Interfacial microstructure and mechanical properties of the Al/Ti joint by magnetic pulse welding

Abstract

Magnetic pulse welding (MPW) had attracted widespread attention due to its advantages on joining dissimilar metals. In this study, the joints of Al 1060/Ti-6Al-4 V dissimilar at different discharge energies were prepared to characterize the interface microstructure and to evaluate the tensile shear properties. The MPW joint consists of an annular welded zone and a central non-welded zone. The low discharge energies lead to joints with poor quality. A small amount of intermetallic compound (IMC) TiAl3 was formed at the welding interface due to mutual diffusion. With the increase of discharge energy, the failure mode changed from welding zone fracture to base metal fracture at the weaker side (Al side). The welding interface consists of four regions: transition zone, shear wave interface zone, sine wave interface zone and flat interface zone. Element diffusion is accompanied by the formation of dislocations, stacking faults (SFs) and deformation twins, which provides sufficient strain hardening ability for the interface. According to the element distribution and phase composition analysis results in the interface, the sound Al/Ti dissimilar joints are attributed to the wavy pattern in the interface.