Book Description

Through a series of carefully designed experiments, characterization and some modeling tools, this work is aimed at studying the role of thermal profiles on different microstructural zones and associated properties like strength and corrosion through a variation of weld parameters, thermal boundary conditions and material temper. Two different alloys belonging to the Al-Cu and Al-Cu-Li system in different temper conditions- peak aged (T8) and annealed (O) were used. A 3D-thermal pseudo mechanical (TPM) model is developed for the FSW process using heat transfer module in COMSOL Multiphysics and is based on a heat source wherein the temperature dependent yield shear stress is used for the heat generation. The precipitation and coarsening model is based on the Kampmann and Wagner theoretical framework and accounts for the competition between the various nucleation sites for both metastable and equilibrium precipitates. The model predicts different precipitate mean radius and volume fraction for the various zones in the friction stir welded material. A model for the yield strength is developed which considers contributions from different strengthening mechanisms. The predictions of the each models have been verified against experimental data and literature. At constant advance per rotation, the peak temperature decreases with a decrease in traverse speed and increases with an increase in tool rotation. Weld properties were significantly affected by choice of thermal boundary conditions in terms of backing plate diffusivity. Weld conditions with a higher peak temperature and high strain rate results in more dissolution of precipitates and fragmentation of constituent particles resulting in a better corrosion behavior for the weld nugget. For a peak aged temper of 2XXX alloys, the weld nugget experiences dissolution of strengthening precipitates resulting in a lower strength and the Heat affected zone (HAZ) experiences coarsening of precipitates. For an annealed material, both the weld nugget and HAZ experiences dissolution of precipitates with an increase in strength in the weld nugget.