂Si needles existing in eutectic structure in stir zone. Also, homogeneous distribution of Mg₂Si particles was observed in the stir zone as a result of stirring with high plastic strains. Tension test results indicated that tensile strength of the joint had an optimum at 1120 rpm tool rotation speed and decreased with increasing of the number of welding passes. Hardness of the joint increased due to modification of solidification microstructure of the base composite. This research indicates that friction stir welding is a good candidate for joining of 15 wt.% Mg₂Si aluminum matrix composite castings.     

Process parameters/material location affecting hooking in friction stir lap welding: Dissimilar aluminum alloys

Influence of spindle and weld speeds, metal location, direction of spindle rotation, and tool pin length on hooking in lap FSW of dissimilar aluminum alloys and the effect of hook on tensile and fatigue weld strength was studied. Optical images of the cross-section of the specimen welded at different process parameters were analyzed. The results indicate that increased spindle speed, reduced weld speed, higher tool pin length, clockwise spindle rotation, and locating the stronger material at the bottom of the joint increased the size of the hooking defect. Higher weld speeds and very high spindle speeds resulted in lower hook size on the advancing side (AS) compared to the retreating side (RS) of the joint. Welding with low weld speed would result in higher advancing side hook size compared to the retreating side. Friction stir weld joints fabricated with anti-clockwise spindle rotation has been found to have extremely low hook both on the AS and the RS of the joint. The tensile and fatigue strengths of the weld joints and plates are degraded by the hook. The fatigue strength of welded alloys could be improved by a double pass weld, the second pass welded immediately adjacent to the first pass.     

Effect of welding parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded joints of AA7039 aluminum alloy

A high strength Al–Zn–Mg alloy AA7039 was friction stir welded by varying welding and rotary speed of the tool in order to investigate the effect of varying welding parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties. The friction stir welding (FSW) process parameters have great influence on heat input per unit length of weld, hence on temperature profile which in turn governs the microstructure and mechanical properties of welded joints. There exits an optimum combination of welding and rotary speed to produce a sound and defect free joint with microstructure that yields maximum mechanical properties. The mechanical properties increase with decreasing welding speed/ increasing rotary speed i.e. with increasing heat input per unit length of welded joint. The high heat input joints fractured from heat affected zone (HAZ) adjacent to thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) on advancing side while low heat input joints fractured from weld nugget along zigzag line on advancing side.     

Effect of welding parameters on microstructure in the stir zone of FSW joints of aluminum die casting alloy

The effect of the welding speed and the rotation speed on the microstructure in the stir zone has been investigated by measuring the Si particle distribution in the ADC12 alloy. The stir zone has fine recrystallized grains without dendritic structures, and the eutectic Si was uniformly dispersed in the stir zone. The size of the Si particles was statistically determined in the stir zone using image processing. The number of finer Si particles, which is formed by stirring of the tool probe, increases during the FSW. Finer Si particles are distributed more in the bottom than in the other regions, though the size of the Si particles in the base metal is the same in all the regions. The size of the Si particles decreases with increasing welding speed. However, it is not significantly affected by the rotation speed.     

压铸态AZ91D镁合金搅拌摩擦焊接头微观组织研究

采用搅拌摩擦焊工艺对4mm厚的压铸态AZ91D镁合金进行对接工艺实验,搅拌头旋转速率1500r/min,焊接速率120mm/min;使用光学显微镜和扫描电镜对焊接接头微观组织进行了研究。结果表明:焊缝外观成形美观,但内部存在贯穿型隧道状孔洞缺陷;焊核区为典型的变形-再结晶组织,为细小、均匀的等轴晶;机械-热影响区为变形-部分再结晶组织,热影响区组织形貌与母材相近但伴有轻微的长大现象;焊核区与机械-热影响区的过渡具有以下特征:在前进侧呈现"突变"特征,在后退侧呈现"渐变"特征。     

