Microstructure,mechanical and corrosion behavior of high strength AA7075aluminium alloy friction stir welds-Effect of post weld heat treatment

High strength aluminium alloy AA7075(Al-Zn-Mg-Cu) is a precipitate hardenable alloy widely used in the aerospace,defense,marine and automobile industries.Use of the heat treatable aluminium alloys in all these sectors is ever-increasing owing to their excellent strength-toweight ratio and reasonably good corrosion resistance.The shortage in corrosion resistance,however,usually poses negative concern about their reliability and lifetime when they service in the variable marine environments.These alloys also exhibit low weldability due to poor solidification microstructure,porosity in fusion zone and lose their mechanical properties when they are welded by fusion welding techniques.Friction stir welding(FSW) is a reliable technique to retain the properties of the alloy as the joining takes place in the solid state.The welds are susceptible to corrosion due to the microstructural changes in the weld nugget during FSW.In this work,the effect of post weld treatments,viz.,peak aging(T6) and retrogression reaging(RRA),on the microstructure,mechanical properties and pitting corrosion has been studied.Friction stir welding of 8 mm-thick AA7075 alloy was carried out.The microstructural changes of base metal and nugget zone of friction stir welds were studied using optical microscopy,scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.Tensile and hardness test of base metal and welds has been carried out.Pitting corrosion resistance was determined through dynamic polarization test.It was observed that the hardness and strength of weld were observed to be comparatively high in peak aged(T6) condition but the welds showed poor corrosion resistance.The resistance to pitting corrosion was improved and the mechanical properties were maintained by RRA treatment.The resistance to pitting corrosion was improved in RRA condition with the minimum loss of weld strength.     

Microstructure and pitting corrosion of armor grade AA7075 aluminum alloy friction stir weld nugget zone-Effect of post weld heat treatment and addition of boron carbide

Friction stir welding(FSW) of high strength aluminum alloys has been emerged as an alternative joining technique to avoid the problems during fusion welding.In recent times FSW is being used for armor grade AA7075 aluminum alloy in defense,aerospace and marine applications where it has to serve in non uniform loading and corrosive environments.Even though friction stir welds of AA7075 alloy possess better mechanical properties but suffer from poor corrosion resistance.The present work involves use of retrogression and reaging(RRA) post weld heat treatment to improve the corrosion resistance of welded joints of aluminum alloys.An attempt also has been made to change the chemical composition of the weld nugget by adding B4C nano particles with the aid of the FSW on a specially prepared base metal plate in butt position.The effects of peak aged condition(T6),RRA and addition of B4C nano particles on microstructure,hardness and pitting corrosion of nugget zone of the friction stir welds of AA7075 alloy have been studied.Even though RRA improved the pitting corrosion resistance,its hardness was slightly lost.Significant improvement in pitting corrosion resistance was achieved with addition of boron carbide powder and post weld heat treatment of RRA.     

Pitting corrosion resistance and bond strength of stainless steel overlay by friction surfacing on high strength low alloy steel

Surface modification is essential for improving the service properties of components. Cladding is one of the most widely employed methods of surface modification. Friction surfacing is a candidate process for depositing the corrosion resistant coatings. Being a solid state process, it offers several advantages over conventional fusion based surfacing process. The aim of this work is to identify the relationship between the input variables and the process response and develop the predictive models that can be used in the design of new friction surfacing applications. In the current work, austenitic stainless steel AISI 304 was friction surfaced on high strength low alloy steel substrate. Friction surfacing parameters,such as mechtrode rotational speed, feed rate of substrate and axial force on mechtrode, play a major role in determining the pitting corrosion resistance and bond strength of friction surfaced coatings. Friction surfaced coating and base metal were tested for pitting corrosion by potentiodynamic polarization technique. Coating microstructure was characterized using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Coatings in the as deposited condition exhibited strain-induced martensite in austenitic matrix. Pitting resistance of surfaced coatings was found to be much lower than that of mechtrode material and superior to that of substrate. A central composite design with three factors(mechtrode rotational speed, substrate traverse speed, axial load on mechtrode) and five levels was chosen to minimize the number of experimental conditions. Response surface methodology was used to develop the model. In the present work, an attempt has been made to develop a mathematical model to predict the pitting corrosion resistance and bond strength by incorporating the friction surfacing process parameters.     

