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Hardness and tensile behaviour of friction stir welded Cu-40wt%Zn brass

Article  in  Indian Journal of Engineering and Materials Sciences · February 2017

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Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials Sciences
Vol. 24, February 2017, pp. 63-68

Hardness and tensile behaviour of friction stir welded Cu-40wt%Zn brass

N Srirangarajalu* & A Rajadurai
Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai 600 044, India

Received 28 December 2015; accepted 19 January 2017

Modern industry requires not only a high quality production and fabrication systems but also a green manufacturing
system. The conventional welding processes could not fulfill these requirements, which in turn lead to special welding
processes. In conventional welding process it is difficult to weld brass because of high thermal conductivity and zinc
evaporation. These problems can be overcome by new solid state welding process technique namely friction stir welding
(FSW). The main objective of the study is to analyze the joining behaviour of 6 mm thick Cu-40%Zn brass plates. The tool
rotational speed, traverse speed, microstructure analysis, hardness profile and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis
were carried out. In this case, the weld joint made in brass-brass weld resulted joint efficiency of 58%. The weld nugget
shows that the hardness profile of brass-brass weld hardness was almost same as base metal hardness. The weld nugget is
very fine with even grain size in the principal axis directions and it is of 8-10 µm and 4-6 µm in α and β, respectively. The
fractograph shows some fine dimples in the fractured surface indicating the ductility.

Keywords: Welding characterisation, Friction stir welding, Brass, Fractographic test

