Friction Stir Welding of Age-Hardenable Aluminum Alloys: A Parametric Approach Using RSM Based GRA Coupled With PCA

Abstract

Age-hardenable aluminum alloys, primarily used in the aerospace, automobile and marine industries (2×××, 6××× and 7×××), can be welded using solid-state welding techniques. Friction stir welding is an emerging solid-state welding technique used to join both similar and dissimilar materials. The strength of a friction stir welded joint depends on the joining process parameters. Therefore, a combination of the statistical techniques of a response surface methodology based on a grey relational analysis coupled to a principal component analysis was proposed to select the process parameters suitable for joining AA 2024 and AA 6061 aluminum alloys via friction stir welding. The significant process parameters, such as rotational speed, welding speed, axial load and pin shapes (PS) were considered during the statistical experiment. The results indicate that the square PS plays a vital role and yields an ultimate tensile strength of 141 MPa for an elongation of 12 % versus cylinder and taper pin profiles. The root cause for joint strength loss and fracture mode was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. Severe material flow during macro defects, such as pin holes and porosity, degrades the joint strength by approximately 44 % for AA 2024 and 51 % for AA 6061 fabricated FS-welded aluminum alloys relative to the base material. The results of this approach are useful for accurately controlling the response and optimize the process parameters.