A general strategy for the reliable joining of Al/Ti dissimilar alloys via ultrasonic assisted friction stir welding

Ultrasonic assisted friction stir welding(UaFSW) was used to join 6061-T6 aluminum and Ti6Al4 V alloys.A small plunge depth endowed with the low heat input was used and the sound joints without obvious thickness reduction were achieved. A diffusion-type bonding without the intermetallic compounds layer was observed at the joint interface. The ultrasonic improved the diffusion thickness and decreased the average size of grains and titanium alloy fragments. A hook-like structure was formed at the bottom interface of the UaFSW joint, which improved the bonding length and the mechanical interlocking. The microhardness of the stir zone was increased because of the further grain refinement induced by ultrasonic. The maximum tensile strength of the UaFSW joint was 236 MPa, which reached 85% of the base6061-T6 alloy.

Improving friction stir weldability of Al/Mg alloys via ultrasonically diminishing pin adhesion

Formation of intermetallic compounds （IMCs） during friction stir welding （FSW） of alu- minum/magnesium （AI/Mg） alloys easily results in the pin adhesion and then deteriorates joint formation. The severe pin adhesion transformed the tapered-and-screwed pin into a tapered pin at a low welding speed of 30 mm/min. The pin adhesion problem was solved with the help of ultrasonic. The weldability of Al/Mg alloys was significantly improved due to the good material flow induced by mechanical vibration and the fragments of the IMCs on the surface of a rotating pin caused by acoustic streaming, respectively. A sound joint with ultrasonic contained long Al/Mg interface joining length and complex mixture of AI/Mg alloys in the stir zone, thereby achieving perfect metallurgical bonding and mechanical interlocking. The ultrasonic could broaden process window and then improve tensile properties. The tensile strength of the Al/Mg joint with ultrasonic reached 115 MPa.

Numerical simulation of effect of rotational tool with screw on material flow behavior of friction stir welding of Ti6Al4V alloy

The rotational tool is put forward, which is composed of the one-spiral-flute shoul- der and the rotational pin with screw. Using the turbulent model of the FLUENT software, material plastic flow behavior during the process of friction stir welding of Ti6A14V alloy is researched by the numerical simulation method and then the effect of rotational tool geometry on material flow during the welding process is attained. The results show that the flow direction of the material near the rotational tool is mainly the same as the rotational direction of the tool while the material near tool flows more violently than the other regions. For the tapered rotational pin, the flow velocity of material inside the workpiece decreases with the increase of the distance away from the workpiece surface because of the change of pin diameter. For the rotational tool, the flute added to the shoulder and the screw added to the pin can greatly increase the flow velocity of material during the welding process while the peak value of the flow velocity of material appears on the flute or the screw. Moreover, the rotational tool with the one-spiral-flute shoulder is better than the tool with the concentric- circles-flute shoulder. Decreasing the width of pin screw and increasing the diameter of pin tip are both good for the increase of flow velocity.