Corrosion evaluation of friction stir welded lap joints of AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy

Corrosion behavior of friction stir lap welded AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy was investigated by immersion tests in sodium chloride + hydrogen peroxide solution. Electrochemical measurement by cyclic potentiodynamic polarization, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed to characterize corrosion morphology and to realize corrosion mechanism of weld regions as opposed to the parent alloy. The microstructure and shear strength of welded joint were fully investigated. The results indicate that, compared with the parent alloy, the weld regions are susceptible to intergranular and pitting attacks in the test solution during immersion time. The obtained results of lap shear testing disclose that tensile shear strength of the welds is 128 MPa which is more than 60% of the strength of parent alloy in lap shear testing. Electrochemical results show that the protection potentials of the WNZ and HAZ regions are more negative than the pitting potential. This means that the WNZ and HAZ regions do not show more tendencies to pitting corrosion. Corrosion resistance of parent alloy is higher than that for the weldments, and the lowest corrosion resistance is related to the heat affected zone. The pitting attacks originate from the edge of intermetallic particles as the cathode compared with the Al matrix due to their high self-corrosion potential. It is supposed that by increasing intermetallic particle distributed throughout the matrix of weld regions, the galvanic corrosion couples are increased, and hence decrease the corrosion resistance of weld regions.

Influence of welding speed on corrosion behaviour of friction stir welded AA5086 aluminium alloy

The plates of AA5086 aluminium alloy were joined together by friction stir welding at a fixed rotation speed of 1000 r/min various welding speeds ranging from 63 to 100 mm/min.Corrosion behavior of the parent alloy(PA),the heat affected zone(HAZ),and the weld nugget zone(WNZ)of the joints were studied in 3.5%(mass fraction)aerated aqueous Na Cl solution by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS).The corrosion susceptibility of the weldments increases when the welding speed increases to 63 and 100 mm/min.However,the value of corrosion rate in the weldments is lower than that in the PA.Additionally,the corrosion current density increases with increasing the welding speed in the HAZ and the WNZ.On the contrary,the corrosion potential in the WNZ appears more positive than in the HAZ with decreasing the welding speed.The WNZ exhibits higher resistance compared to the HAZ and the PA as the welding speed decreases.The results obtained from the EIS measurements suggest that the weld regions have higher corrosion resistance than the parent alloy.With increasing the welding speed,the distribution and extent of the corroded areas in the WNZ region are lower than those of the HAZ region.In the HAZ region,in addition to the pits in the corroded area,some cracks can be seen around the corroded areas,which confirms that intergranular corrosion is formed in this area.The alkaline localized corrosion and the pitting corrosion are the main corrosion mechanisms in the corroded areas within the weld regions.Crystallographic pits are observed within the weld regions.

Influence of rotational speed on mechanical properties of friction stir lap welded 6061-T6 Al alloy

The effect of rotational speed on macro and microstructures, hardness, lap shear performance and failure mode of friction stir lap welding on AA6061-T6 Al alloy with 5 mm in thickness was studied by field-emission scanning electron microscopy （FE-SEM）. The results represent much closer hardness distribution in the upper and lower plates at the lowest rotational speed. It indicates the Fe-compounds in the fracture surface of the nugget zone by EDX.

Corrosion behavior of dissimilar copper/brass joints welded by friction stir lap welding in alkaline solution

This study was done to evaluate the nugget zone(NZ)corrosion behavior of dissimilar copper/brass joints welded by friction stir lap welding(FSLW)in a solution of 0.015 mol/L borax(pH 9.3).To this end,dissimilar copper/brass plates were welded with two dissimilar heat inputs(low and high)during the welding procedure.The high and low heat inputs were conducted with 710 r/min,16 mm/min and 450 r/min,25 mm/min,respectively.Using open circuit potential(OCP)measurements,electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS)and Tafel polarization tests,the electrochemical behavior of the specimens in borate buffer solution was assessed.With the help of scanning electron microscope(SEM),the morphology of welded specimen surfaces was examined after immersion in the test solution.According to the results,the NZ grain size and resistance improvement reduced due to the nugget zone corrosion with a decreased heat input.The results obtained from Tafel polarization and EIS indicated the improved corrosion behavior of the welded specimen NZ with a decrease in the heat input during the welding process unlike the copper and brass metals.Furthermore,an increased heat input during the welding process shows a reduction in the conditions for forming the passive films with higher protection behavior.