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. 2021 Nov 16;14(22):6924.
doi: 10.3390/ma14226924.

Friction Stir Welding of Thick Plates of 4Y3Gd Mg Alloy: An Investigation of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties

Khaja Moiduddin  1 , Arshad Noor Siddiquee  2 , Mustufa Haider Abidi  1 , Syed Hammad Mian  1 , Muneer Khan Mohammed  1
Affiliations

Friction Stir Welding of Thick Plates of 4Y3Gd Mg Alloy: An Investigation of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties

Khaja Moiduddin et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

Applications of non-ferrous light metal alloys are especially popular in the field of aerospace. Hence it is important to investigate their properties in joining processes such as welding. Solid state joining process such as friction stir welding (FSW) is quite efficient for joining non-ferrous alloys, but with thick plates, challenges increase. In this study, Mg alloy plates of thickness 11.5 mm were successfully welded via single-pass FSW. Due to the dynamic recrystallization, grain size in the stir zone was reduced to 16 µm which is ≈15 times smaller than the parent material. The optimized rotational speed and traverse speed for optimum weld integrity were found to be 710 rpm and 100 mm/min, respectively. A sound weld with 98.96% joint efficiency, having an Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) of 161.8 MPa and elongation of 27.83%, was accomplished. Microhardness of the nugget was increased by 14.3%.

Keywords: aerospace alloys; friction stir welding; light-weight alloys; non-ferrous metals.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of (a) FSW Experimental Setup and (b) Tool design (all dimensions are in ‘mm’).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a–d) Weldments corresponding to Exp. Nos. 1–4 (e) Schematic diagram of as machined tensile specimen (all dimensions are in ‘mm’).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Macrostructures corresponding to (a) Exp. No. 1, (b) Exp. No. 2, (c) Exp. No. 3, and (d) Exp. No. 4.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Microstructure corresponding to: (a) Base metal, (b) Tunnelling Defects and porosity corresponding to Exp. No. 1, (c) Tunnelling defect corresponding to Exp. No. 2, (d) Micro-cracks exhibited by Exp. No. 3, and (e) HAZ corresponding to Exp. No. 4.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) SZ-AS for Exp. No. 4, (b) SZ-Centre for Exp. No. 4, (c) SZ-RS for Exp. No. 4, and (d) TMAZ for Exp. No. 4.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Micro-hardness distribution plots across the transverse cross-section of the welds for (a) Exp. No. 1, (b) Exp. No. 2, (c) Exp. No. 3, and (d) Exp. No. 4.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Grain size distribution for Exp. No. 4 (a) SZ-AS, (b) SZ-Centre, and (c) SZ-RS.
Figure 8
Figure 8
(a) Engineering stress vs Strain curves for Exp. Nos. 1–4 (b) Failed tensile specimen for Exp. Nos. 1–4.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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