INFLUENCES OF TOOL TRAVEL SPEED ON TENSILE PROPERTIES OF UNDERWATER FRICTION STIR WELDED HIGH STRENGTH ARMOUR GRADE ALUMINIUM ALLOY JOINTS
Keywords:
Underwater friction stir welding, tool travel speed, microstructure, tensile properties, microhardnessAbstract
AA2519-T87 armour grade aluminium alloy is relatively a new class of Al-Cu alloy which has high toughness, high strength to weight ratio and ballistic properties. Because of these properties, this alloy is recently used for fabricating light combat armour vehicles. However, fusion welding of this alloy will end up with solidification defects like porosity, hot cracking, etc. To overcome these problems, friction stir welding (FSW) process can be used. Though in FSW, the joining of materials takes place below the melting temperature, the heat generated is enough to coarsen or dissolve the strengthening precipitates in the age hardenable Al alloys. To avoid the detrimental precipitation behaviour, under water friction stir welding (UWFSW) process can be employed. The effect of tool travel speed (TTS) on heat input and resultant mechanical properties will be entirely different in conventional FSW and UWFSW process. Hence this investigation is carried out to study the effect of TTS on the stir zone characteristics and the resultant tensile properties of the UWFSW joints. From this investigation, it is found that the joint made using TTS of 30 mm/min exhibited superior tensile properties and this may be attributed to the lower heat generation, higher grain boundary strengthening and narrowing of the lower hardness distribution region (LHDR).
Downloads
References
Babu N Karunakaran N and Balasubramanian V (2014), “Comparative evaluation of temperature distribution in GTAW and FSW joints of AA 5059 aluminium alloy”, Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, Vol. 9(2), 71-76.
Fisher J James J Lawrence S K and Joseph R P (2002), “Aluminum alloy 2519 in military vehicles”, Advanced Materials Process, Vol. 160, 43-46.
Sivaraj P Kanagarajan D and Balasubramanian V (2014), “Effect of post weld heat treatment on fracture toughness properties of friction stir welded AA7075-T651 aluminium alloy joints”, Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, Vol. 9(2), 110-115.
Lakshmana Rao M Shyam P Kodali Suresh Babu P Rammohan T and Seenaiah Y (2014), “Experimental investigations on friction stir welding of Al2219”, Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, Vol. 9(1), 45-48.
Venkatesan S Rajamani G P Balasubramanian V and Rajakumar S (2015), “S-N behaviour of friction stir welded AZ31B magnesium alloy joints”, Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, Vol. 10, 10-16.
Arun Prasath and Razal Rose A (2015), “Investigation of mechanical and metallurgical properties of friction stir welded magnesium alloy”, Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, Vol. 10, 81-85.
Manickam S and Balasubramanian V (2015), “Developing empirical relationships to predict the strength of friction stir spot welded AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy and copper alloy dissimilar joints”, Journal of Manufacturing Engineering, Vol. 10, 207-214.
Christian Fuller B Murray Mahoney W Mike Calabrese and Leanna Micona (2010), “Evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties in naturally aged 7050 and 7075 Al friction stir welds”, Materials Science and Engineering A, Vol. 527(9), 2233-2240.
Rui-dong Fu Zeng Qiang-sun Rui Cheng-sun Ying Li Hui-Jie Liu and Lei-liu (2011), “Improvement of weld temperature distribution and mechanical properties of 7050 aluminum alloy butt joints by submerged friction stir welding”, Materials and Design, Vol. 32, 4825-4831.
Wang Kuai-she Wu Jia-lei Wang Wen Zhou Long-hai Lin Zhao-xia and Kong Liang (2012), “Underwater friction stir welding of ultrafine grained 2017 aluminum alloy”, Journal of Central South University, Vol. 19, 2081-2085.
Hui-jie Zhang Hui-jie Liu and Lei Yu (2013), “Thermal modeling of underwater friction stir welding of high strength aluminum alloy”, Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, Vol. 23, 1114-1122.
Zhang H J Liu H J and Yu L (2012), “Effect of water cooling on the performances of friction stir welding heat-affected zone”, Journal of Material Engineering and Performance, Vol. 21, 1182-1187.
Liu Hui-jie Zhang Hui-jie Huang Yong-xian and Yu Lei (2010), “Mechanical properties of underwater friction stir welded 2219 aluminium alloy”, Transaction of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, Vol. 20,1387-1391.
Liu H J Zhang H J and Yu L (2011), “Effect of welding speed on microstructures and mechanical properties of underwater friction stir welded 2219 aluminum alloy”, Materials and Design, Vol. 32, 1548-1553.
Zhang Z Xiao B L and Ma Z Y (2014), “Influence of water cooling on microstructure and mechanical properties of friction stir welded 2014 Al-T6 joints”, Materials Science and Engineering A, Vol. 614, 6-15.
Huijie Zhang and Huijie Liu (2013), “Mathematical model and optimization for underwater friction stir welding of a heat-treatable aluminum alloy”, Materials and Design, Vol. 45, 206-211.
Hosseini M and Danesh Manesh H (2010), “Immersed friction stir welding of ultrafine grained accumulative roll-bonded Al alloy”, Materials and Design, Vol. 31, 4786-4791.
Zhang Z Xiao B L Wang D and Ma Z Y (2011), “Effect of alclad layer on material flow and defect formation in friction-stir-welded 2024 aluminum alloy”, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, Vol. 42(6), 1717-1726.
Saeid T Abdollah-Zadeh A Assadi H and Malek Ghaini F (2008), “Effect of friction stir welding speed on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a duplex stainless steel” Materials Science and Engineering A, Vol. 496(1), 262-268.
Feng Xiuli Liu Huijie and John Lippold C (2013), “Microstructure characterization of the stir zone of submerged friction stir processed aluminum alloy 2219”, Materials Characterization, Vol. 82, 97-102.
Zhang H J Liu H J and Yu L (2011), “Microstructure and mechanical properties as a function of rotation speed in underwater friction stir welded aluminum alloy joints”, Materials and Design, Vol. 32, 4402-4407.
Genevois C Deschamps A Denquin A and Doisneau Cottignies B (2005), “Quantitative investigation of precipitation and mechanical behaviour for AA2024 friction stir welds”, Acta Materialia, Vol. 53(8), 2447-2458.