Improvement of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Rapid Cooling Friction Stir-welded A1050 Pure Aluminum

Two-mm thick A1050 pure aluminum plates were successfully joined by conventional and rapid cooling friction stir welding(FSW), respectively. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the welded joints were investigated by electron backscatter diffraction characterization, Vickers hardness measurements, and tensile testing. The results showed that liquid CO_(2) coolant significantly reduced the peak temperature and increased the cooling rate, so the rapidly cooled FSW joint exhibited fine grains with a large number of dislocations. The grain refinement mechanism of the FSW A1050 pure aluminum joint was primarily attributed to the combined effects of continuous dynamic recrystallization, grain subdivision, and geometric dynamic recrystallization. Compared with conventional FSW, the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and fracture elongation of rapidly cooled FSW joint were significantly enhanced, and the welding efficiency was increased from 80% to 93%. The enhanced mechanical properties and improved synergy of strength and ductility were obtained due to the increased dislocation density and remarkable grain refinement. The wear of the tool can produce several WC particles retained in the joint, and the contribution of second phase strengthening to the enhanced strength should not be ignored.

Research on friction stir welding of 5754 aluminum alloy with unequal thickness

A new structure of 1+2 was designed in friction stir welding(FSW)of Al alloy sheet with unequal thickness:a specific sheet with similar composition of base metals(BMs)was placed under the thinner sheet as the supporting sheet so that the BM surfaces could be on a plane.The BMs can also be fully penetrated weld with a stirring pin longer than the thickness of the thin sheet.2 mm and 1.5 mm thick Al alloy sheets were welded by FSW,and parameters were optimized.The highest welding strength reached 96.07%of the thin base metal.Although a slight thinning phenomenon occurred at the edge of the nugget on the retreating side,the specimen still fractured in the heat-af-fected zone.

Review on friction stir welding of dissimilar magnesium and aluminum alloys: Scientometric analysis and strategies for achieving high-quality joints

Magnesium and aluminum alloys continually attract interest as lightweight structural materials for transport applications. However, joining these dissimilar alloys is very challenging. The main obstacle that hinders progress in dissimilar Mg-Al joining is the formation of brittle intermetallic compounds(IMCs). As a solid-state joining technique, FSW is an excellent candidate to attenuate the deleterious IMC effects in dissimilar Al-Mg joining due to the inherent low heat inputs involved in the process. However, the IMCs, namely Al_(3)Mg_(2) and Al_(12)Mg_(17) phases, have also been reported to form during Al-Mg dissimilar FSW;their amount and thickness depend on the heat input involved;thus,the weld parameters used. Since the heat dissipated in the material during the welding process significantly affects the amount of IMCs,the heat input during FSW should be kept as low as possible to control and reduce the amount of IMCs. This review aims to critically discuss and evaluate the studies conducted in the dissimilar Al/Mg FSW through a scientometric analysis and also with a focus on the strategies recently applied to enhance joint quality. The scientometric analysis showed that the main research directions in Mg/Al FSW are the technological weldability of aluminum and magnesium during FSW, structural morphology, and mechanical properties of dissimilar welded joints. Considering the scope of application of the aforementioned joints, the low share of articles dealing with environmental degradation and operational cracking is surprising. This might be attributed to the need for well-developed strategies for obtaining high-quality and sustainable joints for applications. Thus, the second part of this review is conventional, focusing mainly on the new strategies for obtaining high-quality Mg/Al joints. It can be concluded that in addition to the necessity to optimum welding parameters to suppress the excessive heat to limit the amount and thickness of IMC formed and improve the overall joint quality, strategies such as using Zn interlayer, electric current assisted FSW(EAFSW), ultrasonic vibration FSW(UVa FSW), are considered effective in the elimination, reduction, and fragmentation of the brittle IMCs.

