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Anil Kumar R
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, NSS Polytechnic College, Pandalam, Kerala
Sreejith P. S
School of Engineering, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Kochi, Kerala
ABSTRACT
Friction stir welding (FSW) offers nearly defect free welds with minimized distortion and fine
grain structure. However, studies about the mechanism of metal joining and the effect of various
process parameters for consistent and reliable results in FSW is yet to be concluded. Tool
rotational speed, tool traversal speed, tool geometry, tool tilt and axial force are considered as the
important process parameters for FSW. Many researchers report the effect of these parameters on
weld quality and microstructural characterization. Nevertheless, the influence of the applied axial
force on FSW process has not been elaborated considerably in these studies. Reported analytical
and numerical analyses suggest that axial force has little effect on the weld characteristics as far as
other parameters are fixed in a range, sufficient to produce good welds. The effect of the applied
axial force on the weld quality and mechanical strength is elucidated in this study, in detail. Weld
strength and microstructural features were examined and it was found that the applied axial force
has considerable effect on the quality and strength of the welds generated. Experimental and
analytical results suggested that there is an optimum value for the applied axial force to obtain
defect free weld even for a FSW process carried out with other parameters selected in the range for
good weld formation.
Key words: Friction stir welding, process parameters, axial force, ultimate tensile strength, defects.
Cite this Article: Sreenivas P, Anil Kumar R and Sreejith P. S. Effect of Applied Axial Force on
FSW of AA 6082 - T6 Aluminium Alloys. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and
Technology, 8(1), 2017, pp. 8899.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Friction stir welding (FSW) is a promising development in material joining [1]. Joining of high strength to
weight ratio- materials in automotive and aviation industry has become strongly demanding in order to
ensure the reduction in environmental impact and fuel efficiency. Hence progress in welding technology
employing these materials plays a vital role in the manufacturing industry. FSW has been inducted as a
better option for the joining of such materials especially aluminium alloys. Traditional fusion welding
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Effect of Applied Axial Force on FSW of AA 6082 - T6 Aluminium Alloys
methods find it difficult to circumvent the situations of defects formation in these materials especially
some aluminium alloys. FSW has been proved to be effective in welding 2XXX series and 7XXX series
aluminium alloys and Al- Li alloys [2]. FSW is a solid state welding procedure. Since the metal joining is
taken place much below the melting temperature it is deprived of many drawbacks associated with
traditional welding processes [3- 6]. Owing to the low heat input FSW is capable of protecting the
mechanical properties of the base material and of minimising the shrinkage and residual stresses. More
over, as there are no filler materials FSW is environ metal friendly.
In FSW a stirring tool is traversed with a downward force along the faying surfaces of the base metal
pieces which are held in position by clamping adequately to a base plate. The welding tool is specially
made with a complex geometry which has a larger diameter part known as shoulder, which is extended to a
smaller diameter part known as the pin. Friction between the tool shoulder and pin causes intense local
heating of which the major part is contributed by the tool shoulder. The frictional heat plasticizes the
material and forges around the tool beneath the shoulder. The shoulder confines and with the axial force
presses the stirred material in the weld. The material is forced from the front towards the trailing edge,
forged and in order to make a solid joint on solidification with the contact of relatively cold surrounding
material. A schematic representation of FSW is shown as Figure 1. More material is pushed from the
advancing side to the retreating side [7]. The obvious asymmetry in the material flow and heating is
marked by considering the advancing and retreating side of the joints. Conventionally the side where the
material flows with a velocity in the same direction as that of the tool is considered as the advancing side
(AS) and the other side is taken as the retreating side (RS).
In FSW the frictional heat is highly localised around the shoulder and the pin which is associated with
flow of plastic material. As it moves away from the tool axis the heat intensity and the material flow
gradually reduces confining the tool effect to a relatively smaller volume. The material part exposed to
the tool effect is undergone high strain rate and intense heat. Consequently the weld region is transformed
to complex micro structural entities. Based on the microsructural changes occurred the weld region can be
divided in to Nugget zone (NZ), thermo mechanically affected zone (TMAZ), and heat affected zone
(HAZ). NZ is that part which comes under the immediate vicinity of the pin, where the heat generation and
degree of stirring is immoderate. In the TMAZ region the material microstructure is modified as a result of
viscoplastic deformation and heat dissipation, but to a lesser degree than that of NZ. HAZ is located
beyond the tool action region and is not subjected to any mechanical stirring. However, the grains are
modified in shape and size due to the exposure of heat. Many researchers reported that the NZ exhibits
dynamically recrystallised structure irrespective of various tool speeds [8, 9]. In aluminium alloys the NZ
is often characterised by fine grains [10]. The part of the material in TMAZ is sustained plastic
deformation, heated and softened.
