Experimental simulation of recrystallized microstructure in friction stir welded Al alloy using a plane-strain compression test

The effective strain rate during friction stir welding (FSW) of Al alloy 1050 was estimated experimentally by simulating the recrystallized grains of the stir zone through a combination of the plane-strain compression at various strain rates and the subsequent cooling tracing the cooling cycle of FSW. With the plane-strain compression test, it was possible to simulate the recrystallized grain structure of the friction stir welds, and the effective strain rate was estimated to be about 2–3 s⁻¹.     

Superplastic deformation behaviour of friction stir processed 7075Al alloy

Commercial 7075Al rolled plates were subjected to friction stir processing (FSP) with different processing parameters, resulting in two fine-grained 7075Al alloys with a grain size of 3.8 and 7.5 μm. Heat treatment at 490 °C for 1 h showed that the fine grain microstructures were stable at high temperatures. Superplastic investigations in the temperature range of 420–530 °C and strain rate range of 1×10⁻³–1×10⁻¹ s⁻¹ demonstrated that a decrease in grain size resulted in significantly enhanced superplasticity and a shift to higher optimum strain rate and lower optimum deformation temperature. For the 3.8 μm 7075Al alloy, superplastic elongations of >1250% were obtained at 480 °C in the strain rate range of 3×10⁻³–3×10⁻² s⁻¹, whereas the 7.5 μm 7075Al alloy exhibited a maximum ductility of 1042% at 500 °C and 3×10⁻³ s⁻¹. The analyses of the superplastic data for the two alloys revealed a stress exponent of 2, an inverse grain size dependence of 2, and an activation energy close to that for grain boundary self-diffusion. This indicates that grain boundary sliding is the main deformation mechanism for the FSP 7075Al. This was verified by SEM examinations on the surfaces of deformed specimens.     

Superplastic deformation of SiCp/2024 Al composite fabricated by spray atomization and codeposition

In this paper, data are presented on the microstructure and superplastic deformation mechanics of an aluminum alloy, 2024, containing 10 vol% SiC particles. The material was fabricated by spray atomization and codeposition. The properties were studied after pretreatment by isothermal hot compression and isothermal hot forward extrusion (extrusion ratio 10.0). The experimental results show that the strain-rate sensitivity index (m-value) is 0.48 and the limit elongation (the elongation at fracture) is 345 % during superplastic uniaxial tension. The optimum conditions for superplastic behavior are 753 K of deformation temperature and 1.0 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ of initial strain rate. Superplasticity may result from the fine grain size and the well-distributed SiC particles during superplastic uniaxial tension. Moreover, the simple and convenient pretreatment used in this paper is easily applied to industrial practice.     

Superplastic deformation behavior of 7075 aluminum alloy

A study has been made to investigate the effect of a prior amount of warm rolling on the superplastic forming behavior of a standard grade 7075 aluminum alloy. The thermomechanical treatment process presented for grain refinement includes furnace cooling from the solution treatment temperature to the overaging temperature, warm rolling from 65–85% deformation, recrystallization, and artificial aging treatment. Increasing the amount of warm rolling beyond 80% deformation does not produce material with higher elongation to failure when the thermomechanical treatment process presented is used. The largest value of elongation to failure was 700%, which was obtained for a specimen having a grain size of 8 μm at a strain rate of 6×10⁻³S⁻¹. The fracture surface exhibits a granular appearance indicative of an intergranular fracture mode. Dislocation activities within grains were observed, indicating the occurrence of dislocation slip during grain boundary sliding.     