Achieving a high-strength dissimilar joint of T91 heat-resistant steel to 316L stainless steel via friction stir welding

The reliable welding of T91 heat-resistant steel to 316L stainless steel is a considerable issue for ensuring the safety in service of ultrasupercritical power generation unit and nuclear fusion reactor,but the high-quality dissimilar joint of these two steels was difficult to be obtained by traditional fusion welding methods.Here we improved the structure-property synergy in a dissimilar joint of T91 steel to 316L steel via friction stir welding.A defect-free joint with a large bonding interface was produced using a small-sized tool under a relatively high welding speed.The bonding interface was involved in a mixing zone with both mechanical mixing and metallurgical bonding.No obvious material softening was detected in the joint except a negligible hardness decline of only HV~10 in the heat-affected zone of the T91 steel side due to the formation of ferrite phase.The welded joint exhibited an excellent ultimate tensile strength as high as that of the 316L parent metal and a greatly enhanced yield strength on account of the dependable bonding and material renovation in the weld zone.This work recommends a promising technique for producing high-strength weldments of dissimilar nuclear steels.

Microstructure and toughness of thick-gauge pipeline steel joint via double-sided friction stir welding combined with preheating

Fusion welding easily causes microstructural coarsening in the heat-affected zone(HAZ) of a thick-gauge pipeline steel joint. This is most significant in the inter-critically coarse-grained HAZ(ICCGHAZ), which considerably deteriorates the toughness of the joint. In the present work, 11-mm thick pipeline steel was joined by preheating and double-sided friction stir welding(FSW). A comparative study on the microstructure and toughness in the ICCGHAZs for FSW and gas metal arc welding(GMAW) was performed. The toughness in the ICCGHAZ for FSW was improved significantly than that in the ICCGHAZ for GMAW. Generally, the nugget zone(NZ) has a coarse microstructure in the FSW steel joint formed at the highest peak temperature. However, in the current study, the microstructure in the one-pass NZ was remarkably refined owing to the static recrystallization of ferrite. An excellent toughness was achieved in the NZ of the pipeline steel joint that employed FSW.

Galvanic corrosion of AZ31B joined to dual-phase steel with and without Zn layer by ultrasonic and friction stir welding

Galvanic corrosion of AZ31B joined with bare or Zn-coated DP590 steel by ultrasonic spot welding or linear friction stir welding was quantitatively studied by pre-defining anode and cathode in the lap joint samples. Corrosion volume and depth from Mg anode surfaces exposed to 0.1 M sodium chloride solution was analyzed as functions of cathode surface type and welding method. Characterization of as-welded joints was performed to identify any microstructural feature of the bonding zone that could impact galvanic corrosion behavior.COMSOL modeling with modified user subroutine was conducted to simulate the progression of Mg corrosion in the same joint and electrode configurations used for the corrosion experiments. The experimental results indicated that Zn-coated cathode surface can reduce Mg galvanic corrosion significantly as galvanic polarization and cathodic current on Zn-coated surface remained relatively low for Mg in the weld joints.COMSOL modeling described the growth of Mg galvanic corrosion in a reasonable manner but showed limitation by underestimating the corrosion volume as it did not capture self-corrosion.

Experimental and numerical investigation on under-water friction stir welding of armour grade AA2519-T87 aluminium alloy

Friction stir welding(FSW) is a promising welding process that can join age hardenable aluminium alloys with high joint efficiency. However,the thermal cycles experienced by the material to be joined during FSW resulted in the deterioration of mechanical properties due to the coarsening and dissolution of strengthening precipitates in the thermo-mechanical affected zone(TMAZ) and heat affected zone(HAZ). Under water friction stir welding(UWFSW) is a variant of FSW process which can maintain low heat input as well as constant heat input along the weld line. The heat conduction and dissipation during UWFSW controls the width of TMAZ and HAZ and also improves the joint properties. In this investigation, an attempt has been made to evaluate the mechanical properties and microstructural characteristics of AA2519-T87 aluminium alloy joints made by FSW and UWFSW processes. Finite element analysis has been used to estimate the temperature distribution and width of TMAZ region in both the joints and the results have been compared with experimental results and subsequently correlated with mechanical properties.? 2016 China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evolution of residual stress field in 6N01 aluminum alloy friction stir welding joint

