Welding International

ISSN: 0950-7116 (Print) 1754-2138 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/twld20

The effect of the electron beam welding speed

on the chemical composition, structure and
properties of welded joints in D16 aluminium alloy

V. K. Dragunov, E. V. Terentev, A. L. Goncharov & A. Yu. Marchenkov

To cite this article: V. K. Dragunov, E. V. Terentev, A. L. Goncharov & A. Yu. Marchenkov (2016)
The effect of the electron beam welding speed on the chemical composition, structure and
properties of welded joints in D16 aluminium alloy, Welding International, 30:12, 948-952, DOI:
10.1080/09507116.2016.1157335

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09507116.2016.1157335

Published online: 09 Aug 2016.

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Welding International, 2016
VOL. 30, NO. 12, 948–952
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09507116.2016.1157335

The effect of the electron beam welding speed on the chemical composition,
structure and properties of welded joints in D16 aluminium alloy
V. K. Dragunov, E. V. Terentev, A. L. Goncharov and A. Yu. Marchenkov
Scientific and Research Institute of the Moscow Institute of Energy, Moscow, Russia

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of electron beam welding speed in Electron beam welding;
the range 20–120 m/h on the properties of welded joints in 20-mm-thick plates of D16 alloy. aluminium alloy
The distribution of magnesium in the cross section of welded joints in dependence on the D16; welding speed;
welding speed was determined. The structure of the welded joints was investigated by optical microstructure of the
welding joints
and electron microscopy. The hardness in different zones of the welded joints after welding
and different types of heat treatment was measured. The relationship between the chemical
composition, structure and mechanical properties of the welded joints produced at different
welding speeds was determined.

D16 deformable aluminium alloy belongs in the group
of alloys with low weldability because of the very high
susceptibility to hot cracking. Since welding results in sof-
tening of the metal in the heat-affected zone (HAZ), D16
alloy can be used for welded structures only if the com-
ponents can be heat treated [1,2]. Vacuum electron beam
welding (EBW) greatly increases the quality of welded
joints because the high energy concentration and the high
welding speed result in the formation of narrow welded
joints with a small HAZ with minimum heat input and
the vacuum ensures reliable protection of the weld pool
during welding [3]. One of the most important parame-
ters of EBW is the welding speed, which determines the
cooling rate of the welded joint and, consequently, the
structure and properties of the metal. Therefore, investi-
gations of the effect of the welding speed on the properties
of welded joints are of considerable importance.
The aim of the present work is the investigation of
the effect of the EBW speed on the chemical composi-
tion, structure and mechanical properties of the welded
joints in the D16 alloy.
Investigations were carried out on welded joints
in 20-mm plates of D16 aluminium alloy produced
by EBW at different speeds. EBW was conducted in
equipment fitted with an ELA 40I energy source with
an accelerating voltage of 60 kV. The beam was focused
for different welding currents to produce the maximum
depth of penetration of the plates. Continuous pene-
tration was not permitted. The welding conditions are
presented in Table 1.
The chemical compositions of the parent metal and
the weld metal were determined in a LAES Matrix
atomic emission spectrometer with laser excitation.
The composition of the welded joint was determined
by scanning the cross section of the welded joint with
a step of 1 mm. Since magnesium is of most interest of
all the alloying elements, the measurement results are
presented in the form of the distribution of magnesium
in the cross section using a colour scale. Microsections
were prepared in an AbrasiMatic 300 cutting machine,
a Simplimet 1000 hot pressing machine, and an EcoMet
250 automatic grinding – polishing machine. The micro-
structure was developed in an etching agent of the fol-
lowing composition: 5% HF, 5% FeCl3, 90% H2O. The
macrostructure of the specimens after etching is shown
in Figure 1.
The microstructure was studied in an Observer Zim
optical microscope (Zeiss, Germany). The structure was
examined in a Tecnai G2 20 TWIN transmission elec-
tron microscope on specimens in the form of thin foils,
using a Model 200 grinding machine to a thickness of
10 μm followed by ion etching in a Model 1010 machine
until holes were formed. The structure was studied at
the edge of the hole with a thickness of the metal of
several tens of nanometres. The Vickers hardness in dif-
ferent zones of the welded joints was measured using
an Instron Tukon 2500 hardness meter. The indentation
load was 2 and 5 kg, the holding time under load 5 s.
To determine the effect of heat treatment on hard-
ness in the individual zones of the welded joints, all

