Dissimilar metal study on C44300 tube to AA7075 -T651 tube plate with and without thread by FWTPET process

Abstract

Friction welding has vital industrial role in fabricating automobiles, aerospace, ship building, heat exchangers using similar, dissimilar and bi-metal of ferrous and non-ferrous metals at mass production level. In this study, admiralty brass C44300 tube and aluminium alloy AA7075 -T651, 6 mm thick tube plate were identified as base metals. Different joint surface area profile of with and without thread of different pitch values was chosen to study the mechanical properties and micro structures of these two base metals. 0.1 mm clearance was maintained between the AA7075-T651 tube plate and C44300 tube outer diameter to make friction welding. Taguchi’s L16 orthogonal array techniques were adopted for identifying the most significant ranking process parameters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used to analyze the input parameter contribution in terms of percentage. Genetic algorithm (GA) was used to access the suitable input parameter value to obtain effective joint strength in terms of hardness, compressive strength and microstructure formation in the interface of the joint. A Compression test (CT) was conducted to evaluate the level of compressive strength of the joint. Threaded profile pair with higher pitch value proved high compressive strength over unthreaded pair. Micro structure for base metal C44300 tube and AA7075-T651 tube plate, Heat affected zone (HAZ) and Weld zone (WZ) of the joint has been studied. Hardness of base metals, HAZ and WZ was measured by micro Vickers hardness tester and the observation shows that hardness at joint interface has been found to be higher in all pairs.