Based on the characteristics of friction stir welding( FSW) and Coulomb friction work theory,the residual stresses field of FSW joints of 6 N01 aluminum alloy( T5),which was used in high speed train,were calculated by using the ANSYS finite element software. During the FEM calculation,the dual heat source models namely the body heat source and surface heat source were used to explore the evolution law of the welding process to the residual stress field. The method of ultrasonic residual stress detecting was used to investigate the residual stresses field of the 6 N01 aluminum alloy FSW joints. The results show that the steady-state temperature of 6 N01 aluminum alloy during FSW is about 550 ℃,and the temperature mutates at the beginning and at end of welding. The longitudinal residual stress σ_x is the main stress,which fluctuates in the range of-25 to 242 MPa. Moreover,the stress in the range of shaft shoulder is tensile stress that the maximum tensile stress is 242 MPa,and the stress in the outside of shaft shoulder is compressive stress that the maximum compressive stress is 25 MPa. The distribution of the tensile stress in the welding nugget zone( WNZ) is obviously bimodal,and the residual stress on the advancing side is higher than that on the retreating side. With the increasing of the welding speed,the maximum temperature decreased and the maximum residual stress decreased when the pin-wheel speed kept constant. With the increasing of the pin-wheel speed,the maximum temperature of the joint increased and the maximum residual stress increased when the welding speed was constant. The experimental results were in good agreement with the finite element results.

Effect of intermetallic compounds on the fracture behavior of dissimilar friction stir welding joints of Mg and Al alloys

Joining Mg to Al is challenging because of the deterioration of mechanical properties caused by the formation of intermetallic compounds(IMCs) at the Mg/Al interface. This study aims to improve the mechanical properties of welded samples by preventing the fracture location at the Mg/Al interface. Friction stir welding was performed to join Mg to Al at different rotational and travel speeds. The microstructure of the welded samples showed the IMCs layers containing Al12Mg17(γ) and Al3Mg2(β) at the welding zone with a thickness(< 3.5 μm). Mechanical properties were mainly affected by the thickness of the IMCs, which was governed by welding parameters. The highest tensile strength was obtained at 600 r/min and 40 mm/min with a welding efficiency of 80%. The specimens could fracture along the boundary at the thermo-mechanically affected zone in the Mg side of the welded joint.

Pinless Friction Stir Welding of AA2024-T3Joint and Its Failure Modes

The joining of aluminum alloy sheets with thickness less than 2.0 mm is difficult via conventional frictionstir welding owing to the defects in the joint, such as root flaw, keyhole and lazy S. In the present research, a newlydesigned pinless tool with involute grooves on its shoulder surface was applied to weld 1.5 mm thick AA2024-T3. Theeffects of the rotating speed and welding speed on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the joints were analyzed.The experimental results showed that the root flaw and keyhole were successfully eliminated. The lazy S wasalso eliminated under the optimized welding parameters. The maximum tensile strength of the joints was 326 MPa,which is about 74.1% that of the base material. Moreover, all the tensile samples fractured from the retreating side.Two fracture modes were observed during the tensile tests, which are related with the lazy S.

Kinematic Sensitivity Analysis and Dimensional Synthesis of a Redundantly Actuated Parallel Robot for Friction Stir Welding

Friction stir welding(FSW)has been widely applied in many fields as an alternative to traditional fusion welding.Although serial robots can provide the orientation capability required to weld along curved surfaces,they cannot adequately support the huge axial downward forces that FSW generates.Available parallel mechanism architectures,particularly redundantly actuated architectures for FSW,are still very limited.In this paper,a redundantly actuated 2 UPR-2 RPU parallel robot for FSW is proposed,where U denotes a universal joint,R denotes a revolute joint and P denotes a prismatic pair.First,its semi-symmetric structure is described.Next,inverse kinematics analysis involving an analytical representation of rotational axes is implemented.Velocity analysis is also conducted,which leads to the formation of a Jacobian matrix.Sensitivity performance is evaluated utilizing level set and convex optimization methods,where the local sensitivity indices are unit consistent,coordinate free,and of definite physical significance.Furthermore,global and hierarchical sensitivity indices are proposed for the design process.Finally,dimension synthesis is conducted based on the sensitivity indices and the optimal link parameters of the parallel robot are obtained.In summary,this paper proposes a dimensional synthesis method for a redundantly actuated parallel robot for FSW based on sensitivity indices.

