Influence of pass number on microstructure, mechanical, and tribological properties of cold-rolled Al1050 during friction stir processing

In this investigation, cold-rolled Al1050 sheets underwent various passes of Friction Stir Processing (FSP), namely one, three, and five. Then, microstructural evolution was assessed by focusing on underlying restoration phenomena, including severe dynamic recovery (DRV) and continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX), and their corresponding effects on mechanical and surface properties were evaluated. Findings illustrated that initial cold-rolling on Al1050 and its high stacking fault energy are the primary driving forces for accelerating DRV, contributing to the supremacy of the DRV-induced softening over sub-grain strengthening caused by CDRX. Increasing the FSP pass number resulted in a drop in yield stress (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), and microhardness values of the FSP-treated samples such that the UTS of one, three, and five passes FSPed samples decreased by ∼18 %, 32 %, and 35 %, respectively, compared to the cold-rolled Al1050. Conversely, the %elongation of the FSP-treated samples dramatically increased with increasing FSP pass number, which is evident from stress-strain curves and the fracture surfaces. Furthermore, increasing the FSP pass number increased the mean coefficient of friction (MCOF) and weight loss during the pin-on-disk test. Also, conducting various passes of FSP improved corrosion resistance compared to the base metal. However, increasing the FSP pass number reduced the corrosion resistance due to grain growth such that the one-pass FSPed sample illustrated better corrosion resistance than the five passes FSPed sample. Repeating the FSP led to excessive frictional heat input to the matrix, contributing to grain growth after increasing FSP passes, thereby decreasing mechanical properties and corrosion resistance

HAZ softening behavior of strain-hardened Al-6.7Mg alloy welded by GMAW and pulsed GMAW processes

Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process was used to weld plates of strain-hardened Al-6.7Mg alloy. It was observed that HAZ softening issue occurred extensively for the current material using the GMAW process. So, as a solution, pulsed current was employed and the plates were welded by pulsed GMAW (PGMAW) process. The effects of peak current (93, 120, 140, and 160 A) and pulse frequency (0.5, 2.0, and 5.0 Hz) on the strength of the weldments were investigated. For high peak currents (160 A), catastrophic defects were formed in the weld metal. It was observed that for the lowest pulse frequency (0.5 Hz), increasing the peak current increased the weld strength. The peak current did not change the strength for higher frequencies (2.0 and 5.0 Hz). Furthermore, increasing the frequency from 0.5 to 2.0 Hz for peak currents of 93 and 120 A led to strength improvement. For peak current of 140 A, frequency changing was ineffective. The overall enhancement in the strength of welds and reduction of HAZ softening by employing pulsed current offers a promising opportunity for further application of GMAW process with controlled heat input for welding of strain-hardened Al-6.7Mg alloy

The effect of gas tungsten arc welding and pulsed-gas tungsten arc welding processes\u27 parameters on the heat affected zone-softening behavior of strain-hardened Al-6.7Mg alloy

The heat affected zone (HAZ) softening behavior of strain-hardened Al-6.7Mg alloy welded by gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process was investigated. Increasing the heat input during welding led to formation of a wider HAZ. Moreover, the size of the precipitates was increased at higher heat inputs. Consequently, by increasing the heat input, lower strength was obtained for the welding joints. At the second stage of the study, pulsed-GTAW (PGTAW) process was employed to improve the strength of the joints. It was observed that the overall strength of the welding joints was improved and the fracture during tensile test was moved from the HAZ to the fusion zone. Moreover, the effect of duration ratio and pulse frequency was studied. For the current study, the duration ratio did not have a significant effect on the strength and microstructure of the weld, but increasing the frequency led to higher strength of the weld and finer microstructure. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded ferrite-martensite DP700 steel

In the present work, friction stir welding technique was applied on 2 mm thick ferrite-martensite DP700 steel sheets at rotational speeds of 600, 800 and 1000 rpm. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the welds were evaluated. It was found that Zener-Hollomon parameter decreased with increasing rotational speed that leads to grain coarsening in the stir zone. It was also found that increment of rotational speed increased softening phenomenon in sub-critical heat affected zone. The results also showed that the presence of WC particles in the stir zone, which was due to the tool wear, as well as formation of a soft ferrite band degrade the tensile properties at rotational speed of 600 rpm while HAZ softening was responsible for reduction of strength and ductility in conditions of 800 and 1000 rpm

Cold-Rolling Strain Hardening Effect on the Microstructure, Serration-Flow Behaviour and Dislocation Density of Friction Stir Welded AA5083

5083 aluminium (Al) alloy materials have extensive structural applications in transportation industries because of their high strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. However, under conventional fusion weldings, these materials are limited by their porosity, hot cracking, and distortion. Herein, friction stir welding (FSW) was performed to join a similar AA5083 alloy. A post-weld cold-rolling (PWCR) process was applied on joint samples at different thickness-reduction percentages (i.e., 10%, 20%, and 40%) to identify the effect of strain hardening on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the friction-stir-welded joint of AA5083 while considering the serration-flow behaviour at stress–strain curves and dislocation density of the post-weld cold-rolled (PWCRed) samples. FSW induced a 20% reduction in the tensile strength of the joint samples relative to the base metal. PWCR also reduced the average grain size at the nugget zone and base metal because of the increase in plastic deformation imposed on the samples. Furthermore, PWCR increased the dislocation density because of the interaction among dislocation stress fields. Consequently, the tensile strength of the friction-stir-welded joint increased with the increased cold-rolling percentage and peaked at 403 MPa for PWCRed–40%, which significantly improved the serration-flow behaviour of stress–strain and welding efficiency up to 123%