Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lee 2003
Lee 2003
The mechanical and metallurgical properties of friction welded joints between type 5052 aluminium alloy and type
A36 steel have been studied in the present work. Joint strength increased with increasing upset pressure and friction
time until it reached a crictical value. The strength of the joint settled at a lower value, compared with that of the
base metal, in the case of increasing friction time, caused by the formation of an intermediate phase (intermetallic
compound, oxides). The microstructure of 5052 alloy was greatly deformed near the weld interface, and underwent
dynamic recrystallisation owing to frictional heat and deformation resulting from the friction welding process.
Therefore, a very ne and equiaxed grain structure was observed near the interface. Elongated grains were observed
outside the dynamic recrystallisation region at the peripheral part, while the A36 steel side was not deformed. The
hardness of the near interface was slightly softer than that of the 5052 alloy base metal, and maximun softened width
was ~8 mm from the interface. In the present work, the conditions of friction time t1~0.5 s and upset pressure
P2~137.5 MPa gave maximum joint strength of 202 MPa when the friction pressure, upset time and rotation speed
were xed at 70 MPa, 5 s and 2000 rev min2 1, respectively, and these were the optimum friction welding conditions
for the aluminium alloy 5052 – A36 steel joint. MST/5494
Dr Lee and Professor Jung (sbjung@skku.ac.kr) are at the Advanced Materials and Process Research Centre for IT,
Sungkyunkwan University, 300 Cheoncheon-dong, Jangan-gu, Suwon, Gyounggi-do, 440 – 746, Korea, Dr Yeon is in the
Department of Automatic-Welding Engineering, Suwon Science College, Whasung, Gyounggi-do, 445 – 742, Korea and Dr Kim
is at the Research Institute, Hyundai Mobis Co., Youngin, Gyounggi-do, 449 – 910, Korea. Manuscript received 22 April 2002;
accepted 27 August 2002.
# 2003 IoM Communications Ltd. Published by Maney for the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
DOI 10.1179/026708303225001876 Materials Science and Technology June 2003 Vol. 19 773
774 Lee et al. Effect of friction welding on properties of Al alloy 5052 ± A36 steel joint
respectively. The friction time was varied from 0.1 to 3.0 s parent materials. In the present case, ashes from the
and the upset pressure from 70 to 150 MPa. A schematic interface were formed symmetrically around the weld circum-
illustration of the friction welding process and geometry ference on the 5052 alloy side. The amount of ash increased
of the welded specimens is shown in Fig. 1. The 5052 with increasing friction time and upset pressure. The A36
alloy was rotated, while the A36 steel was held and exerted steel side was not deformed because this material has
the force. higher strength than the aluminium alloy, and is thus more
The resultant welds were sliced using a diamond cutting resistant to deformation. Hence, the formation of ashes
wheel to provide cross-sections, avoiding thermal degrada- was restricted to 5052 alloy only.
tion. They were then ground with SiC paper (grade 100 – Optical microstructures of weld interfaces and base metals
2000), and nally micropolishedusing 0.05 mm Al2 O3 powder. are shown in Fig. 3. The 5052 alloy microstructure at the
The 5052 alloy specimen faces were etched with Keller’s weld interface was very different from that of the base
reagent1 1 (150 mL water, 3 mL nitric acid, 6 mL hydro- metal. However, the A36 steel microstructuredid not change,
uoric acid, 6 mL hydrochloric acid) for 0.18 ks and A36 relative to the base metal. Microstructural features of the
steel specimen faces were etched with nital (3% nitric acid 5052 alloy could be divided into four regions similar to
in methyl alcohol) for 15 s, before metallurgical examina- those observed in friction stir welding:1 2 ,1 3 (a) the DRX
tion. Microstructures of the friction welded interfaces were region,1 4 ,1 5 showing re ned and equiaxed grains caused by
observed by optical microscopy and SEM. strong plastic deformation and heat generation during
The width of the dynamic recrystallisation (DRX) the friction welding process, with grain size 10 times smaller
region at the weld interface was determined using an than that of the base metal; (b) the heat and deformation
image analyser. affected zone (HDZ) showing a ‘ owing’ grain structure
Tensile tests were carried out to evaluate the mechanical from the central part to the peripheral part, so elongated
properties of the joints. Testing was conducted at room grains were formed; (c) the heat affected zone (HAZ)
temperature using an Instron type machine with 1.676 located outside the HDZ, showing no difference in grain
102 2 mm s2 1 crosshead speed. The Vickers hardness distribu- size with respect to the optical appearance of the base metal,
tion of each material in the vicinity of the weld interface was and only distinguished by hardness tests; and (d) the base
measured with a load of 0.98 N, for 10 s. metal. The deformed region increased with increasing fric-
tion time and decreased with increasing upset pressure.