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Sreenivas P, Anil Kumar R and Sreejith P. S
The properties, quality and strength of friction stir welds depend on the microstructural characteristics
of various weld zones resulted from the heat dissipation and material deformation. Certain process
characteristics determine the accurate thermo mechanical processing of FSW. They can be identified as
heat generated, cooling rate, material flow in layers, degree of mixing and filling. Effects of the process
parameters on these characteristics are crucial in deciding the strength and quality of the weld. Welding
speed, tool rotational speed, axial force, tool geometry, tool tilt angle were identified as the most important
welding parameters. Optimized combination of these parameters has been extensively derived in various
studies [11- 14]. Effect of the process parameters on the microstructural changes and weld quality is the
focus of study for suggesting the optimum combination of parameters. In most of the analyses of the FSW,
the selection of process parameters are confined to rotational speed, traversal speed and tool geometry [15
- 20].
Biswas et al. [21] appraised the effect of process parameters on the mechanical properties of friction
stir welds of commercial grade aluminium. They have considered tool rotation, welding speeds and pin
geometry for their investigation. The reported results of their study focussed on the degree of grain
refinement in various weld zones. They recommended tools with tapered cylindrical or trapezoid profile
for the better performance of welds. They have suggested a ratio for welding speed to the tool rotational
speed for better mechanical properties. Dude et al. [22] conducted a series of welding of AA2219- T87
panels to optimize the process parameters by varying the tool rotational speeds. The other parameters viz.
tool speed and pin geometry kept unaltered. They have suggested and optimum parametric window for
welds with good mechanical properties without any volumetric effect. They emphasized a weld parameter
regime with a trade off between the defect free conditions and better mechanical properties. Trueba et al.
[23] deduced the effect of tool shoulder geometry on the defect formation and mechanical properties of
friction stir welded aluminium 6061- T6 alloy. They examined the welds with six different tool shoulder
profiles and found that tool shoulder provided with a raised spiral design produced defect free welds with
best mechanical properties.
In FSW the tool is inserted at some force acting along the tool axis. The applied axial force can be
directly measured in the FSW machines. The applied force plays a significant role in the weld quality and
microstructural changes. However the effect of the axial force on the welds has not been detailed well.
Yan et al. [24] have elaborated the effects of tool rotational speed, welding speed and axial force on the
mechanical and microstructural properties of friction stir welded AA 2524- T351 aluminium alloys. They
suggested that the interactive effect of the process parameters were to be so regulated to obtain the peak
temperature just below the melting point of the base metal. They indicated that the tool rotational speed
had greater influence to achieve this condition. But the effect of axial force limited to the nature of
interaction between the tool and metal interface interaction. Trimble et al. [25] proposed a combination of
welding parameters for achieving friction stir welds of soundness and strength at higher speeds, through
the post weld assessment and force monitoring. Their experimental investigation with AA 2024- T3 was
based on varying the rotational speeds and tool feed. However, they suggested tool geometry with scrolled
shoulder and triflute profile for pin for achieving good results. Su et al. [26] described an economical
method for measuring torque, axial force and traverse force to describe the process mechanism of FSW
and optimisation of the process. Nevertheless the process parameters considered in their study to establish
effects on the process was limited to welding and rotational speeds.
It can be seen that the aforementioned literature have not considered the effect of applied axial force on
friction stir weld formation precisely. Here, in this report the experimental effort to gather the effect of tool
axial force on FSW aluminium alloys is elaborated.
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Effect of Applied Axial Force on FSW of AA 6082 - T6 Aluminium Alloys
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Sreenivas P, Anil Kumar R and Sreejith P. S
200
UTS (MPa)
150
100
50
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Axial Force (kN)
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Effect of Applied Axial Force on FSW of AA 6082 - T6 Aluminium Alloys
The mode and location of fracture varies with samples (Figure 5). Out of the tensile test specimen
prepared, the samples L1 and L2 using axial force 2 kN and 3 kN respectively, fail by brittle fracture and it
was happened at the joint line of weld whereas L3 and L4 which undergo axial forces of 4 kN and 5 kN
were failed through tensile fracture. More over the specimen prepared under 2 kN and 3 kN failed in the
weld nugget and 4 and 5 kN failed in the TMAZ - HAZ inter face boundary.