Brass is being used in many industrial applications,
because of its excellent properties like good ductility,
corrosion resistance and thermal conductivity.
Conventional welding processes may not be an apt
solution for brass material because of high thermal
conductivity and active zinc evaporation in brass.
Friction stir welding (FSW) was invented by the
Welding Institute of the United Kingdom in the year
1991. It is an energy efficient, eco-friendly versatile
metal joining technique1. FSW applications have been
reported in many industrial sectors, like fabrication of
ship panels, frames of high speed trains, the
suspension arms of cars, also in other industries such
as aerospace, automotive, petrochemical, marine and
nuclear sector2. Brass (Cu-Zn alloy) exhibits higher
plasticity, strength, hardness and corrosion resistance
than pure copper. 60Cu-40Zn is most widely used
copper alloy for sheathing work on ships, condenser
heads and condenser tubes3. The obvious limitation in
fusion welding of brass is the evaporation and melting
loss of a large amount of zinc, in turn leads to failure
of weldments due to lower steam point of the element
(Zn). Advantages of FSW over other welding
processes are lower heat input than that of fusion
welding, previous investigations on FSW of brass
indicated that defect free welds could be obtained
only at a lower traverse speed and high tool rotational
——————
*Corresponding author (E-mail: nsrirangarajalu@mitindia.edu)
speed, i.e., higher heat input conditions4. Xie et al.5
studied the microstructure, mechanical properties and
recrystallization behaviour of friction stir welded
5 mm thick α-β brass plate. It was found that the
nugget zone consisted of both completely, partially
recrystallized and decreased as the tool rotational
speed was increased. The tensile and the yield
strength of the welds could attain about 99 and 80%
of the parent metal. Park et al.6 analysed the
microstructure of friction stir welded 60/40 brass
plates and found extremely fine grains with some
deformed grains in the weld nugget and elongated
grains in the thermo-mechanically affected zone. The
hardness values within the weld nugget in all welding
conditions were much higher than those of the base
metal. The generation of refined grains in the weld
nugget was main factor which caused the increase of
hardness7. Barlas and Uzun8 observed the
microstructure, microhardness, tensile and bend
behaviour of friction stir welded Cu-30Zn. The
recrystallized grains of CuZn30 and intercalated swirl
and vortex-like structure which can be characterized
the brass. The average hardness at the top and bottom
lines was found to be about 92 Hv0.1 and 102 Hv0.1
respectively. Cam et al.9 Suggest that lower tool
rotational speed could be used to improve the joint
performances, particularly the ductility performance
for the 70/30 brass plates. Meran10 reported that the
mechanical properties of the weld joint could reach to
64 INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2017
base metal strength level if suitable welding parameters
are determined. Fractures usually occur either in heat
affected zone or in the weld joint. However, fractures
could occur on the base material under conditions of
2050 rpm and 112 mm/min. Cam et al.11 investigated
microstructure, micro hardness and mechanical testing
on 63% Cu-37% Zn plates by FSW. Grain refinement
was obtained in the weld nugget. A hardness drop was
observed in the weld nugget. The joints displayed
reasonable strength and ductility. Nakata12 observed
finer microstructure in the weld nugget than the base
metal, the microstructure being well known to sustain
fine equiaxing induced by dynamic recrystallization.
Moghaddam et al.13 observed the microstructure
showed very fine grains with some deformed grains in
the stirred zone and some coarse grains in the thermo
mechanically affected zone and base metal. The grain
size profile was independent of feed, speed and the
hardness values decreased by increase in feed and
speed. Nakata12 and Moghaddam et al.13 have also
reported similar microstructure in their experiments.
Sun et al.14 reported 2 mm thick single phase
Cu-30Zn brass plates by FSW. The average grain
size ranged from 6.4 to 9.6 µm, which is much
smaller than the 28.2 µm of the base metal. All the
sound welds fractured on the base metal during the
tensile tests, indicative of improved mechanical
properties in the weld nugget. The highest tensile
strength of the weld nugget can reach about 380 MPa,
much higher than the 340 MPa of the base metal.
Akbar and Tohid15 observed sound welds in single
and double phase brass plates of 2 mm thick which
were friction stir welded. Zhou et al.16 reported the
base material of copper consisted of an equiaxed α
phase, while that of brass was characterized by a
coarse α phase containing certain twins and a β phase.
Onion rings were developed due to the plastic flow of
metal induced by mechanical mixing in the weld
nugget during friction stir welding. Mehmet et al. 17
reported that due to dynamic recrystallization,
the grains in the weld nugget become fine. The
microhardness values of the weld nugget
were observed to vary between 87 and 255 Hv.
Mironov et al.18 reported that the microstructure was
essentially determined by continuous recrystallization,
leading to significant grain refinement and
Table 1 — Chemical composition of brass
Elements in wt% Zn Pb Sn Fe
Brass 41.143 2.743 0.294 0.362
related material strengthening in the weld
nugget. Srirangarajalu and Rajadurai19 reported
that the 6 mm thick electrolytic tough pitch copper
plates with tool rotational speeds of 1300-1600 rpm
and traverse speed 30-45 mm/min respectively.
Tensile strength of the welded specimens was
found to be 75% in comparison with that of
base metal. The average hardness of the weld
nugget was lesser than the base metal because of
annealing of the cold rolled copper plates during
welding. The fine equiaxed grains were found in the
weld nugget.
From the detailed literature survey, it has been
inferred that less attention has been given to discuss
about fractography analysis and microstructural
characterization of friction stir welded brass material.
Thus, the present experimental investigation has
been carried out. The main aim of the present study is
to analyze the influence of process parameters such
as tool rotational speed and traverse speed on
performance measures of FSW processed brass
material.
Experimental Procedure
200 × 100 mm brass plates with a thickness of
6 mm have been selected for this study. The chemical
composition of the brass plates is given in Table 1.
FSW was conducted at various traverse speeds and
rotational speeds. In previous study various tool pin
profiles were examined and it was found that only
taper threaded tool pin profile gave a better weld.
Tool dimensions and shape was shown in Fig. 1.
Hardened and tempered tool steel M2 was used in this
welding and its hardness ranges up to 60 HRC.
Fig. 1 — Taper threaded cylindrical tool pin profile
Ni Si Al Mg P Cu
0.28 0.017 0.013 0.046 - 55.143
 SRIRANGARAJALU & RAJADURAI: FRICTION STIR WELDED Cu-40wt%Zn BRASS 65