Selected from Svarochnoe Proizvodstvo, 2015, 68 (12) 17–21.

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
 Welding International   949

Table 1.  tension coefficient (N/m); D is the channel diameter (m);

Welding current Welding speed Penetration depth Tp is the surface temperature of the weld pool (K); p is
No. (mA) (m/h) (mm) the pressure in the vapour–gas channel (Pa).
1 65 20 17 The temperature dependence of the surface tension
2 100 60 19
3 140 120 17 coefficient was calculated using the equation and the
data published in [6,7]:

𝜎(Tp ) = 𝜎st − k(Tp − Tm ), (2)

where σst is the surface tension coefficient at Tm (N/m);

Tm is the melting point of the metal (K).
The pressure in the vapour–gas channel was deter-
mined as the sum of the partial pressures of each element
of the alloy pi [5]:
n
∑
p= pi0 Xi Yi , (3)
1

where pi0 is the saturated vapour pressure of the i-th ele-

Figure 1. Microsections of welded joints produced at speeds of
20 (a), 60 (b) and 120 m/h (c).
specimens were quenched followed by artificial ageing.
The quenching conditions: heating to 455 °C, holding
time 1 h, cooling in cold water. Natural ageing time was
4 days. After welding, the specimens were also annealed
at 400 °C for 1 h.
In EBW the metal rapidly evaporates and the pressure
of saturated vapours of different elements in the vapour–
gas channel may differ by several orders of magnitude
[4]. The amount of the evaporated metal depends on the
melt temperature and the holding time of the alloy in the
liquid state. One of the main alloying components of the
D16 aluminium alloys is magnesium characterised by a
high vapour tension [5], which in the EBW conditions
results in a decrease of the magnesium concentration
in the weld metal. The pressure and temperature in the
vapour–gas channel were determined using the equi-
librium equation:
2𝜎(Tp )
𝜌liq gz + = p(Tp ),
D speed. The magnesium content in the lower part of the
where ρliq is the density of liquid metal at the melting
point (kg/m3); g is free fall acceleration; z is the coor-
dinate of the investigated point in relation to the front
surface of the welded components (m); σ is the surface
ment above the pure metal (Pa); Xi is the atomic fraction
of the i-th element in the alloy; Yi is the activity coeffi-
cient of the i-th element in the alloy.
The saturated vapour pressure pi0 was calculated using
the Clayperon–Clausius equation, which was trans-
formed to the equation of the type [5]:
A
logpi0 = − + B + ClogT + 10−3 DT, (4)
T
to simplify the calculations. Here A, B, C and D are the
empirical coefficients.
The calculation results show that the vapour pressure
at a depth of 15 mm for a channel diameter of 1 mm
is approximately 12  mm  Hg. This pressure above the
D16 alloy is reached at a temperature of 1397 K. At this
temperature the composition of the vapour contains
more than 99% magnesium and the weld metal is greatly
depleted in magnesium.
The experimental results show that in comparison
with the GOST 4784–97 standard the parent metal con-
tains a slightly lower magnesium content. The chemical
composition of the D16 aluminium alloy is presented
in Table 2.
After EBW, the magnesium concentration at the top
part of the welded joint rapidly decreased and the losses
of magnesium increased with a decrease of the welding
(1)
welded joint was almost completely constant because
welding was accompanied by the continuous process
of evaporation of the metal vapours at the front wall
of the channel and condensation at the back wall, and
the main losses as a result of the operation took place

Table 2. 
Element Cu Mg Mn Fe Si Zn
Actual composition (%) 4.7 1.1 0.6 <0.1 0.2 <0.1
According to GOST 4784–97 standard (%) 3.8–4.9 1.2–1.8 0.3–0.9 <0.5 <0.5 <0.25
950    V. K. Dragunov et al.

