Abstract

Friction stir welds are considered reliable joints for their lack of voids, cracks and distortions. When compared to the base material, friction stir welding (FSW) joints typically exhibit finer grain structured (especially at the nugget zone, NZ). Similarly, refined grain structure can also be obtained by severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques, such as equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). In fact, the fine grain structures produced within the NZ of FSW or friction stir processed (FSP) materials are usually coarser than the ones achieved by ECAP. The former is characterized by lower dislocation density, higher high-angle boundary fraction and different mechanical strength, compared to what can be obtained by ECAP. In this study, a dedicated cold-rolling (CR) set-up, specifically designed to simulate an ECAP-equivalent shear deformation, was used to further refine the grain structure of FSW AA5754 sheets. The effect of ECAP-equivalent deformation induced by CR in a 2 mm-thick AA5754-H111 FSW joint was investigated. FSW was carried out at two different rotational (ω) and translational (v) welding speeds, 600 rpm, 200 mm/min and 1800 rpm, 75 mm/min, respectively. FSW sheets were then CR to obtain an equivalent shear strain of ε ~ 1.08, that is equivalent to 1-ECAP pass carried out with an internal die channels intersecting at an angle φ = 90° with a curvature extending over an angle Ψ = 20°. By CR, the sheet thickness reduced only by ~20%. The role of annealing on the FSW and CR plastically deformed AA5754 was also investigated. This was applied either prior or after FSW, and it resulted that whenever it follows the FSW, the mean volume fraction of dispersoids and Mg-rich particles is higher than the case of annealing preceding the FSW process. On the contrary, it was found that the annealing treatment had a minimal role on the dispersoids and particles mean size. The here reported post-FSW ECAP-simulated deformation, obtained by a customized CR process, showed sheet integrity and a significant concurrent grain size refinement.

Highlights

  • Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state technology developed to obtain joints with mechanical properties potentially higher than the ones usually obtained by conventional fusion welding techniques.FSW is acknowledged as an effective joining technology for lightweight materials, such as aluminum alloys, that are usually difficult to weld, or even unweldable by fusion technologies

  • AA5754 sheet section, where retreating side is left-hand corresponding to the nugget zoneon (NZ), i.e., the bottom surface,region corresponding to the one CRed side, and advancing sideside (AS), theon right-hand side, FSW

  • A plastic deformation process of cold rolling (CR) on a FSWed H111-AA5754 sheets was tested with the goal of obtaining a grain refinement as similar as possible to the one obtained by a simple equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) single passage into the die (ECAP-1)

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Summary

Introduction

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state technology developed to obtain joints with mechanical properties potentially higher than the ones usually obtained by conventional fusion welding techniques. During FSW (and friction-stir processing, FSP), the material that flows around the tool undergoes intense plastic deformation and local temperature rise Both the mechanical plastic deformation and the thermal excursion (well within the alloy melting point) are normally able to produce a fine-gained structure in the center of the welded zone. The degree of strain hardening and the location of the welding line, with respect to the rolling direction, are known to affect the mechanical properties and formability of the welded sheet. Based on the observed good mechanical response of the FSW + CR AA5754, the plastic response of such a sequence of deformation was studied to simulate an equal channel angular pressure (ECAP)-like deformation on FSW AA5754 To this purpose, FSW was performed on 1.5 mm-thick sheets, using a pin tool with constant values of rotation and welding speeds.

Experimental Details and Method
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