During welding, the weld tool was tilted at angle of
3 clockwise. The weld nugget of FSW samples were
analyzed by polishing and etching with nitric acid and
distilled water (with equal ratio) for nearly 3-4 s in the
cross-section perpendicular to the welding direction.
The features of the structure at microstructural level
were then studied under optical microscopy (OM).
The microhardness of the weld region and base
metal was analyses of along mid-thickness of plates
with 300 g load for a period of 10 s dwell time by
micro-Vickers hardness testing machine. Tensile tests
were carried out using 20 ton capacity tensile testing
machine using ASTM E8 sub-size samples. The
tensile tested weldments were cut below 10 mm
height and the weldments were examined in scanning
electron microscope (SEM) and compared with the
base metal fractography.
Results and Discussion
Microstructure of brass weld
The microstructure of the base brass plate was
observed to be duplex consisting of α and β phases.
The grain shape was also found to be a duplex
mixture of elongated and equiaxed. The duplex
structure consisted of large size of α grain (16-36 µm)
and small size of β grain (8-12 µm) as shown in
Fig. 2(a). The microstructure of the nugget zone (NZ),
thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ) and
heat affected zone (HAZ) are shown in Figs 2(b),
2(c) and 2(d), respectively. Figure 2(b) shows the
microstructure of the nugget zone of the brass plates
welded at a rotational speed of 1600 rpm of tool
traverse speed of 60 mm/min. This exhibits that
porosity or any other defects are not present in the
nugget zone. The nugget zone shows the presence of
refined equiaxed α grains of size 8-10 µm and
β grains of size 4-6 µm. This observation ensures the
occurrence of a complete recrystallisation in the
nugget zone. Figure 2(c) shows the microstructure of
the TMAZ, in which partial enlarged equiaxed
grains of size ranging between 20-40 µm are seen.
Figure 2(d) HAZ, shows a partial recrystallisation
resulting in equiaxed grains of size 12-20 µm and
10-15 µm in α and β grains respectively. The grain

Fig. 2 — Various microstructural zones in FSW of brass (a) microstructure of Brass Base Metal (BM) showing elongated grains,
(b) microstructure of Weld Nugget (WN) showing fine equiaxed grains, (c) microstructure of WN-TMAZ interface and (d) microstructure
of Thermo Mechanically Affected Zone of retreating side (TMAZ)
66 INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2017
refinement in friction stir welding are analysed
within the nugget zone. The finest grain size was
observed in the nugget zone of the joint produced
with a traverse speed of 60 mm/min and a rotational
speed of 1600 rpm. Fine equiaxed grains were found
to be distributed throughout the nugget zone and a
small increment in grain size in TMAZ and HAZ
were also noticed in Fig. 2c and 2d.
Tensile properties of brass weldments
Tensile tests were conducted on the base metal and
FSW weldaments, the tensile properties such as proof
stress, ultimate tensile strength, percentage of elongation
and the joint efficiency with reference to the UTS of
base metal were calculated and given in Table 2.
The optimal mechanical properties for a FSW joint
on a brass plate were obtained by the tool rotational
speed of 1400 rpm with traverse speed of 45 mm/min.
The tensile strength and percentage of elongation of
the brass base material were 495 MPa and 24%,
respectively. Whereas, the tensile strength and
elongation of the best FSW joint weldments, were
observed to be 287 MPa and 13%, respectively. The
weld efficiency was found to be 58%. On increasing
the tool rotational speed and the traverse speed of
1600 rpm and 45 mm/min, the joint efficiency and
elongation were found to be 55% and 13%,
respectively. In this case, the fracture location of the
weld joint was in the base metal.
Micro Vickers hardness profile of brass weld
Results of micro Vickers hardness measurement
obtained on weld joint at a speed of 1400 rpm and
45 mm/min are given in Fig. 3. The hardness obtained
in the weldments is slightly higher than the base metal
hardness and this could be attributed to the fine grain
and fine phase mixture of α and β phases.
Fractographic analysis of weldments
The fracture surfaces of the tensile test weldments
of the base material brass, FS welded with 1400 with
45 mm/min, 1600 rpm with 45 mm/min and with
1600 rpm with 60 mm/min were examined under
SEM and the typical fractographics are shown in
Figs 4-7, respectively.
Table 2 — Tensile properties of brass weld
Rotational speed, Welding speed Tensile strength,
RPM mm/min MPa
Brass 495
1400 45 287
1600 45 271
1600 60 243
Figure 4(a) shows the fractrography of the brass
(base material) tested in tension test. The fracture
pattern is uniformly dimple failure throughout the
fracture face of the weldaments. The magnified
picture of fractograph (Fig. 4b) shows the presence of
fairly large size dimples with deformed lips indicating
considerable ductility.
In order to analyze the role of tool rotational speed
and traverse speed, fracture surface pertaining to low
tool rotational speed /low traverse speed (1400 rpm
with low welding speed of 45 mm/min) was examined
in detail and the fractograph is shown in Fig. 5.
The low magnification fractograph (Fig. 5a) of
weldment FS welded with low tool rotational speed
(1400 rpm) low traverse speed (45 mm/min) shows
the presence of three distinct layers in fracture
surface. The three layered structure is attributed to the
three threads in the tool pin. Though the tool
rotational rate is sufficient to plasticize the brass at
horizontal plane, it did not force the material to flow
in vertical direction and hence a layered structure was
resulted. However, it is to be noted that the top and
bottom layers are relatively thin in comparison to the
thick middle layer. It confirms the occurrence of
homogeneous stirring and good welding in about 80%
of the entire thickness. The high magnification
fractograph obtained from the middle layer (Fig. 5b)
exhibits the presence of dimples with extensively
deformed lips, which indicates the high degree of ductility
due to good bonding. Park et al.6 have also observed
Fig. 3 — Hardness profile of brass weld
0.2% Proof stress, % of Elongation Joint Efficiency Fracture Location
MPa
198 24 BM
250 13 58 HAZ
250 13 55 HAZ
202 5 49 HAZ
 SRIRANGARAJALU & RAJADURAI: FRICTION STIR WELDED Cu-40wt%Zn BRASS 67

