Interfacial microstructure analysis of AA2024 welded joints by friction stir welding

Abstract

Process of joining different components by the application of external heat has resulted in induced stress on metals. Friction stir welding has been developed in order to avoid such residual stress development while joining. In this present work, aluminium alloy AA2024 plates were welded by using Friction stir welding process. The experiments were conducted for different combinations of parameters such as rotational speed, transverse speed and axial load. Welded joints developed were tested for mechanical and microstructure analysis. Mechanical joints developed have a maximum hardness of 147.6 hv in nugget zone and maximum tensile strength of 368.76 N/mm2. Response surface analysis carried out has revealed that transverse speed and rotational speed has high impact on the hardness and tensile strength respectively. The grains at the nugget zone were very fine and uni-axed improving their tensile strength.