Influence of tool pin profile on microstructure and corrosion behaviour of AA2219 Al-Cu alloy friction stir weld nuggets

To overcome the problems of fusion welding of aluminium alloys, the friction stir welding(FSW) is recognized as an alternative joining method to improve the mechanical and corrosion properties. Tool profile is one of the important variables which affect the performance of the FS weld. In the present work, the effect of tool profile on the weld nugget microstructure and pitting corrosion of AA2219 aluminium-copper alloy was studied. FSW of AA2219 alloy was carried out using five profiles, namely conical, square, triangle, pentagon and hexagon. The temperature measurements were made in the region adjacent to the rotating pin. It was observed that the peak temperature is more in hexagonal tool pin compared to the welds produced with other tool pin profiles. It is observed that the extensive deformation experienced at the nugget zone and the evolved microstructure strongly influences the hardness and corrosion properties of the joint during FSW. It was found that the microstructure changes like grain size, misorientation and precipitate dissolution during FSW influence the hardness and corrosion behaviour. Pitting corrosion resistance of friction stir welds of AA2219 was found to be better for hexagon profile tool compared to other profiles, which was attributed to material flow and strengthening precipitate morphology in nugget zone. Higher amount of heat generation in FS welds made with hexagonal profile tool may be the reason for greater dissolution of strengthening precipitates in nugget zone.     

Microstructure and pitting corrosion resistance of AA2219 Ale Cu alloy friction stir welds e Effect of tool profile

AA2219 Ale Cu alloy is widely used in defence and aerospace applications due to required combination of high strength-to-weight ratio and toughness.Fabrication of components used for defence always involves welding.Even though the mechanical properties of the base metal are better,but the alloy suffers from poor mechanical and corrosion properties during fusion welding.To overcome the problems of fusion welding,friction stir welding(FSW) is recognized as an alternative solid state joining method aimed to improve the mechanical and corrosion properties.Tool profile is one of the important variables which affect the performance of the friction stir weld.In the present work the effect of tool profile on the microstructure and pitting corrosion of AA2219 aluminiumecopper alloy was studied.Electron backscattered diffraction results established that the grain size and orientation of weld nugget of triangle profile is finer than that of conical profile.Differential scanning calorimetric results show the evidence of precipitate dissolution during FSW.It was found that the microstructure changes,such as grain size and its orientation precipitate dissolution during FSW influence the hardness and corrosion behaviour.Pitting corrosion resistance of friction stir welds of AA2219 was found to be better for triangle profile tool compared to conical profile which is attributed to material flow and strengthening precipitate morphology in various zones.Higher amount of heat generation during FSW made using triangle profile tool may be the reason for greater dissolution of strengthening precipitates in nugget zone and coarsening in thermo mechanically affected zone(TMAZ) and heat affected zone(HAZ).     

Microstructure and corrosion behaviour of gas tungsten arc welds of maraging steel

Superior properties of maraging steels make them suitable for the fabrication of components used for military applications like missile covering, rocket motor casing and ship hulls. Welding is the main process for fabrication of these components, while the maraging steels can be fusion welded using gas tungsten arc welding(GTAW) process. All these fabricated components require longer storage life and a major problem in welds is susceptible to stress corrosion cracking(SCC). The present study is aimed at studying the SCC behaviour of MDN 250(18% Ni) steel and its welds with respect to microstructural changes. In the present study, 5.2 mm thick sheets made of MDN 250 steel in the solution annealed condition was welded using GTAW process. Post-weld heat treatments of direct ageing(480 C for 3 h), solutionizing(815 C for 1 h) followed by ageing and homogenizing(1150 C for 1 h) followed by ageing were carried out. A mixture of martensite and austenite was observed in the microstructure of the fusion zone of solutionized and direct aged welds and only martensite in as-welded condition. Homogenization and ageing treatment have eliminated reverted austenite and elemental segregation. Homogenized welds also exhibited a marginal improvement in the corrosion resistance compared to those in the as-welded, solutionized and aged condition. Constant load SCC test data clearly revealed that the failure time of homogenized weld is much longer compared to other post weld treatments, and the homogenization treatment is recommended to improve the SCC life of GTA welds of MDN 250 Maraging steel.     