Superplastic Behavior of Al-4.5Mg-0.46Mn-0.44Sc Alloy Sheet Produced by a Conventional Rolling Process

This article describes the superplastic behavior of the Al-4.5Mg-0.46Mn-0.44Sc alloy. The investigated alloy was produced by casting and was conventionally processed to form a sheet with a thickness of 1.9 mm and an average grain size of 11 μm. The superplastic properties of the alloy were investigated using a uniaxial tensile testing with a constant cross-head speed and with a constant strain rate in the range 1 × 10⁻⁴ to 5 × 10⁻² s⁻¹ at temperatures from 390 to 550 °C. The investigations included determinations of the true-stress, true-strain characteristics, the maximum elongations to failure, the strain-rate sensitivity index m, and the microstructure of the alloy. The m-values determined with the strain-rate jump test varied from 0.35 to 0.70 in the temperature interval from 390 to 550°C and strain rates up to 2 × 10⁻² s⁻¹. The m-values decreased with increased strain during pulling. The elongations to failure were in accordance with the m-values. They increased with the temperature and were over 1000%, up to 1 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ at 480 °C and up to 1 × 10⁻² s⁻¹ at 550 °C. A maximum elongation of 1969% was achieved at an initial strain rate of 5 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ and 550 °C. The results show that the addition of about 0.4 wt.% of Sc to the standard Al-Mg-Mn alloy, fabricated by a conventional manufacturing route, including hot and cold rolling with subsequent recrystallization annealing, results in good superplastic ductility.     

Effects on the Surface Texture,Superplastic Forming,and Fatigue Performance of Titanium 6AL-4V Friction Stir Welds

The speed and feed effects of the friction stir welding (FSW) process on the surface texture along the top of a butt welded nugget were studied. The tests were conducted using fine grain (0.8-2 μm) titanium alloy 6Al-4V with a nominal thickness of 2.5 mm. It was shown that the pin tool marks along the top surface of the weld can be highly detrimental to both the superplastic forming (SPF) characteristics and the fatigue performance of welded panels. Removing the marks by machining the top surface after FSW was found to eliminate the predominant tearing of the weld during SPF and most of the fatigue life of across the weld was also restored. Through additional development of the FSW process parameters, the butt welded nugget was made to have equivalent SPF characteristics as the parent sheet material. By using a water-cooled pin tool and other cooling techniques, it is believed that the weld zone can be kept below the beta transus temperature during FSW, which enables the formation of a grain structure that is uniquely conducive to superplastic behavior, when compared to conventional fusion welding processes.     

微观组织对镁合金FSW焊缝应变硬化行为的影响

采用传统搅拌摩擦焊和冷源辅助搅拌摩擦焊对3 mm厚的AZ31B镁合金进行焊接. 利用电子背散射衍射、透射电子显微镜和静拉伸试验研究焊缝区的微观组织对力学性能的影响. 结果表明,液态二氧化碳不仅降低焊接峰值温度,还提高焊后冷却速度. 焊缝峰值温度的降低为激活{10-12}孪生行为创造了有利条件. {10-12}孪晶可降低基面织构的强度,也可进一步分割晶粒,起到细化晶粒的作用. 焊后冷却速度的提高使焊接过程中产生的大量位错保留在晶粒内部. 因此冷源辅助搅拌摩擦焊缝表现为具有大量{10-12}孪晶和位错的细晶结构. 在拉伸过程中,细晶强化和位错强化为主要强化机制. 孪晶界面可有效吸收和分解变形时产生的位错,从而协调应变和减小应力集中,使焊缝具有合理的应变硬化行为和强塑性匹配.     

Superplastic characteristics of fine-grained 7475 aluminum alloy

A 7475-aluminum alloy was subjected to a thermomechanical heat treatment that resulted in a final recrystallized grain size on the order of 10 μm. Tensile specimens of dimensions 10 × 4 × 2.3 mm were machined such that the tensile axis was parallel to the rolling direction. Tensile tests were carried out at high temperatures in the range of 773 to 803 K at different cross-head speeds corresponding to initial strain rates in the range of 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻² s⁻¹. Elongations of several hundred percent were observed at strain rates of <10⁻³ s⁻¹. The correlation between flow stress and strain rate suggests that the strain rate sensitivity m is close to 0.5 at the lower strain rates. The value of m decreases to ≈0.2 at high strain rates. The decrease in m suggests a transition in the rate-controlling process from superplastic deformation (m ≈ 0.5) to dislocation creep (m ≈ 0.2) with increasing strain rate. The calculated activation energies in the two deformation regions are consistent with the suggested rate-controlling processes.     