7075铝合金高速搅拌摩擦焊材料流动行为及性能研究

目的 针对7075–O铝合金高焊速、高转速搅拌摩擦焊接缺陷多、质量差等问题,研究焊接接头材料流动对焊缝性能的影响。方法 选用焊接速度1 000 mm/min,搅拌转速分别为1 000、1 200、1 600、1 700 r/min的条件对7075–O铝合金板进行搅拌摩擦焊接,分析不同焊接工艺参数下焊接接头的显微组织及力学性能。同时,利用Fluent软件模拟7075–O铝合金搅拌摩擦焊接过程中的材料流动场分布,分析焊接材料流动与缺陷形成的关系。结果 利用7075–O铝合金三维流动模型,预测出高焊速条件下焊缝前进侧形成一个低压区,孔洞等缺陷易出现在此区域,数值模拟预测与试验结果吻合。在高焊接速度1 000 mm/min、焊接转速1 200 r/min时,焊缝表面光滑平整,焊核区域的硬度分布更加均匀。结论 随着搅拌转速从1 000 r/min增大到1 700 r/min,热输入量逐渐增大,孔洞缺陷由隧道型孔洞转变为不连续的小孔。同时,随着搅拌转速的增大,焊缝高硬度区域的宽度先增大而后降低。当搅拌转速为1 200 r/min时得到了优质的焊接接头,焊缝焊核区硬度分布均匀,硬度值最高为176HV。     

Challenges in dissimilar friction stir welding of aluminum 5052 and 304 stainless steel alloys

In this study, dissimilar friction stir welding of aluminum 5052 and stainless steel 304 has been carried out with different process parameters. This investigation provides a better insight regarding the defect formation of the weld joints with tilt angles ranging from 0 ° to 2.5 °. The experiments were conducted according to Taguchi L9 orthogonal array by changing the tool rotational speed, and welding speed. The tool pin was kept 70 % towards the aluminum with the tool rotational speed ranging from 800 min⁻¹ to 1200 min⁻¹ with a varying traverse speed of 5 mm/min to 15 mm/min. The bottom part of the stir zone was perfectly welded without any defects. Tunnel defect was detected just above the bottom welded surface. Microstructural analysis reveals that the weld between both materials is formed on the retreating side, whereas on the advancing side, the weld was formed with void defects. Mostly, the stir zone is filled with irregular shaped aluminum and steel parts which were detached from the base material. Several other defects such as voids, cracks, and fragmental defects were observed in the stir zone irrespective of the process parameters. It was observed from the experimental investigations that the tunnel defect can be reduced by increasing the tilt angle.     

Microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded copper

The main objective of this investigation was to apply friction stir welding technique (FSW) for joining of 2 mm thick copper sheet. The defect free weld was obtained at a tool rotational and travel speed of 1,000 rpm and 30 mm/min, respectively. Mechanical and microstructural analysis has been performed to evaluate the characteristics of friction stir welded copper. The microstructure of the weld nugget (WN) consists of fine equiaxed grains. Similarly, the elongated grains in the thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ) and coarse grains in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) were observed. The hardness values in the WN were higher than the base material. Eventually HAZ shows lowest hardness values because of few coarse grains presence. Friction stir welded copper joints passes 85% weld efficiency as compared to the parent metal.     

Effect of Process Parameters on Tensile Strength of Friction Stir Welded Cast LM6 Aluminium Alloy Joints

This paper reports the effect of friction stir welding(FSW)process parameters on tensile strength of cast LM6 aluminium alloy.Joints were made by using dierent combinations of tool rotation speed,welding speed and axial force each at four levels.The quality of weld zone was investigated using macrostructure and microstructure analysis.Tensile strength of the joints were evaluated and correlated with the weld zone hardness and microstructure.The joint fabricated using a rotational speed of 900 r/min,a weldin...     

Effect of rotation speed on microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti–6Al–4V friction stir welded joints

The effect of tool rotation speed on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded joints was investigated for Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy. Joints were produced by employing rotation speeds ranging from 400 to 600 rpm at a constant welding speed of 75 mm/min. It was found that rotation speed had a significant impact on microstructure and mechanical properties of the joints. A bimodal microstructure or a full lamellar microstructure could be developed in the weld zone depending on the rotation speeds used, while the microstructure in the heat affected zone was almost not influenced by rotation speed. The hardness in the weld zone was lower than that in the base material, and decreased with increasing rotation speed. Results of transverse tensile test indicated that all the joints exhibited lower tensile strength than the base material and the tensile strength of the joints decreased with increasing rotation speed.     