Multiobjective optimization of friction welding of UNS S32205 duplex stainless steel

The present study is to optimize the process parameters for friction welding of duplex stainless steel(DSS UNS S32205).Experiments were conducted according to central composite design.Process variables,as inputs of the neural network,included friction pressure,upsetting pressure,speed and burn-off length.Tensile strength and microhardness were selected as the outputs of the neural networks.The weld metals had higher hardness and tensile strength than the base material due to grain refinement which caused failures away from the joint interface during tensile testing.Due to shorter heating time,no secondary phase intermetallic precipitation was observed in the weld joint.A multi-layer perceptron neural network was established for modeling purpose.Five various training algorithms,belonging to three classes,namely gradient descent,genetic algorithm and LevenbergeM arquardt,were used to train artificial neural network.The optimization was carried out by using particle swarm optimization method.Confirmation test was carried out by setting the optimized parameters.In conformation test,maximum tensile strength and maximum hardness obtained are 822 MPa and 322 Hv,respectively.The metallurgical investigations revealed that base metal,partially deformed zone and weld zone maintain austenite/ferrite proportion of 50:50.     

Gas metal arc welding of high nitrogen stainless steel with Ar-N2-O2 ternary shielding gas

High nitrogen stainless steel with nitrogen content of 0.75％was welded by gas metal arc welding with Ar—N2-O2 ternary shielding gas. The effect of the ternary shielding gas on the retention and improvement of nitrogen content in the weld was identified. Surfacing test was conducted first to compare the ability of O2 and CO2 in prompting nitrogen dissolution. The nitrogen content of the surfacing metal with O2 is slightly higher than CO2. And then Ar—N2-O2 shielding gas was applied to weld high nitrogen stainless steel. After using N2-containing shielding gas, the nitrogen content of the weld was improved by 0.1 wt％. As N2 continued to increase, the increment of nitrogen content was not obvious, but the ferrite decreased from the top to the bottom. When the proportion of N2 reached 20％, a full austenitic weld was obtained and the tensile strength was improved by 8.7％. Combined with the results of surfacing test and welding test, it is concluded that the main effect of N2 is to inhibit the escape of nitrogen and suppress the ni-trogen diffusion from bottom to the top in the molten pool.     

Stress corrosion cracking behaviour of gas tungsten arc welded super austenitic stainless steel joints

Super 304 H austenitic stainless steel with 3% of copper posses excellent creep strength and corrosion resistance, which is mainly used in heat exchanger tubing of the boiler. Heat exchangers are used in nuclear power plants and marine vehicles which are intended to operate in chloride rich offshore environment. Chloride stress corrosion cracking is the most likely life limiting failure with austenitic stainless steel tubing. Welding may worsen the stress corrosion cracking susceptibility of the material. Stress corrosion cracking susceptibility of Super 304 H parent metal and gas tungsten arc(GTA) welded joints were studied by constant load tests in 45% boiling Mg Cl2 solution. Stress corrosion cracking resistance of Super 304 H stainless steel was deteriorated by GTA welding due to the formation of susceptible microstructure in the HAZ of the weld joint and the residual stresses. The mechanism of cracking was found to be anodic path cracking, with transgranular nature of crack propagation. Linear relationships were derived to predict the time to failure by extrapolating the rate of steady state elongation.     

Effect of welding processes and consumables on fatigue crack growth behaviour of armour grade quenched and tempered steel joints

Quenched and Tempered (Q&T) steels are widely used in the construction of military vehicles due to its high strength to weight ratio and high hardness. These steels are prone to hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) in the heat affected zone (HAZ) after welding. The use of austenitic stainless steel (ASS) consumables to weld the above steel was the only available remedy because of higher solubility for hydrogen in austenitic phase. The use of stainless steel consumables for a non-stainless steel base metal is not economical. Hence, alternate consumables for welding Q&T steels and their vulnerability to HIC need to be explored. Recent studies proved that low hydrogen ferritic steel (LHF) consumables can be used to weld Q&T steels, which can give very low hydrogen levels in the weld deposits. The use of ASS and LHF consumables will lead to distinct microstructures in their respective welds. This microstructural heterogeneity will have a drastic influence in the fatigue crack growth resistance of armour grade Q&T steel welds. Hence, in this investigation an attempt has been made to study the influence of welding consumables and welding processes on fatigue crack growth behaviour of armour grade Q&T Steel joints. Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) and Flux cored arc welding (FCAW) were used for fabrication of joints using ASS and LHF consumables. The joints fabricated by SMAW process using LHF consumable exhibited superior fatigue crack growth resistance than all other joints.     