Deformation Mechanisms of Ti-6Al-4V During Tensile Behavior at Low Strain Rate

A superplastic Ti-6Al-4V grade has been deformed at a strain rate of 5 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ and at temperatures up to 1050 °C. Structural mechanisms like grain boundary sliding, dynamic recrystallization, and dynamic grain growth, occurring during deformation, have been investigated and mechanical properties such as flow stress, strain hardening, and strain at rupture have been determined. Dynamic recrystallization (DRX) brings on a decrease in the grain size. This could be of great interest because a smaller grain size allows a decrease in temperature for superplastic forming. For DRX, the driving force present in the deformed microstructure must be high enough. This means the temperature must be sufficiently low to ensure storing of enough dislocation energy but must also be high enough to provide the activation energy needed for DRX and to allow superplastic deformation. The best compromise for the temperature was found to be situated at about 800 °C; this is quite a bit lower than the 925 °C referenced in the literature as the optimum for the superplastic deformation. At this medium temperature the engineering strain that could be reached exceeds 400%, a value high enough to ensure the industrial production of complex parts by the way of the superplastic forming. Microstructural, EBSD, and mechanical investigations were used to describe the observed mechanisms, some of which are concurrent. This article was presented at the AeroMat Conference, International Symposium on Superplasticity and Superplastic Forming (SPF) held in Seattle, WA, June 6-9, 2005.     

Stress corrosion cracking of AZ61 magnesium alloy friction stir weldments in ASTM D1384 solution

Abstract

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behaviour of a wrought magnesium alloy (AZ61) friction stir weldment was assessed in ASTM D1384 test solution at two strain rates. The analyses have shown that both the parent and the weldment are susceptible to SCC at a nominal strain rate of 10^–6 s^–1. Fractographic evidence clearly reveals the susceptibility, especially of the fine grained region of the friction stir weld nugget to SCC. The susceptibility to cracking has been observed to increase with decreasing strain rate and under this condition (10^–7 s^–1), the behaviour of the parent and the friction stir weldment were nearly the same.     

Study on high strain rate superplasticity of A 6061Al alloy composite reinforced with 30 Vol.% AlN particulate

An investigation on the superplastic behavior of 30 vol.% AlNp/6061Al composite prepared by powder metallurgy (PM) techniques was carried out. Superplastic tensile tests of the composite were performed at strain rates ranging from 10° to 10⁻³ s⁻¹ and at temperatures from 823 to 893 K. A fine-grained structure prior to superplastic testing was obtained by hot rolling after extrusion. The highest total elongation to failure of 438% was achieved at a temperature of 863 K and at an initial strain rate of 1.67×10⁻¹ s⁻¹ and the highest value of the strain rate sensitivity index (m) was 0.42 for the composite. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) was used to investigate the possibility of any partial melting in the vicinity of optimum superplastic temperatures. The formation of a liquid phase is attributed to the melting of the Al-Si eutectic phase at the surface of the AlN particulates at elevated temperatures, as determined by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). The influence of the microstructure and the fracture behavior on the superplastic behavior of the composite was studied by transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A large number of matrix filaments were present at the fracture surfaces of the specimens when superplastic deformation of the composite was performed under the optimum superplastic test conditions. The presence of dislocations and fine recrystallized grains in the test specimens suggested that they play an important role in the high-strain-rate superplasticity for this composite.     