Figure 2. Effect of welding speed on the grain size of the weld

metal. (a)

nm nm (b)
(a) (b)

Figure 3. Dislocation structure in the weld metal produced at

speeds of 20 m/h (a) and 120 m/h (b), magnification ×100,000.

at the top part of the welded joint. The increase of the

magnesium losses with a decrease of the welding speed
is fully regular because of the increase of the holding
time of the metal in the molten state. For example, at a
welding speed of 20 m/h the magnesium content at the
tip of the welded joint decreased from 1.1 to 0.6–0.7%
after welding. Thus, the local decrease of the magne-
sium content may result in a decrease of the strength
characteristics of the weld metal, especially the top part
of the welded joint.
The structure of the parent metal of the welded
sheets of the D16 aluminium alloy forms during heat
treatment and deformation [8,9]. The investigated
plates where supplied in the condition after rolling
and, therefore, the microstructure of the parent metal
consisted of the grains of the α-phase, elongated in
the rolling direction, and large inclusions of different
intermetallic phases. Since the thermally strengthened
aluminium alloys were subjected to homogenising and
heterogenising annealing prior to rolling, the solid
solution was depleted the maximum extent in alloy-
ing components [8], which increased the ductility and
lowered the strength.
Because of the high heating and cooling rates the
weld zone metal is situated in the high-temperature
region only for a short period of time so that the recrys-
tallisation processes do not take place in this metal.
(c)
Figure 4. Hardness distribution in the cross sections of welded
joints in D16 alloy, produced at speeds of 20 m/h (a), 60 m/h (b)
and 120 m/h (e).
Therefore, the structure of the HAZ is identical to the
structure of the parent metal and does not change up
to the fusion line.
The microstructure of the central part of the weld
metal of the welded joint, produced at different speeds,
consisted of the grains of the α-phase and the inclusions
of the secondary excess intermetallic phase of the grain
boundaries. This is typical of the cast structure of duralu-
mins [2,8,9]. With increase of the welding speed the size
of the grains (Figure 2) and inclusions of the secondary
excess phase decreased and this had a beneficial effect on
the mechanical properties. The weld metal had a charac-
teristic structure with columnar crystals stretched from
the parent metal to the centre of the welded joint in the
direction opposite to that of heat removal. The grains in

