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Microstructure and properties of underwater friction stir-welded 7003-T4/6060-T4 aluminum alloys

  • Metals & corrosion
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Abstract

Aiming at improving the joint efficiency with enhanced cooling rate, the dissimilar joints of AA 7003-T4 and 6060-T4 were produced by underwater friction stir weld (UFSW), and microstructure and mechanical properties of the dissimilar joints were investigated in this study. It is found that sound and defect-free joints can be obtained through UFSW, while tunnel defects are formed with a high welding speed of 240 mm/min. Due to the low temperature during UFSW, microstructure of the nugget is much finer than that of the normal FSW joint. The evolution of the precipitants is sensitive to the welding parameters of UFSW. With the welding speed increasing, more η and η′ phase remain due to the lower heat input. Compared with normal FSW, the heat-affected zone of the UFSW joint becomes narrow, and the soft region of the joint is closer to weld center according to the hardness distribution profiles. The largest ultimate tensile strength of the dissimilar joint is 183.9 ± 1.4 MPa and joint efficiency is 90.4%, which is higher than that of the normal FSW joint. The strength improvement is mainly attributed to the microstructure modification caused by water cooling.

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Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by the Major Special Project for Science and Technology of Guangdong Province (No. 2015B090926004), Science and Technology Project of Sihui (No. 2017A0102004) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong for Research Team (No. 2015A030312003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Research Center of Near-Net Shape Forming for Metallic Materials, Guangdong Key Laboratory for Processing and Forming of Advanced Metallic Materials, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, Guangdong, China

    Jialiang Dong, Datong Zhang, Weiwen Zhang, Wen Zhang & Cheng Qiu

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  1. Jialiang Dong
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  2. Datong Zhang
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  3. Weiwen Zhang
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  4. Wen Zhang
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Contributions

The author Datong Zhang supervised this study and provided modification on the article; the author Weiwen Zhang provided help on microstructure observation; the authors Wen Zhang and Cheng Qiu provided technical assistance; the author Jialiang Dong did the experiment and wrote the article.

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Correspondence to Datong Zhang.

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Dong, J., Zhang, D., Zhang, W. et al. Microstructure and properties of underwater friction stir-welded 7003-T4/6060-T4 aluminum alloys. J Mater Sci 54, 11254–11262 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03676-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03676-5

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