Temperature distribution study during the friction stir welding process of Al2024-T3 aluminum alloy

Heat flux characteristics are critical to good quality welding obtained in the important engineering alloy A12024- T3 by the friction stir welding （FSW） process. In the present study, thermocouples in three different configurations were amxed on the welding samples to measure the temperatures： in the first configuration, four thermocouples were placed at equivalent positions along one side of the welding direction; the second configuration involved two equivalent thermocouple locations on either side of the welding path; while the third configuration had all the thermocouples on one side of the layout but with unequal gaps from the welding line. A three-dimensional, non-linear ANSYS computational model, based on an approach applied to A12024-T3 for the first time, was used to simulate the welding temperature profiles obtained experimentally. The experimental thermal profiles on the whole were found to be in agreement with those calculated by the ANSYS model. The broad agreement between the two kinds of profiles validates the basis for derivation of the simulation model and provides an approach for the FSW simulation in A12024-T3 and is potentially more useful than models derived previously.

Mechanical properties of 2024-T4 aluminium alloy joints in ultrasonic vibration enhanced friction stir welding

Ultrasonic vibration enhanced friction stir welding （UVeFSW） is a recent modification of conventional friction stir welding （FSW）, which transmits ultrasonic vibration directly into the localized area of the workpiece near and ahead of the rotating tool. In this study, a high strength aluminium alloy （2024-T4） was welded by this process and conventional FSW, respectively. Then tensile tests, microhardness tests and fracture surface analysis were performed successively on the welding samples. The tests results reveal that ultrasonic vibration can improve the tensile strength and the elongation of welded joints. The microhardness of the stir zone also increases.

Metallographic structure,mechanical properties,and process parameter optimization of 5A06 joints formed by ultrasonic-assisted refill friction stir spot welding

Novel hybrid refill friction stir spot welding （RFSSW） assisted with ultrasonic oscillation was introduced to 5A06 aluminum alloy joints. The metallographic structure and mechanical properties of 5A06 aluminum alloy RFSSW joints formed without ultrasonic assistance and with lateral and longitudinal ultrasonic assistance were compared, and the ultrasonic-assisted RFSSW process parameters were opti- mized. The results show that compared with lateral ultrasonic oscillation, longitudinal ultrasonic oscillation strengthens the horizontal bond- ing ligament in the joint and has a stronger effect on the joint＇s shear strength. By contrast, lateral ultrasonic oscillation strengthens the ver- tical bonding ligament and is more effective in increasing the joint＇s tensile strength. The maximum shear strength of ultrasonic-assisted RFSSW 5A06 aluminum alloy joints is as high as 8761 N, and the maximum tensile strength is 3679 N when the joints are formed at a tool rotating speed of 2000 r/rain, a welding time of 3.5 s, a penetration depth of 0.2 mm, and an axial pressure of 11 kN.

Low temperature friction stir welding of P91 steel

Bead-on-plate friction stir welds were made on P91 alloy with low and high rotational speeds(100 and 1000 RPM) to study their effects on weld microstructural changes and impression creep behavior. Temperatures experienced by the stir zone were recorded at the weld tool tip. Different zones of welds were characterized for their microstructural changes, hardness and creep behavior(by impression creep tests). The results were compared with submerged arc fusion weld. Studies revealed that the stir zone temperature with 100 RPM was well below A_(c1) temperature of P91 steel while it was above A_(c3) with 1000 RPM. The results suggest that the microstructural degradation in P91 welds can be controlled by low temperature friction stir welding technique.