Joint properties of friction stir welded AZ31B– H24 magnesium alloy

Abstract

The weldability of friction stir welded hot rolled AZ31B-H24 magnesium alloy sheet, 4 mm in thickness, was evaluated, varying welding parameters such as tool rotation speed and travel welding speed. Sound welding conditions depended mainly on sufficient heat input during the welding process. Insufficient heat input, which was generated in the case of higher travel speed and lower rotation speed, caused an inner void or lack of bonding in the stir zone. The microstructure of the weld zone was composed of five regions: base metal, heat affected zone, thermomechanically affected zone, stir zone I and stir zone II. Unlike the general feature of friction stir welded aluminium alloys, the grain size of the weld zone was larger than that of the base metal. Stir zones I and II were characterised by partial dynamic recrystallisation and full dynamic recrystallisation, respectively. The hardness of the weld zone was lower than that of the base metal owing to grain growth. A wider range of defect free welding conditions was acquired at higher tool rotation speed and lower welding speed. The maximum tensile strengh was 240 MPa, which was ~85% of the base metal value of 293 MPa. The fracture location was close to the stir zone.     

Microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of friction stir welded joints of Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy

The α + β titanium alloy, Ti–6Al–4V, was friction stir welded at a constant tool rotation speed of 400 rpm. Defect-free welds were successfully obtained with welding speeds ranging from 25 to 100 mm/min. The base material was mill annealed with an initial microstructure composed of elongated primary α and transformed β. A bimodal microstructure was developed in the stir zone during friction stir welding, while microstructure in the heat affected zone was almost not changed compared with that in the base material. An increase in welding speed increased the size of primary α in the stir zone. The weld exhibited lower hardness than the base material and the lowest hardness was found in the stir zone. Results of transverse tensile test indicated that all the joints had lower strength and elongation than the base material, and all the joints were fractured in the stir zone.     

Effect of welding parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded 2219Al-T6 joints

The effect of friction stir welding (FSW) parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 5.6 mm thick 2219Al-T6 joints was investigated in detail. While the sound FSW joints could be obtained under lower rotation rates of 400–800 rpm and welding speeds of 100–800 mm/min; higher rotation rates of 1200–1600 rpm easily led to the tunnel and void defects. The FSW thermal cycle resulted in low hardness zones (LHZs) on both retreating side (RS) and advancing side (AS). The LHZs may be located at the interface between the nugget zone (NZ) and the thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ), at the TMAZ, or at the heat affected zone under the varied welding parameters. The tensile strength of FSW 2219Al-T6 joints increased when increasing the welding speed from 100 to 800 mm/min, and was weakly dependent on the rotation rates from 400 to 1200 rpm. The FSW 2219Al-T6 joints fractured along the LHZ on the RS.     

Establishing relationship between the base metal properties and friction stir welding process parameters of cast aluminium alloys

In friction stir welding (FSW), the material under the rotating action of non-consumable tool has to be stirred properly to get defect free welds in turn it will improve the strength of the welded joints. The welding conditions and parameters are differing based on the mechanical properties of base materials such as tensile strength, ductility and hardness which control the plastic deformation during friction stir welding. The FSW process parameters such as tool rotation speed, welding speed and axial force, etc. play a major role in deciding the weld quality. FSW Joints of cast aluminium alloys A319, A356, and A413 were made by varying the FSW process parameters and the optimum values were obtained. In this investigation, empirical relationships are established and they can be effectively used to predict the optimum FSW process parameters to fabricate defect free joints with high tensile strength from the known base metal properties of cast aluminium alloys.     

Optimization of friction stir welding parameters for dissimilar aluminum alloys

Assembly consisting of cast and wrought aluminum alloys has wide spread application in defense and aero space industries. For the efficacious use of the transition joints, the weld should have adequate strength and formability. In the present investigation, A356 and 6061 aluminum alloys were friction stir welded under tool rotational speed of 1000–1400 rpm and traversing speed of 80–240 mm/min, keeping other parameters same. The variable process window is responsible for the change in total heat input and cooling rate during welding. Structural characterization of the bonded assemblies exhibits recovery-recrystallization in the stirring zone and breaking of coarse eutectic network of Al–Si. Dispersion of fine Si rich particles, refinement of 6061 grain size, low residual stress level and high defect density within weld nugget contribute towards the improvement in bond strength. Lower will be the tool rotational and traversing speed, more dominant will be the above phenomena. Therefore, the joint fabricated using lowest tool traversing and rotational speed, exhibits substantial improvement in bond strength (∼98% of that of 6061 alloy), which is also maximum with respect to others.     