Table 3. 
Welding speed (m/h) After welding
Weld 20 103.0 (107.3)
60 102.8 (109.0)
120 106.0 (113.5)
Parent metal 65.5 (67.4)
the centre of the weld in the cross sections were almost
completely equiaxed as the heat transfer took place
mostly through the back wall of the weld pool.
In EBW the weld metal solidifies under the condi-
tions of the high cooling rate which, taking into account
the high values of the linear expansion coefficient,
resulted in high-rate thermal and deformation processes.
Comparison of the dislocation structure of the weld met-
als, produced at speeds of 20 and 120 m/h, in electron
microscopic studies indicates that the strain rate and
the level of residual stresses increased with increasing
welding speed. This was reflected in the increase of the
dislocation density (Figure 3).
Thus, the increase of the welding speed, on the one
hand, resulted in the formation of finer grains in the
weld metal and, on the other hand, increased the degree
of deformation in the volumes of the metal heated to
high temperatures.
The results of the hardness measurements of the
welded joints in the D16 alloy on the cross section in
two sections and in the top part of the welded joint and
the weld root show that the hardness of the weld metal
in all specimens is maximum and 50–60% higher than
the hardness of the parent metal (Figure 4).
The higher hardness of the weld metal is explained
by the fact that welding resulted in the formation of a
supersaturated solid solution of the α-phase in the weld
metal as a result of high cooling rates because quench-
ing took place from the liquid state followed by ageing.
In addition, the increase of hardness is caused by the
formation of a fine-grained structure and more disperse
inclusions of the intermetallic phases. There was a small
change (approximately 10%) in the properties in differ-
ent sections within the limits of the same section. This is
due to different cooling rates at the top part and the root
of the welded joint with a complex thermal and strain
cycle in welding, and also changes in the chemical com-
position of the weld metal and the penetration depth.
The hardness in the weld zone smoothly decreased to
the level of the parent metal. Higher hardness values
in the weld zone in comparison with the parent metal
were associated with the partial dissolution of the inter-
metallic compounds during heating, with subsequent
ageing and hardening in the deformation and thermal
cycle of welding.
Investigation of the hardness distribution after heat
treatment allowed the leveling out of the dislocation
hardening formed after the welding cycle and evaluation
Welding International   951
HV5 (kg/mm2 average (maximum))
Quenching + natural ageing Annealing
133.0 (136.7) 71.4 (74.9)
136.9 (139.6) 70.5 (71.2)
135.9 (139.2) 69.4 (70.3)
132.2 (136.4) 65.6 (68.3)
of the hardness of different zones of the welded joint for
the same conditions. The hardness distribution along the
axis of the welded joints after heat treatment (quench-
ing  +  natural ageing) shows that in all specimens the
hardness of the top part of the welded joint was approxi-
mately 10 kg/mm2 lower, which in this case is due exclu-
sively to the lower magnesium content in the top part of
the welded joint. The difference in the hardness of the
welded joints produced at different speeds was not so
large and was within the statistical error range.
It should be noted that the weld metal had a higher
hardness than the parent metal even after heat treatment.
The comparison of the hardness of the welded joints
after annealing (T = 400 °C, t = 1 h) showed that the HV
weld hardness was consistently higher by approximately
5 kg/mm2 than the hardness of the parent metal. This
difference can be explained by the formation of the fine-
grained structure of the weld metal and the dispersion of
the secondary excess phase in the weld metal insoluble
in the α-phase at the quenching temperature, and also
by the presence of manganese in the solid solution of
the weld metal or in the composition of the disperse
aluminides, whereas the manganese in the parent metal
formed intermetallic compounds of relatively large sizes
as a result of prior long-term heterogenising annealing.
This behaviour of manganese is associated with its low
diffusibility in aluminium so that in 1 h annealing of the
cast weld metal in which manganese was in the solid
solution there was insufficient time for the formation of
large inclusions of manganese aluminides. Table 3 pre-
sents the summary data for the hardness of the welded
joints in the parent metal in different states.
Conclusions
(1)  The increase of the EBW speed of the D16
aluminium alloy to 120 m/h results in a small
(3–5%) increase of the hardness of the weld
metal caused by a decrease of the dimensions
of the structural components, the increase of
dislocation density and the decrease of the
magnesium losses during welding.
(2)  
Lowering the welding speed to 20  m/h
increases the magnesium losses in the weld
metal as a result of evaporation. These losses
may reach 0.5% in the top part of the welded
joint which results in a local decrease of the
hardness by approximately 10 kg/mm2.
952    V. K. Dragunov et al.
(3)  At any welding speed the weld metal has  
higher hardness in comparison with the par-
ent metal, even after heat treatment. This is
 
determined by the fine-grained structure, the
dispersion of the secondary excess phase and  
different states of manganese in the alloy.
The electron microscopic studies were carried out at  
the Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials Department
of the Moscow Energy Institute.  
The report was prepared within the framework of
the Government project ‘Facilities for scientific studies’,
 
project No. 2014/123.
 
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