Imaging characterization of friction stir welds in the AA 5182-H111 aluminium alloy

Abstract

The environmentally friendly friction stir welding (FSW) process is being increasingly used in joining similar and dissimilar aluminium and copper alloys and other soft materials. In this process a rotating tool promotes significant shear strain and frictional heating of the base materials, in order to stir them into a highly plasticized weld region, at the trailing side of the tool. Due to the intense plastic deformation, complex material flow patterns, such as vortices, swirls and whorls occur during welding. In dissimilar welds, these patterns are readily revealed by differential etching and the respective microstructures characterized. However, in similar welds, such as the welds between plates of AA 5182-H111 aluminium alloy, it is hard to distinguish the different features in the welds and characterize their microstructures. Fig. 1 illustrates optical and TEM micrographs of a weld in this alloy. In the optical image of the weld, at the top of the image, it is possible to distinguish three main areas signalized by numbers: the weld nugget (1), with a very fine grain structure with 2.8 um mean grain size, and a transition region (2) between the nugget and the base material (3), which is usually called the Thermomechanical Affected Zone (TMAZ).