5A90铝锂合金电子束焊接头超塑性变形组织演变

对5A90铝锂合金电子束焊接头进行高温拉伸试验,使用光学显微镜观察试样变形过程中的组织演变,并对变形机理进行分析.结果表明,超塑性变形初期,接头超塑性变形机制以扩散导致的晶界迁移为主,焊缝细小等轴晶粒迅速长大.当应变大于100%时,接头中大晶粒开始发生动态再结晶,超塑性变形机制转变为动态再结晶机制.在超塑性变形过程中热影响区平均晶粒尺寸与焊缝平均晶粒尺寸逐渐接近,组织存在耦合均匀化过程.提出采用均匀化系数K来表征焊缝与热影响区的组织均匀化程度,随着变形的进行,K值逐渐升高.     

搅拌摩擦焊待焊界面消失模型

提出了一种搅拌摩擦焊接过程中待焊界面消失并形成焊缝的二维模型,阐述了搅拌摩擦焊接过程中待焊界面在焊接热、焊接作用力及搅拌作用下形成焊缝的过程,并把焊缝划分成晶粒长大区、界面氧化区、待焊界面消失区、塑性金属流动区、S线等区域,同时描述了待焊界面冶金熔合后在搅拌摩擦焊缝内部的分布形态.该模型对晶粒长大区、待焊界面消失区、S线3个特定区域进行了试验验证和说明.结果表明,待焊界面在搅拌针后退侧的前方区域已经达到冶金熔合状态,并在搅拌针的搅拌作用下扭曲并进入焊缝形成S线特征.     

Impact deformation behavior of duplex and superaustenitic stainless steels welds by split Hopkinson pressure bar

A considerable volume of γ phase increases in the fusion zone (weld metal) for two duplex stainless steels after a high-strain-rate impact. The strain-induced γ phase formation in the fusion zone results in local hardness variation depending on the strain rate. The α phase content in the fusion zone decreases as the impact strain rate increases for SAF 2205 DSS and SAF 2507 DSS. The results of the two-phase content measured by Ferritoscope correspond to that assessed by image analyses. In contrast, superaustenite stainless steel is unaffected by such an impact owing to its fully stable austenization. Impacted welds at a high strain rate of 5 × 10³ s⁻¹ reveal feather-like surface creases along the solidified curved columnar grain boundaries. The apparent surface creases are formed due to the presence of diffuse Lüders bands, which are caused by heavy plastic deformation in coarse-grain materials.     

Superplasticity in cast A356 induced via friction stir processing

Superplasticity was investigated in friction stir processed A356 alloy at temperatures of 470–570 °C and initial strain rates of 3 × 10⁻⁴–1 × 10⁻¹ s⁻¹. Maximum superplastic elongation of 650% was obtained at 530 °C and an initial strain rate of 1 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ where a maximum strain rate sensitivity of 0.45 was observed.     

Influences of welding parameters on mechanical properties of AZ31 friction stir spot welds

Abstract

In this study, the influence of welding parameters, including tool rotational speed, plunge rate and dwell time, on the overlap tensile shear properties of AZ31 friction stir spot welds was investigated. The microstructures in stir zones and fracture surfaces were observed using optical microscope and scanning electron microscope respectively. The bonded width and h value (the distance from the tip of the partially bonded region to the top of the weld surface) were measured. The results indicated that larger bonded width and higher h value of the AZ31 weld result in better mechanical property. It is proposed that high tensile shear loads are produced when the tool rotational speed range of 1500–2250 rev min^?1 and 1 s dwell time are applied during the friction stir spot welding of AZ31. The plunge rate range from 2·5 to 10 mm s^?1 has insignificant influence on the tensile shear load of AZ31 joints under the present conditions. The failure mode changes from interfacial to pullout when the tool rotational speed is >2250 rev min^?1. The fracture feature of AZ31 welds is brittle fracture.     

