Impact of in-process cooling and tool rotation speed on the mechanical and microstructural characteristics of friction stir processed AA2024

Abstract

Despite significant grain size refinement, friction stir processing (FSP) of heat-treatable aluminum alloys is found to degrade the alloys of strength and hardness qualities. The drop in strength brought on by coarsening or the dissolution of the strengthening precipitate(s) could not be made up for by the improvement in strength brought about by the refinement of grain size following FSP. In order to get around this, the current work looks into a practical method of heat rejection from the FSP zone in addition to grain size refinement during FSP of AA2024 to regulate the precipitate evolution. Under natural cooling, air cooling, and CO2 cooling conditions, friction stir processing (FSP) was used to change the microstructure of Solutionized AA2024 at three distinct rotation speeds of 750, 1180, and 1500 rpm (fixed traverse speed of 50 mm/min). The microstructural evolution (through optical microscopy and SEM) and mechanical properties of FSP samples under different conditions of rotation speed and cooling and their differences were mainly discussed. All the FSP samples have a higher Vickers hardness than the base metal (minimum variation of 16.79% and maximum variation of 41.05%). The maximum hardness, yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation have been obtained under air cooling conditions and a rotation speed of 1180 rpm, which is a result of the simultaneous and effective effect of grain boundary strengthening and precipitation hardening.