Performance improvement of AA6061-T651 friction stir butt-weldment using particulate addition strategy

The joint quality performance of AA6061-T651 friction stir weldments had been investigated in this study through addition of pulverized waste glass (PWG), palm kernel shell ash (PKSA) and synthetic silicon carbide (SSC) with a bid to enhancing some selected mechanical properties. Optimized processing parameters which include 1120 rpm rotational speed, 40 mm/min traverse speed, 1.5o tilt angle) and optimum reinforcement strategy (parallel hole) established from a preliminary investigation were utilized for the friction stir welding. The mechanical properties such as the tensile strength, hardness and impact energy were then further investigated. The results showed that the mechanical properties of all the reinforced welded joints improved significantly than the unreinforced joint having a relatively reduced joint performance of 132 MPa tensile strength, hardness of 45.3 HRB and impact energy of 39.4 J. The PWG-reinforced friction stir welded joint performed optimally at a tensile strength of 212.7 MPa, 72 HRB hardness and 54.5 J impact energy followed by the SSC-reinforced joint which exhibited 173.7 MPa tensile strength, 54.8 HRB hardness and impact energy of 41.7 J. Hence, 80%, 59% and 38% joint performance was exhibited through tensile strength, hardness and impact energy of PWG-reinforced friction stir weldments of AA6061-T651 against the unreinforced weldments

Effects of processing parameters on mechanical, material flow and wear behaviour of friction stir welded 6101-T6 and 7075-T651 aluminium alloys

Dissimilar friction stir welding (FSW) between 6101-T6 and 7075-T651 aluminium alloys was conducted. Three different parameters each were investigated for rotational speed and travel speed, and the effects of these parameters on the tensile behaviour, hardness and wear were evaluated. The results indicate that the ultimate tensile strength increases with an increase in the feed rate. However, the increase in rotational speed decreases the ultimate tensile values. The fractured analysis of the tensile samples shows similarities in the fractured pattern as all the samples failed at heat affected zone close to the 6101-T6 alloy. The hardness varies across the heat affected zones and nugget zone both at constant rotational speed and welding speeds. The highest resistance to wear occurred at 65 mm min−1 and 1850 rpm welding speed and rotational speed respectively while better material mixing was achieved at the nugget zone of the welds at 1250 rpm and 110 mm/min

Corrosion Properties of Aluminum Alloy Reinforced with Wood Particles

The need for improved metallic materials in terms of physicomechanical, microstructure, and corrosion properties has necessitated the need to form metal matrix composites. This article adopted the stir casting procedure and used wood particles (WP) to reinforce aluminum alloy at different volume fractions. The corrosion properties of the aluminum matrix in 3.5% wt NaCl were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the potentiodynamic polarization curve, and open circuit potential. The corrosion results of the reinforced aluminum alloys was compared with the unreinforced alloy. The unreinforced sample showed improved resistance to corrosion compared to the reinforced aluminum alloy. All samples exhibited visible Pits on SEM observation