Phenomena and mechanism on superplasticity of duplex stainless steels

The superplasticity of Fe-24Cr-7Ni-3Mo-0.14N duplex stainless steel after being solution treated at 1350°C followed by 90% cold rolling was investigated at 850°C with a strain rate ranging from 10^-3-10^-1s^-1. The microstructure of duplex stainless steel consists of a matrix γ phase having low angle grain boundaries and a σ phase as second phase particles before the deformation at 850°C. It is well known that the constituent phases in duplex stainless steel is changed following α→α+γ→α+γ+σ→γ+σ through phase transformation during deformation at 850°C. The final microstructure of duplex stainless steel consisted of 70 vol.% of γ and 30 vol.% of the σ phase. A maximum elongation of 750% was obtained at 850°C with a strain rate of 3.16xl0^-3s^-1. The dislocation density within matrix γ grains was low and a significant strain-induced grain growth was observed during the deformation. The misorientation angles between the neighboring γ grains increased as the strain increased, thus the low angle grain boundaries were transformed into high angle grain boundaries suitable for sliding by dynamic recrystallization during the deformation at 850°C. The grain boundary sliding assisted by dynamic recrystallization is considered to be a controlling mechanism for superplastic deformation at 850°C.     

Friction stir welding of DH36 steel

Abstract

Hot rolled DH36 carbon steel, 6.4 mm in thickness, was friction stir welded at speeds of 3.4 mm s^-1 (8 in min^-1), 5.1 mm s^-1 (12 in min^-1), and 7.6 mm s^-1 (18 in min^-1). Single pass welds free of volumetric defects were produced at each speed. The relationships between welding parameters and weld properties are discussed. Optical microscopy, microhardness testing, and transverse and longitudinal tensile tests have been performed. Bainite and martensite are found in the nugget region of the friction stir welds whereas the base material is comprised of ferrite and pearlite. The maximum hardness is observed in the weld nugget, and the hardness decreases gradually from the weld nugget, through the heat affected zone, to the base metal. Tensile testing also indicates overmatching of the weld metal relative to the base metal. Maximum hardness and longitudinal (all weld metal) tensile strengths increase with increasing welding speeds. Weld transverse tensile strengths are governed by the base metal properties, as all transverse tensile bars fail in the base metal.     

Beta phase superplasticity in titanium alloys by boron modification

Addition of boron to titanium alloys produces fine TiB whiskers in situ with excellent thermal stability and good chemical compatibility with the matrix. These whiskers stabilize a fine-grain microstructure by restricting grain growth at high temperatures in the β phase field. The hot deformation behavior in the β phase field (temperature range 1050–1200 °C) of Ti-6Al-4V alloys modified with two different levels of B additions (1.6 and 2.9 wt.%) produced by powder metallurgy was investigated using hot compression tests in the strain rate range of 10⁻³ to 10⁻¹ s⁻¹ and hot tensile tests at a nominal strain rate of 6×10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. The β phase exhibits superplasticity, which occurs due to stabilization of a fine-grain microstructure by the TiB. Matrix grain boundary sliding and β/TiB interface sliding appear to contribute to the β superplasticity. The ability to achieve superplasticity at higher temperatures enable lower flow stresses, improved chemical homogeneity, and high strain rate capability due to enhanced accommodation processes. This paper was presented at the International Symposium on Superplasticity and Superplastic Forming, sponsored by the Manufacturing Critical Sector at the ASM International AeroMat 2004 Conference and Exposition, June 8–9, 2004, in Seattle, WA. The symposium was organized by Daniel G. Sanders, The Boeing Company.     

Superplasticity in fine-grained AZ61 magnesium alloy

The effect of grain refinement on the superplasticity of ingot-processed magnesium alloy was investigated. From the AZ61 material with a linear intercept grain size of 5 μrn, which was obtained by the multi-rolling process at an elevated temperature, tensile elongation over 400% could be achieved at 10^-3s^-1 at 400°C with a maximum value of 560% at 2x10^-4s^-1 at the same temperature. It was found that grain boundary diffusion controlled grain boundary sliding and pipe diffusion controlled slip creep govern the plastic flow at low and high strain rate ranges, respectively. A deformation map for pure magnesium was constructed to examine the effect of grain size and flow stress on deformation behavior at elevated temperature. The superplastic formability of Mg alloys was demonstrated by forming an AZ61 sheet into a hemi-sphere.