An experimental investigation to the influence of traverse speed on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded AA2050-T84 Al-Cu-Li alloy plates

Abstract

5 mm thick AA2050-T84 plates were joined successfully with four different traverse speed (from 1 mm/s to 4 mm/s) by friction stir welding (FSW). Other process parameters were kept constant such as tool rotational speed (TRS) 600 rpm and tool tilt angle (TTA) 1.5° during FSW. A non-consumable, left-hand taper threaded tool made of H13 steel was used in the experiment. The present study revealed that with an increase in TTS, the average forces (X-force and Z-force) and spindle torque increases. The grain size of the nugget zone (NZ) decreases from 17.9 µm to 10.5 µm with increasing TTS. The mechanical properties improve with increasing TTS. The maximum tensile strength of 388.6 MPa, % elongation of 9.19%, and joint efficiency 70.2% was observed at higher TTS 4 mm/s.