Strain Rates and Grain Growth in Al 5754 and Al 6061 Friction Stir Spot Welds

Abstract

The stir zone temperature and microstructures are compared in friction stir spot welds produced in Al 5754 and Al 6061 alloys. Electron backscattered diffraction was used to determine the relationship between tool rotation speed during welding and final stir zone grain size. Comparison of the grain sizes in rapidly quenched welds with those in air-cooled joints confirmed that grain growth occurred only in Al 6061 spot welds. There was no evidence of abnormal grain growth in the stir zones of Al 6061 welds; the final grain size could be represented using an Arrhenius equation. The strain rates during welding were determined by incorporating the stir zone temperature and average subgrain sizes in quenched spot welds in the Zener–Hollomon relation. When the tool rotation speed increased from 750 to 3000 RPM, the strain rate values ranged from 180 to 497 s−1 in Al 5754 spot welds and from 55 to 395 s−1 in Al 6061 spot welds. It is suggested that a no-slip boundary condition may be appropriate during numerical modeling of Al 5754 and 6061 friction stir spot welding. This is not the case during Al 7075, Al 2024, and Mg-alloy AZ91 spot welding because spontaneous melting facilitates slippage at the tool contact interface.