Abstract
The heat-affected zone (HAZ) is generally the intrinsic weakest location of the normal friction stir welded precipitate hardened aluminum alloys. In order to improve the mechanical properties of the HAZ by controlling the temperature level, underwater friction stir welding (FSW) of an Al-Cu aluminum alloy was conducted in the present study. The results indicate that the hardness of the HAZ can be improved through underwater FSW. Microstructural analysis reveals that the hardness improvement is attributed to the lowering of precipitate coarsening level and the narrowing of precipitate free zone, which are essentially induced by the variations of welding thermal cycles under the cooling effect of water.
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The authors are grateful to be supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2010CB731704) and by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (302010ZX04007-011).
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Zhang, H.J., Liu, H.J. & Yu, L. Effect of Water Cooling on the Performances of Friction Stir Welding Heat-Affected Zone. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 21, 1182–1187 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-011-0060-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-011-0060-8