Evaluation of the microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded 6005 aluminum alloy

Abstract

The microstructural change related with the hardness profile has been evaluated for friction stir welded, age hardenable 6005 Al alloy. Frictional heat and plastic flow during friction stir welding created fine and equiaxed grains in the stir zone (SZ), and elongated and recovered grains in the thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ). The heat affected zone (HAZ), identified only by the hardness result because there is no difference in grain structure compared to the base metal, was formed beside the weld zone. A softened region was formed near the weld zone during the friction stir welding process. The softened region was characterised by the dissolution and coarsening of the strengthening precipitate during friction stir welding. Sound joints in 6005 Al alloys were successfully formed under a wide range of friction stir welding conditions. The maximum tensile strength, obtained at 507 mm min^-1 welding speed and 1600 rev min^-1 tool rotation speed, was 220 MPa, which was 85% of the strength of the base metal.     

Effect of friction stir welding parameters on microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of 2219-T6 aluminum alloy joints

A 2219-T6 aluminum alloy was friction stir welded in the present study. The results indicate that the recrystallized grains in the weld nugget zone (WNZ) of the joints exhibit the largest size in the middle part and the smallest size in the lower part. Furthermore, the void defect is formed in the joint when the rotation speed or welding speed is quite high. As the rotation speed or welding speed increases, the tensile strength of the joint firstly increases to a maximum value and then sharply decreases due to the occurrence of void defect. During tensile test, the defect-free joints welded at lower rotation speed are fractured in the WNZ, while those welded at relatively high rotation speed tend to be fractured in the heat affected zone (HAZ) adjacent to the thermal mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) on the retreating side.     

The mechanical properties related to the dominant microstructure in the weld zone of dissimilar formed Al alloy joints by friction stir welding

The joint properties of dissimilar formed Al alloys, cast Al alloy and wrought Al alloy, were examined with various welding conditions. Friction stir welding method could be applied to join dissimilar formed Al alloys which had different mechanical properties without weld zone defects under wide range of welding condition.The weld zone of dissimilar formed Al alloy exhibited the complex structure of the two materials and mainly composed of the retreating side material.The mechanical properties also depended on the dominant microstructure of the weld zone with welding conditions. The different mechanical properties of the weld zone with welding conditions were related to the behavior of the precipitates of wrought Al alloy and Si particles of cast Al alloy. The higher mechanical properties of the weld zone were acquired when a relatively harder material, wrought Al alloy, was fixed at the retreating side.     

Process optimization in the self-reacting friction stir welding of aluminum 6061-T6

Self-reacting friction stir welding (SR-FSW), also called bobbin-tool friction stir welding (BT-FSW), is a solid state welding process similar to friction stir welding (FSW) except that the tool has two opposing shoulders instead of the shoulder and a backing plate found in FSW. The tool configuration results in greater heat input and a symmetrical weld macrostructure. A significant amount of information has been published in the literature concerning traditional FSW while little has been published about SR-FSW. An optimization experiment was performed using a factorial design to evaluate the effect of process parameters on the weld temperature, surface and internal quality, and mechanical properties of self-reacting friction stir welded aluminum alloy 6061-T6 butt joints. The parameters evaluated were tool rotational speed, traverse speed, and tool plunge force. A correlation between weld temperature, defect formation (specifically galling and void formation), and mechanical properties was found. Optimum parameters were determined for the welding of 8-mm-thick 6061-T6 plate.     

Effects of tool rotation speed on microstructures and mechanical properties of AA2219-T6 welded by the external non-rotational shoulder assisted friction stir welding

The external non-rotational shoulder assisted friction stir welding (NRSA-FSW) was applied to weld high strength aluminum alloy 2219-T6 successfully, and effects of the tool rotation speed on microstructures and mechanical properties were investigated in detail. Defect-free joints were obtained in a wide range of tool rotation speeds from 600 rpm to 900 rpm, but cavity defects appeared on the advancing side when the tool rotation speed increased to 1000 rpm. The microstructural deformation and heat generation were dominated by the rotating tool pin and sub-size concave shoulder, while the non-rotational shoulder helped to improve the weld formation. Microstructures and Vickers hardness distributions showed that the NRSA-FSW is beneficial to improving the asymmetry and inhomogeneity, especially in the weld nugget zone (WNZ). At the tool rotation speed of 800 rpm, both the tensile strength and the elongation reached the maximum, and the maximum tensile strength was up to 69.0% of the base material. All defect-free joints were fractured at the weakest region with minimum Vickers hardness in the WNZ, while for the joint with cavity defects the fracture occurred at the defect location.