Tensile and wear behaviour of friction stir welded AA5052 and AA6101-T6 aluminium alloys: effect of welding parameters

Abstract

<jats:p>To improve the performance and effectiveness of cost, constructing lightweight structure is the important factor for automobile, naval and aerospace industries. AA5052 and AA6101-T6 aluminium alloys are widely applied in transport industries, due to their lightweight and high strength and hence, joining of these two are unavoidable. Friction stir welding is an unconventional welding method, which is developed for constructing lightweight structures. This work describes the detailed study of friction stir welded dissimilar AA5052 and AA6101-T6 alloys. AA5052 and AA6101-T6 plates are welded with rotation rates of 765–1400 rpm and offset distances at advancing side of 0–2 mm. For this purpose, four levels of welding parameters based on Taguchi L<jats:sub>16</jats:sub> orthogonal array are chosen. To determine the optimum combinational levels and identify the effect of above-mentioned parameters on tensile and wear properties, Signal to Noise ratio and ANOVA respectively are used. From the results, it is observed that the combination of 1 mm offset distance at advancing side and 1400 rpm rotating speed produces better tensile and wear properties, which is due to high heat generation, sufficient flow of materials and balanced precipitation and strain hardening effects. On the other hand, the combination of 2 mm tool offset at advancing side and 765 rpm rotational rate exhibits poor properties, which is associated with low heat input, defects formation, precipitate coarsening and lesser strain hardening effects.</jats:p>

The Effect of Plug Rotation Speed on Micro-Structure of Nugget Zone of Friction Plug Repair Welding Joint for 6082 Aluminum Alloy

“…The grain size in the weld nugget zone decreased first and then increased when the plug rotating speed increased from 1600 to 2000 rpm, while the high-angle boundary component increased first and then decreased.  At 1600 rpm, recrystallized Cube, recrystallized R and (021) [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] deformation texture mainly were found in the nugget zone; at 1800 rpm, Goss, (111)[-101] texture, recrystallized Cube and R texture were found; at 2000 rpm, Copper, Goss, (313)[-312] texture and recrystallized Cube texture were found.  When the speed of the tapper plug increased, the deformation rate and the temperature of the welding nugget zone increased.…”

“…Table 2 shows the texture and components of the weld nugget zone at different plug rotating speeds. At 1600 rpm, recrystallized Cube, recrystallized R and (021) [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] deformation texture mainly existed in the weld nucleus; at 1800 rpm, recrystallized Cube, (111)[-101] texture, recrystallized Cube and R texture mainly existed; at 2000 rpm, recrystallized Cube and Copper, Goss and (313) [-312] texture mainly existed. Figure 8 shows the color aberration and distribution of grains corresponding to different textures.…”

“…Furthermore, 6082 aluminum alloy is a heat treatment strengthened aluminum alloy, with moderate strength, low density, good corrosion resistance, excellent machinability and weldability, and it can be used for the main body of the high-speed train car body structure [ 11 ]. Key holes were unavoidable when friction stir welding was used in aluminum alloy welding [ 12 ]. In actual production, the method of adding a lead-out plate was often used to eliminate the FSW keyhole, which was relatively complicated.…”

“…At 1600 rpm, recrystallized Cube, recrystallized R and (021) [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] deformation texture mainly were found in the nugget zone; at 1800 rpm, Goss, (111)[-101] texture, recrystallized Cube and R texture were found; at 2000 rpm, Copper, Goss, (313)[-312] texture and recrystallized Cube texture were found.…”

Exfoliation corrosion susceptibility on friction stir welded aluminium 6061/Cr2O3 composite

“…The Dissimilar welding AA6061 and AA5083 show higher ultimate tensile strength at 1568 rpm and 39 mm min −1 [21]. The selection of welding parameters is very influential in obtaining a suitable microstructure [22,23]. The Al 6061 has matrix material with a higher potential to provide suitable microstructure and mechanical properties after adding reinforcement [24,25].…”