The peripheral part showed a wider deformed region
Results than the central part owing to the difference in rotation
speed (illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5).
It is known that plastic deformation and heat genera-
MICROSTRUCTURE EVOLUTION
tion occurring simultaneously during the friction welding
Macrographs of welded joint cross-sections are shown in process lead to DRX. Figure 6 shows the width of the
Fig. 2. In the case of dissimilar material joints, formation of DRX region in 5052 alloy from the weld interface to the
the ash depends on the mechanical properties of the two base metal for various welding conditions. The width of
the DRX region was narrow at the centre and broader
Table 1 Chemical compositions of materials used in pre- towards the periphery. The reason for this is that the peri-
sent study, wt-% pheral part underwent a stronger plastic ow and exper-
ienced more heat than the central part. At the edge of
C Si Mn P S Cr Mg Al Fe the peripheral part, the DRX region was narrow again
5052 alloy ¼ 0.094 ¼ ¼ 0.113 0.006 2. 51 Bal. ¼
because of the formation of the ash outside the interface.
A36 steel 0. 18 0.18 0.58 0.25 0.1 ¼ ¼ ¼ Bal. In the case of increasing the upset pressure from 70 to
92.5 MPa, the width of the DRX region was decreased
3 Microstructures of weld interfaces at central and peripheral regions and base metals
at the centre but the maximum width was greater. Increas- 5000 alloy systems.1 9 The former is known to undergo
ing the friction time diminished the difference in DRX thermal softening near the weld interface owing to the
width between the centre and the periphery so that the loss of precipitates as a result of the welding heat, but the
width of the DRX region was similar regardless of loca- latter does not exhibit this effect. Figure 7 shows hardness
tion. Aluminium alloys are high thermal conductivity pro les of the weld interface on the 5052 alloy side. A
materials, and a longer friction time caused the present softened area was observed near the interface, different from
5052 alloy to attain a homogeneous temperature near the the above assumption. The present 5052 alloy, recovered
interface. and recrystallised as a result of friction heat and deforma-
Fukumoto et al. reported that the hardness pro le of the tion, was slightly softened2 0 compared with the original,
cross-section of a weld interface could be lower or higher cold drawn 5052 alloy, which was already work hardened
than the hardnesses of the base materials, depending on the before the friction welding procedure. There was no dif-
metals welded and the welding parameters.1 6 – 1 8 Generally, ference in hardness values among the measured locations
aluminium alloys are divided into two groups: precipita- (centre, periphery, half radius R/2). The softened area
tion hardening alloys, after a speci c heat treatment (aging), showed lower hardness at about 60 – 70 HV(0.98 N) than
including the 2000, 6000 and 7000 alloy systems, and solid that of the base metal, which showed a scattered hard-
solution strengthening alloys, including the 3000, 4000 and ness range from 85 to 90 HV(0.98 N). The softened area
a given measured locations; b central region, given welding conditions; c peripheral region, given welding conditions
7 Vicker’s hardness distributions of 5052 alloy near weld interface