Abstract
Visual inspection through image processing of welding and shot-peened surfaces is necessary to overcome equipment limitations, avoid measurement errors, and accelerate processing to gain certain surface properties such as surface roughness. Therefore, it is important to design an algorithm to quantify surface properties, which enables us to overcome the aforementioned limitations. In this study, a proposed systematic algorithm is utilized to generate and compare the surface roughness of Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welded aluminum 6061-T6 alloy treated by two levels of shot-peening, high-intensity and low-intensity. This project is industrial in nature, and the proposed solution was originally requested by local industry to overcome equipment capabilities and limitations. In particular, surface roughness measurements are usually only possible on flat surfaces but not on other areas treated by shot-peening after welding, as in the heat-affected zone and weld beads. Therefore, those critical areas are outside of the measurement limitations. Using the proposed technique, the surface roughness measurements were possible to obtain for weld beads, high-intensity and low-intensity shot-peened surfaces. In addition, a 3D surface topography was generated and dimple size distributions were calculated for the three tested scenarios: control sample (TIG-welded only), high-intensity shot-peened, and low-intensity shot-peened TIG-welded Al6065-T6 samples. Finally, cross-sectional hardness profiles were measured for the three scenarios; in all scenarios, lower hardness measurements were obtained compared to the base metal alloy in the heat-affected zone and in the weld beads even after shot-peening treatments.
Highlights
In the past two decades, owing to the good mechanical properties, i.e., high strength to weight ratio, good thermal and electrical conductivity, aluminum and its alloys have been used in versatile engineering applications such as marine vessels, automobiles, railway cars, and aircraft [1,2,3,4,5].Aluminum is strengthened through precipitation hardening due to the presence of silicon and magnesium alloying elements (0.3–15 wt % Si and Mg).The addition of those alloying elements resulted in further developments of Aluminum characteristics, which include good formability, corrosion resistance, and weldability [6]
We have described an image processing algorithm to measure the surface roughness in Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG)-welded aluminum 6065-T6 alloy
Optical line profiles were used to calculate roughness metrics to overcome the limitations of measurement equipment in the irregular weld bead area
Summary
In the past two decades, owing to the good mechanical properties, i.e., high strength to weight ratio, good thermal and electrical conductivity, aluminum and its alloys have been used in versatile engineering applications such as marine vessels, automobiles, railway cars, and aircraft [1,2,3,4,5]. Dissimilar TIG-welded joints of magnesium and titanium alloys were subjected to high-energy shot-peening and the microstructure and mechanical properties in terms of tensile strength were evaluated by Chuan Xu et al [32]. Surface defect elimination, strengthening by grain refinement, and strain hardening were a result of subjecting Mg/Ti welded joints to high-energy shot-peening. It is expected to accelerate obtaining the characterization of the surface properties of the welded samples compared to traditional destructive testing This may enhance the detection reliability and overcome the traditional measurement limitations of weldment characteristics. The novel contribution of this research work is the development of an image processing technique that can measure the crater/dimple size of the post-weld shot-peened Al 6061-T6 alloy. We reconstruct the 3D weld surface morphology accurately and reliably for monitoring and evaluating post-process surface properties to be utilized in industrial applications
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