Variation of chemical composition of high strength low alloy steels with different groove sizes in multi-pass conventional and pulsed current gas metal arc weld depositions

25 mm thick micro-alloyed HSLA steel plate is welded by multi-pass GMAW and P-GMAW processes using conventional V-groove and suitably designed narrow gap with 20 mm(NG-20) and 13 mm(NG-13) groove openings.The variation of weld metal chemistry in the multi pass GMA and P-GMA weld depositions are studied by spark emission spectroscopy.It is observed that the narrow groove GMA weld joint shows significant variation of weld metal chemistry compared to the conventional V-groove GMA weld joint since the dilution of base metal extends from the deposit adjacent to groove wall to weld center through dissolution by fusion and solid state diffusion.Further,it is noticed that a high rate of metal deposition along with high velocity of droplet transfer in P-GMAW process enhances the dilution of weld deposit and accordingly varies the chemical composition in multi-pass P-GMA weld deposit.Lower angle of attack to the groove wall surface along with low heat input in NG-13 weld groove minimizes the effect of dissolution by fusion and solid state diffusion from the deposit adjacent to groove wall to weld center.This results in more uniform properties of NG-13 P-GMA weld in comparison to those of NG-20 and CG welds.     

回归再时效7A60铝合金在0.5mol/L NaCl溶液中的点蚀性能

采用腐蚀电化学的点蚀极化曲线并结合腐蚀形貌的扫描电镜分析的方法,研究了回归再时效(RRA)工艺处理7A60铝合金在0.5mol/L NaCl溶液中的点蚀行为,对其耐点蚀性能进行了评价,并探讨了RRA工艺改善该合金点蚀性能的机理。结果表明:采用120RRA工艺(120℃×24h预时效+195℃×0.5h回归+120℃×24h再时效)处理后,7A60铝合金在0.5mol/L NaCl溶液中的阳极极化曲线闭合环面积减小,再钝化电流密度Ipp降低,蚀孔较浅,RRA工艺在一定程度上改善了该铝合金在0.5mol/L NaCl溶液中的耐点蚀性能。     

Effect of fusion welding processes on tensile properties of armor grade,high thickness,non-heat treatable aluminium alloy joints

AA5059 is one of the high strength armor grade aluminium alloy that finds its applications in the military vehicles due to the higher resistance against the armor piercing (AP) threats. This study aimed at finding the best suitable process among the fusion welding processes such as gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) and gas metal arc welding (GMAW) by evaluating the tensile properties of AA5059 aluminium alloy joints. The fracture path was identified by mapping the low hardness distribution profile (LHDP) across the weld cross section under tensile loading. Optical and scanning electron microscopies were used to characterize the microstructural features of the welded joints at various zones. It is evident from the results that GTAW joints showed superior tensile properties compared to GMAW joints and this is primarily owing to the presence of finer grains in the weld metal zone (WMZ) and narrow heat-affected zone (HAZ). The lower heat input associated with the GTAW process effectively reduced the size of the WMZ and HAZ compared to GMAW process. Lower heat input of GTAW process results in faster cooling rate which hinders the grain growth and reduces the evaporation of magnesium in weld metal compared to GMAW joints. The fracture surface of GTAW joint consists of more dimples than GMAW joints which is an indication that the GTAW joint possess improved ductility than GMAW joint.     

Characterization of magnetically impelled arc butt welded T11 tubes for high pressure applications

Magnetically impelled arc butt(MIAB) welding is a pressure welding process used for joining of pipes and tubes with an external magnetic field affecting arc rotation along the tube circumference. In this work, MIAB welding of low alloy steel(T11) tubes were carried out to study the microstructural changes occurring in thermo-mechanically affected zone(TMAZ). To qualify the process for the welding applications where pressure could be up to 300 bar, the MIAB welds are studied with variations of arc current and arc rotation time. It is found that TMAZ shows higher hardness than that in base metal and displays higher weld tensile strength and ductility due to bainitic transformation. The effect of arc current on the weld interface is also detailed and is found to be defect free at higher values of arc currents. The results reveal that MIAB welded samples exhibits good structural property correlation for high pressure applications with an added benefit of enhanced productivity at lower cost.The study will enable the use of MIAB welding for high pressure applications in power and defence sectors.     