The fracture locations reflect the weakest locations in the weld, and hence the mechanical properties of
the weld joints. The local and heterogeneous deformations lead to fracture and it depends on the welding
parameters. It was reported that during tensile tests the fracture of welds occurs at the interface of NZ and
TMAZ, when the welds are free of voids and other defects. On the other hand fracture occurs at the weld
nuggets when defects exist in the welds [27]. The defect formation might have contributed to the variation
in the fracture locations and the tensile properties of the joints as depicted in Figure 4 and 5.
350
300
250
Stress, MPa
L0 - B M
200 L1 - 2 kN
L2 - 3 kN
150 L3 - 4 kN
L4 - 5 kN
100
50
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Strain
Figure 6 Stress strain curves for tensile specimen: BM- Base metal; A- 2kN; B- 3kN; C- 4kN; D- 5kN.
Friction stir weld is akin to a heterogeneous composite with different material properties for different
parts and their interfaces. When the weld is subjected to a tensile load stress and strain concentration
occurs at the weakest part or location and the weld fractures at this location [28]. The stress strain curve in
Figure 6 indicates the mode of fracture of the welds. It may be concluded that the difference in modes of
fracture was attributed to the presents of defects.
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Sreenivas P, Anil Kumar R and Sreejith P. S
L1 L1 Crack
L2 L2
L3 L3
L4
L4
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Effect of Applied Axial Force on FSW of AA 6082 - T6 Aluminium Alloys
AA 6082 has the highest strength among the 6000 series alloys. The presence of larger amount
Manganese controls the grain structure and hence the strength. The microstructure
microstr of the parent alloy
(Figure 5) shows elongated grains of primary alpha aluminium with evenly distributed Mg2Si particles in
solid solution with Aluminium.
L1 L2
L3 L4
L1 L2
L3 L4
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Sreenivas P, Anil Kumar R and Sreejith P. S
L1 L2
L3 L4
Figure 5 Optical micrograph of TMAZ: L1- 2kN, L2- 3kN, L3- 4kN, L4- 5kN.
The TMAZ region corresponds to the material which is subjected to intense mechanical deformation
and heat. For all the welds, the chosen parameters were apparently sufficient to deform the grains
thermally and mechanically to transform the material layers in to onion rings at a micro level.
L1 L2
L3 L4
Figure 6 Optical micrograph of centre of NZ: L1- 2kN, L2- 3kN, L3- 4kN, L4- 5kN.
The microstructure in NZ is appeared to be subjected to dynamic recrystallization, and showed
dissolution of eutectic particles. Presence of fine and fragmented particles of Mg2Si may be detected.
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Effect of Applied Axial Force on FSW of AA 6082 - T6 Aluminium Alloys
3.3. Microhardness
4. CONCLUSION
FSW of AA 6082- T6 alloy was carried out by varying the axial force where other parameters were kept
constant. Even though other process parameters were selected such that they fall in a FSW window
corresponding to good weld formation, axial force was found to influence the mechanical properties of the
weld joints significantly. The observations from the experimental trials can be concluded as follows.
Tensile strength of the welds increased with axial force, reached a local maximum for 4kN axial force and
then exhibited a decreasing trend.
Microstructure revealed that variation in axial force did not affect the precipitation or distribution of the
strengthening precipitates which indicated that variation in axial force did not influence the heat input.
Microhardness of the nugget was significantly higher than that of the base metal which indicated that
variation in axial force did not affect the precipitation or distribution of the strengthening precipitates.
The variation in tensile properties may be due to the defect formation as revealed by the macro graph of the
welds. The maximum tensile strength corresponded to 4kN axial force which might assure proper material
flow along with the combination of the other parameter level considered.
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Sreenivas P, Anil Kumar R and Sreejith P. S
Axial force had a significant influence on the material flow when shoulder diameter was kept constant.
Selection of axial force in FSW is very important in achieving a defect free weld with optimum mechanical
properties.
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