Behavior Of Friction Stir Welded Joints Research Articles

Microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of friction stir welded Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 high-entropy alloy

Metastable Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 HEA has a significant strength-ductility synergistic effect and a wide application prospect in nuclear power. The present work reports the microstructure evolution and tensile behavior of friction stir-welded joints for Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 high entropy alloy (HEA) at various rotational speeds. Defect-free welds of Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 alloy were obtained by a W-Re alloy welding tool. Significant grain refinement occurs in the nugget zone, where the most of HCP phases in the base metal transformed into FCC phase. Additionally, strain-induced Σ3 mechanical twins are generated in the FCC austenite grains. The microstructure of thermo-mechanically affected zone exhibited multiple deformation mechanisms, including stacking faults, martensite lath, martensite variants, and reverse transformation. The microhardness of the joint primarily depends on the grain size of the FCC phase and the fraction of twins and HCP phase. In the nugget zone of the joint welded at 300 rpm, a high microhardness zone ranging from 266.7 to 310 HV was detected. While the reverse transformation and fresh twinning in the joint at 600 rpm contribute to the enhancement of tensile properties, the increase in grain size and ε martensitic fraction have resulted in a noteworthy reduction in ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation (EL). Conversely, the joint of 300 rpm exhibited optimum UTS and EL owing to the grain refining after FSW and the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) effect. These insights confirm that FSW is an ideal approach for achieving superior joint performance in dual-phase HEAs.

Superplastic Behavior of Friction-Stir Welded Joints of an Al-Mg-Sc Alloy with Ultrafine-Grained Microstructure

The commercial Al-5.4Mg-0.2Sc-0.1Zr alloy was subjected to equal-channel angular pressing at 300°C to a true strain ~12 followed by cold rolling to a total thickness reduction of 80%. The ultrafine-grained sheets were joined by friction stir welding (FSW). To evaluate superplastic properties of the weldments, the tensile samples including all of the characteristic FSW microstructural zones were machined perpendicular to the welding direction and pulled up to failure in the temperature range of 400 to 500°C and at strain rates of 2.8×10-4 s-1 to 5.6×10-1 s-1. The friction-stir welded material exhibited excellent superplastic properties. The highest elongation-to-failure of ~1370% was recorded at a temperature of ~450°C and an initial strain rate of 5.6×10-2 s-1, where the strain rate sensitivity coefficient was about 0.64. The relationship between superplastic ductility and microstructure is discussed.

Fatigue Behavior of Friction Stir-Welded Joints Repaired by Grinding

Fatigue is undoubtedly the most important design criterion in aeronautic structures. Although friction stir-welded joints are characterized by a high mechanical performance, they can enclose some defects, especially in their root. These defects along with the relatively low residual stresses of the friction stir-welding thermomechanical cycle can turn into primary sources of crack initiation. In this context, this article deals with the fatigue behavior of friction stir-welded joints subjected to surface smoothing by grinding improvement technique. The 4-mm-thick aluminum alloy 2024-T351 was used in this study. The fatigue strength of the base material, joints in the as-welded condition, and the sound and defective friction stir-welded joints improved by grinding were investigated in detail. The tests were carried out with a constant amplitude loading and with a stress ratio of R = 0. The fatigue results show that an improvement in fatigue behavior was obtained in the joints repaired by superficial grinding technique. The weld grinding technique is better especially for lower loads and increases the high cycle fatigue strength. The fatigue strength of the improved welded joints was higher than that of the base material.