Fig. 4 — Tensile fractograph of the base metal brass (a) low magnification, showing a fairly uniform appearance of the fracture surface
and (b) high magnification, showing the dimples with deformed lips indicating considerable deformation prior to fracture

Fig. 5 — Tensile fractographs of brass weldments FSW with 1400 rpm and 45 mm/min traverse speed (a) low magnification image
showing three distinct layers and (b) dimples in the middle layer indicating the fracture by void nucleation and growth.

Fig. 6 — Tensile fractographs of brass weldments FSW with 1600 rpm and 45 mm/min traverse speed (a) low magnification image
showing three distinct layers and (b) high magnification at the bottom region showing a mixed type of fracture with presence of dimples
indicating the ductile and the presence of flat regions indicating the brittleness

layered structure in the fractograph of FS welded brass
plates using a tool pin profile of cylindrical.
Figure 6(a) shows the low magnification
fractogrpah of the weldment FS welded at 1600 rpm
rotational speed with 45 mm/min traverse speed. This
fractograph indicates a three layered fracture surface
with diffused interface. The predominant failure
pattern observed in the top layer is dimple fracture
indicating adequate ductility and the occurrence of
void nucleation and coalescence in Fig. 6(b).
In the case of high tool rotational speed of
1600 rpm and with high traverse speed of 60 mm/min,
 68 INDIAN J ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2017

Fig. 7 — Tensile fractographs of brass weldments FSW with 1400 rpm and 75 mm/min traverse speed (a) low magnification image
showing three distinct layers and (b) high magnification at the middle region, showing dimples and voids indicating ductile fracture

Table 3 — Comparison between the fracture behaviour of Acknowledgement

the specimens The authors were grateful to DMRL Hyderabad,
Materials Location Fractograph India, for providing the facilities for experimental
condition study. Also the authors thank Omega Testing
Low magnification High magnification
Laboratory and Tagore Engineering College, Chennai
Base metal Middle River pattern Dimples
for their enhanced support in conducting this study.
Weld- 1 HAZ Three layered Large dimples
Weld-2 HAZ Two layered with Fine dimples
broad middle layer
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