Abstract
Aluminum alloy AA8011 is emerging as a promising material for modern engineering applications in which improved tensile strength, hardness, corrosion-resistance, and wear-resistance of materials are required. Typically, AA8011 alloys are utilized in air-conditioning ducts and heat exchanger fins in ships, leisure boats, luxury vessels, workboats, fishing vessels, and patrol boats. However, the conventional welding of AA8011 is a challenging procedure. In this context, this paper focuses on the development of an effective solid-state welding methodology for AA8011 alloy welding. The AA8011 alloy was friction stir welded by varying the tool rotation speed, traverse speed, and shoulder diameter. The microhardness, tensile strength, joint efficiency, elongation, corrosion rate, and wear rate of the friction stir welded specimens were compared with the base material. Fractography analysis was conducted after the tensile test and surface morphology analysis after corrosion and wear tests, using scanning electron microscopy. The compositional elements in the corroded and worn section of the specimens were analyzed using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Based on the joint efficiency as a primary constraint, the optimum process parameters for friction stir welding of aluminum alloy AA8011 have been established as follows: tool rotation speed of 1200 rpm, tool traverse speed of 45 mm/min, and tool shoulder diameter of 21 mm.
Highlights
Aluminum alloys are widely used in many industries due to their high strength to weight ratio, good ductility, and corrosion resistance (Vasudevan and Doherty, 2012)
The plot indicates that the microhardness of the majority of friction stir welded specimens is lower than the microhardness of the base material
The results indicate that the joint efficiency of all friction stir welded specimens exceeds 30%
Summary
Aluminum alloys are widely used in many industries due to their high strength to weight ratio, good ductility, and corrosion resistance (Vasudevan and Doherty, 2012). During conventional welding of aluminum alloys, weldments rapidly oxidize, resulting in porosity, incomplete fusion, and cracks (Palani et al, 2018a; 2018b; Nandan et al, 2008; Ghetiya et al, 2016; Davidson and Neelakrishnan, 2018) This leads to poor joint efficiency, as well as poor corrosion, and tribological. Earlier studies suggest that tool rotation speed, tool traverse speed (welding speed), and tool profile (shoulder diameter, pin profile) are process parameters that have the highest impact on friction stir welding (Palani et al, 2018a; 2018b; Nandan et al, 2008; Ghetiya et al, 2016; Davidson and Neelakrishnan, 2018; Wahid et al, 2016; Vaira Vignesh et al, 2018a; 2018b; 2017). Models based on a hybrid quadraticradial basis function were developed to correlate the friction stir welding process parameters with weldment properties (strength, elongation, efficiency of the joints, corrosion rate and wear rate). Optimum process parameters for friction stir welding of aluminum alloy AA8011 was established
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