管道超声导波无损检测技术应用研究

利用研制的磁致伸缩超声导波无损检测装置对长直无缝钢管、舰用锅炉U型管和弯管进行了大量试验研究.研究发现,通过对该装置中磁致伸缩传感器的放置位置及方向进行适当调整,此装置即可在管道中激发纵向导波;该技术对管道壁厚减薄、磨损或腐蚀、裂纹、焊缝等缺陷同样具有检测能力;选择低频(20~40 kHz)激励脉冲信号有利于减少波的发散特性和提高缺陷的检测能力;导波在管道中传播衰减缓慢,适用于长距离、大范围、快速、非接触管道检测.     

低合金船体钢点蚀敏感性的研究

通过极化试验比较了4种含有不同合金元素的低合金钢的点蚀诱发敏感性,并用电子探针对钢中的主要夹杂物及点蚀诱发后的腐蚀形态作了鉴定.结果表明:镍-铬系钢比锰系钢具有更好的耐点蚀性能;点蚀总是从夹杂物与周围钢基体毗邻的界面处开始诱发;含有硫化物的复相夹杂对点蚀的敏感性更强.     

Optimization of process parameters of the activated tungsten inert gas welding for aspect ratio of UNS S32205 duplex stainless steel welds

The activated TIG (ATIG) welding process mainly focuses on increasing the depth of penetration and the reduction in the width of weld bead has not been paid much attention. The shape of a weld in terms of its width-to-depth ratio known as aspect ratio has a marked influence on its solidification cracking tendency. The major influencing ATIG welding parameters, such as electrode gap, travel speed, current and voltage, that aid in controlling the aspect ratio of DSS joints, must be optimized to obtain desirable aspect ratio for DSS joints. Hence in this study, the above parameters of ATIG welding for aspect ratio of ASTM/UNS S32205 DSS welds are optimized by using Taguchi orthogonal array (OA) experimental design and other statistical tools such as Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Pooled ANOVA techniques. The optimum process parameters are found to be 1 mm electrode gap, 130 mm/min travel speed, 140 A current and 12 V voltage. The aspect ratio and the ferrite content for the DSS joints fabricated using the optimized ATIG parameters are found to be well within the acceptable range and there is no macroscopically evident solidification cracking.     

恒电量微扰法研究在含Cl-介质Ce3+对航空铝材的缓蚀作用

本文用恒电量微扰法研究了Ce3+对铝合金在0．1mol·L-1NaCl介质中的缓蚀机理及抗孔蚀性。结果表明：铝合金孔蚀诱导过程及其表面形成林转化膜过程具有相同的电化学模式,电化学腐蚀速度控制步骤取决于钝化膜（转化膜）／溶液界面过程。Ce3+对铝合金孔蚀的诱导期和发展期均有抑制作用,形成铈转化膜后,铝基表面阻抗大大提高,耐孔蚀性增强。     

夹杂物对有机涂层下碳钢腐蚀初期过程的影响

选择两种具有典型夹杂物的碳钢,通过浸泡试验,研究有机涂层下碳钢的腐蚀初期过程,并和裸钢的腐蚀过程进行对比．结果表明：涂层试样和裸钢试样腐蚀发展的初期过程都是点蚀;涂层试样点蚀诱发孕育期大大长于裸钢试样;点蚀的主要诱发源是钢中的硫化物和硅酸盐;硫化物夹杂物诱发点蚀及点蚀的扩展主要沿夹杂物与基体间的相界进行．     

新型航空铝合金材料复杂形貌点蚀损伤应力集中效应分析

根据7B04铝合金材料试件模拟加速点蚀试验检测结果,并结合铝合金材料点蚀行为机制、微观结构特征与随机性过程本质,构建由多个微观椭球体合成的楔入型与合围型两种典型复杂形貌点蚀损伤模型。采用ANSYS有限元方法建模并基于线弹性断裂力学,对上述两种点蚀损伤模型的应力集中效应进行计算与分析。研究发现:两种复杂形貌特征的点蚀损伤模型产生的应力集中系数数值基本相当,各个微观椭球体蚀坑分别对应力分布产生影响并相互干涉与叠加,造成复杂形貌点蚀损伤模型的应力集中系数数值增大;两种复杂形貌点蚀损伤模型的应力主要集中在各个微观椭球体蚀坑交会的位置,大都位于宏观点蚀损伤的侧边;两种复杂形貌点蚀损伤模型的应力集中效应作用区域的尺寸与铝合金材料微观晶粒尺寸、点蚀萌生的短裂纹初期尺寸基本相当。