Effect of Welding Parameters on Microstructure, Thermal, and Mechanical Properties of Friction-Stir Welded Joints of AA7075-T6 Aluminum Alloy

Abstract

A high-strength Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy AA7075-T6 was friction-stir welded with various process parameter combinations incorporating the design of the experiment to investigate the effect of welding parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties. A three-factors, five-level central composition design (CCD) has been used to minimize the number of experimental conditions. The friction-stir welding parameters have significant influence on the heat input and temperature profile, which in turn regulates the microstructural and mechanical properties of the joints. The weld thermal cycles and transverse distribution of microhardness of the weld joints were measured, and the tensile properties were tested. The fracture surfaces of tensile specimens were observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the formation of friction-stir processing zone has been analyzed macroscopically. Also, an equation was derived to predict the final microhardness and tensile properties of the joints, and statistical tools are used to develop the relationships. The results show that the peak temperature during welding of all the joints was up to 713 K (440 °C), which indicates the key role of the tool shoulder diameter in deciding the maximum temperature. From this investigation, it was found that the joint fabricated at a rotational speed of 1050 rpm, welding speed of 100 mm/min, and shoulder diameter of 14 mm exhibited higher mechanical properties compared to the other fabricated joints.