Preparation of bimetallic nano-composite by dissimilar friction stir welding of copper to aluminum alloy

Butt friction stir welding between pure copper and AA5754 alloy was carried out.Reinforcing SiC nanoparticles were utilized in friction stir welded(FSW)joints to decline the harmful effects of intermetallic compounds.Tensile tests,micro-hardness experiments,scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis were applied to studying the properties of welded joints.The joints with a travel speed of 50 mm/min and a rotation speed of 1000 r/min showed the best results.The presence of nano-sized SiC particles reduced the grain size of aluminum and copper in the stir zone(SZ)from 38.3 and 12.4μm to 12.9 and 5.1μm,respectively.The tensile strength of the joint in the presence of reinforcing SiC nano-particles was~240 MPa,which is~90%of that for the aluminum base.Furthermore,the highest microhardness of the weld zone was significantly increased from HV 160 to HV 320 upon the addition of SiC nano-particles.The results also showed that raising the heat generation in FSW joints increased the amount of Al_(4)Cu_(9) and Al_(2)Cu intermetallic compounds.

Effect of second-phase particle size and presence of vibration on AZ91/SiC surface composite layer produced by FSP

An improved method of friction stir processing(FSP)was introduced for the processing of AZ91 magnesium alloy specimens.This novel process was called“friction stir vibration processing(FSVP)”.FSP and FSVP were utilized to develop surface composites on the studied alloy while SiC nanoparticles were applied as second-phase particles.The effect of reinforcing SiC particles with different sizes(30 and 300 nm)on different characteristics of the composite surface was studied.The results indicated that the microstructure was refined and mechanical properties such as hardness,ductility,and strength were enhanced as FSVP was applied.Furthermore,it was concluded that the effect of reinforcing particles with a size of 30 nm on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the surface composite was more obvious than that of particles with a size of 300 nm.It was also found that mechanical properties and microstructure of FSV-processed specimens were improved as vibration frequency increased.The hardness value in the stir zone was about 157 MPa for the FSV-processed specimen at a vibration frequency of 50 Hz,while this value was around 116 MPa for the FSV-processed specimen at a vibration frequency of 25 Hz.

Effect of pin penetration depth on double-sided friction stir welded joints of AA6061-T913 alloy

Friction stir welding (FSW) of aluminum alloys is currently utilized in several modern industries. The joints must have sufficient elastic?plastic response and formability levels similar to that of the base metal. In this work, double-sided FSW of AA6061 sheet was compared with its conventional single-sided one. An adjustable tool with different pin lengths (50%?95% of the sheet thickness) was used to perform the double-sided welds. Macro- and micro-structures, strength, and hardness of the joints were investigated to determine the optimum pin penetration depth. The best results were obtained for a double-sided joint made by a pin length equal to 65% of the sheet thickness, which showed an increase of 41% in the ultimate tensile strength compared with the single-sided joint.

Mechanical and metallurgical characterization of AA6061 friction stir welded joints using microhardness map

The relationships between microhardness and microstructure, macrostructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded joints AA6061-T913 were studied. Three equations were suggested to predict the grain size, ultimate tensile strength and yield strength from the hardness throughout the weld. Two-dimensional contour of grain size and three-dimensional maps of ultimate tensile and yield strengths were plotted according to the proposed equations. Also, the location of macroscopic zones was estimated based on hardness distribution. The modeling results were compared with the results obtained from microscopy and tensile tests. The modeling results show good agreement with the experimental findings, and the average differences between them for the ultimate tensile strength and yield strength were about 8% and 3%, respectively.

Dissimilar Joining of Pure Copper to Aluminum Alloy via Friction Stir Welding

In this study, the dissimilar friction stir welding （FSW） butt joints between aluminum alloy 5754-H114 and commerciallypure copper were investigated. The thickness of welded plates was 4 mm and the aluminum plate was placed on theadvancing side. In order to obtain a suitable flow and a better material mixing, a 1-mm offset was considered for thealuminum plate, toward the butt centerline. For investigating the microstructure and mechanical properties of FSWedjoints, optical microscopy and mechanical tests （i.e., uniaxial tensile test and microhardness） were used, respectively.Furthermore, the analysis of intermetallic compounds and fracture surface was examined by scanning electron microscopyand X-ray diffraction. The effect of heat generation on the mechanical properties and microstructure of the FSWed jointswas investigated. The results showed that there is an optimum amount of heat input. The intermetallic compounds formedin FSWed joints were A14Cu9 and AI2Cu. The best results were found in joints with 1000 rpm rotational speed and100 mm/min travel speed. The tensile strength was found as 219 MPa, which reached 84% of the aluminum base strength.Moreover, maximum value of the microhardness of the stir zone （SZ） was attained as about 120 HV, which was greatlydepended on the grain size, intermetallic compounds and copper pieces in SZ.