Application and development of friction stir welding technology in high speed EMU manufacturing

The application status of friction stir welding technology is introduced,and the application research of advanced FSW technology in the manufacture of high-speed electric multiple unit aluminum alloy body is analyzed,including the application of traditional friction stir welding technology to a combination of a lap joint and butt joint,and butt joint of large thick plate by both sides process,also introduces bobbin-tool friction stir welding to a butt joint and three-dimensional space curved friction stir welding to T-joint. At the same time the future development trend of new FSW technology derived from traditional FSW technology in rail vehicle manufacturing industry is put forward. As the fast developing of critical technology used on railway vehicles,quick applying advanced welding technology will affect products quality,manufacturing cost and production cycle time directly,and it certainly will be one of the approaches to develop markets by all the railway vehicles manufacturing enterprises.

Evolution of Grain Structure and Texture for 6082-T6 Aluminum Alloy during Friction Stir Welding

Stop-action technique was employed in order to study grain structure and texture evolution of thin 6082-T6 aluminum alloy sheets during friction stir welding(FSW). The evolutions of microstructure and texture were studied in different regions(ahead, behind, far behind the tool and base material as well) of the deformed samples. Materials ahead the tool experienced shear deformation were induced by rotation of the tool as well as the shoulder, which can pronounce copper and Goss texture. Grains behind the tool experienced dynamic recovery and recrystallization, exhibiting a characteristic of {110}<001> recrystallization Goss texture. Materials far behind the tool probably experienced more thermal cycling. Recrystallization grains will grow and present {100}<012> texture. In addition, the shoulder gave rise to a large shear stress that led to {111}<110> shear texture.

Review: Progress and Trends in Ultrasonic Vibration Assisted Friction Stir Welding

This paper aims to reviewthe state-of-the-art of ultrasonic vibration assisted friction stir welding(UVAFSW) process. Particular attention has been paid on the modes of ultrasonic exertion,experimental results and effects of ultrasonic vibrations on process effectiveness and joint quality. The trends of various aspects with and without ultrasonic vibrations in FSW process are studied and presented. The influence of ultrasonic vibrations on welding loads, temperature history, weld morphology, material flow, weld microstructure and mechanical properties are revisited. Ultrasonic assisted FSW offers numerous advantages over the conventional FSW process. The superimposing of high-frequency vibrations improves various phenomena of the process and the physical,metallurgical,mechanical and tribological properties of the welded joint. The ultrasonic assisted FSW process has a potential to benefit the industry sector. A checklist listing the materials and process parameters used in the documented studies has been presented for quick reference.

Comparison of 2A12 aluminium alloy joint by ultrasonic assisted friction stir welding and friction stir welding

Ultrasonic assisted friction stir welding （UAFSW） is a recent modification of conventional friction stir welding, which adds ultrasonic energy directly into the friction stir welding area by the pin. In this study, 2A12 aluminum alloy was welded by this process and conventional, respectively. The tensile tests, microstructure and fracture surface of FSW joint and UAFSW joint were analyzed. The research results show that the surface forming texture of ultrasonic assisted friction stir welding joint, compared with conventional, is finer and more uniform, showing metallic matte color. The grains are much finer in weld nugget zone, thermo-mechanically affected zone and heat-affected zone; S-phase particles size is much smaller and distribution is more homogeneous in the matrix. The tensile strength of UAFSW joint is 94. 13% of base metal, and the elongation is 11.77%. The tensile strength of FSW joint is 83.15% of base metal, and the elongation is 8.81%. The tests results reveal that ultrasonic vibration can improve the tensile strength and the elongation of welded joints.

Enlarged-end tool for friction stir lap welding towards hook defect controlling

Hook defect is one of the trickiest issues for friction stir lap welding,which remains to be resolved.In this study,a designed pin with an enlarged-end was proposed to control the interfacial hook defect by optimizing its morphology orientation.The insert aduncous structure at the advancing side is dissected by multilayer metallographic observation,which is the main character to terminate the inner-ward extension of the hook.The application of this tool was verified practical with a varied plunge depth of pin into the lower plate from 0.1 mm to 1.6 mm.The angle of the hook was small and terminated at the insert-structure or oriented toward the material convergence region.No joint fractured along the hook line and the highest joint efficiency reached 86%of the parent 6082-T4 aluminum alloy.