Effect of Sic/Si N Micro Reinforcement On Mechanical and Wear Properties of Friction Stir Welded Aa6061 T6 Aluminum Alloy
Effect of Sic/Si N Micro Reinforcement On Mechanical and Wear Properties of Friction Stir Welded Aa6061 T6 Aluminum Alloy
Effect of Sic/Si N Micro Reinforcement On Mechanical and Wear Properties of Friction Stir Welded Aa6061 T6 Aluminum Alloy
Received: 6 November 2019 / Accepted: 20 August 2020 / Published online: 27 August 2020
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract
Friction stir welding (FSW) is extensively used to join aluminum alloys components for applications in structural, aviation
and automotive sectors. In this investigation, the mechanical properties (tensile strength, percentage elongation, and
microhardness), abrasive wear properties and microstructure of friction stir welded joint of AA6061-T6 were studied by
inter-plate reinforcing of silicon carbide microparticles (µSiC) and silicon nitride microparticles (µSi3N4). The friction stir
welding was performed at different tool rotational speed (TRS) (750, 1000 and 1400 rpm) and welding speed of 56, 80
and 112 mm/min. The friction stir welded joint without reinforcement and with µSiC exhibited maximum tensile strength
at two combinations of welding speed and tool rotational speed; one at welding speed of 112 mm/min, TRS of 1000
RPM and other at welding speed of 56 mm/min and TRS of 1400 rpm. It was realized that the reinforcement of µSiC and
µSi3N4 decreased the tensile properties of the welded joint but improved the abrasive wear and microhardness proper-
ties considerably in the stir zone. The reinforcement of µSiC during FSW demonstrated better tensile, microhardness and
abrasive wear resistant properties than the FSW joints with µSi3N4 reinforcement. The improvement in microhardness
of the FSW joint reinforced with SiC and S i3N4 microparticles is attributed to the pinning effect produced by the hard
particles inclusions.
Keywords Friction stir welding · Mechanical properties · Silicon nitride · Silicon carbide · Aluminum alloy
* Vinay Kumar Patel, vinaykrpatel@gmail.com | 1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Meerut, Uttar Pradesh 250005, India. 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Engineering
and Technology Ghurdauri, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand 246194, India.
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annealing during the welding operation but subjected to treatment. Microstructure and mechanical behavior of
partial annealing and overaging process. This Al alloy is friction stir welded Mg alloy were analyzed before and
very gullible to time at temperature; higher temperature after heat treatment and it was reported that the ten-
and long duration; which leads to decay in strength of the sile strength, efficiency and elongation were improved
base material as well as adjacent to the weld zone. Hence, by heat treatment [15]. If option of PWHT is selected,
it becomes imperative to control the various parameters the ability of filler alloy in response of the heat-treat-
such as preheating, interpass temperatures and overall ment should be assessed. Generally, the filler alloys do
heat input during FSW of the heat-treatable alloys. Usually, not respond to PWHT if there is not significant dilution
the most common heat-treatable alloys like AA6061T6, with the heat-treatable aluminum alloy. This cannot be
lose a large proportion of their mechanical strength after easily achieved and it is difficult to control it normally.
friction stir welding. For example, AA6061T6 normally For this reason, filler alloys have been developed to
owns a tensile strength of 310.26 MPa before welding and independently respond to heat-treatment. The second
after welding, its strength reduces to 186.15 MPa [7]. This option is to control the process parameter such as tool
problem can be overcome by two ways: one technique rotational speed and feed which is responsible for heat
is the post heat treatment of the alloy after the weld- generation during welding and thus the reduction in
ing to acquire its mechanical strength back to original mechanical properties can be avoided. The influence of
state. Some authors performed post weld heat treatment welding parameters on mechanical and microstructural
(PWHT) on friction stir welded AA6061T6 and observed properties of friction stir welded AA6061 joint was ana-
that the welding efficiency was decreased by 65% as com- lyzed and maximum hardness 85 HV was measured at
pared to base metal due to Portevin–Le Chatelier (PLC) 950 RPM and 3 passes. It was also found that number of
effect, but the post weld heat treatment diminished the weld passes and TRS had significant effect on the grain
PLC effect and consequently improved the properties back size [16]. Kumar et al. [17] estimated the heat input and
to original state [8, 9]. process forces as function of different process param-
The metallurgical effects of temper condition and post eters in FSW and found that the tool speed, welding
weld heat treatment has been widely studied on the fric- speed, probe diameter and tool shoulder diameter were
tion stir weldability of similar and dissimilar aluminum the critical process parameters which affected the heat
alloy. İpekoğlu et al. [10] studied the effect of both O input and FSW process forces. Kumar et al. [17] observed
and T6 temper conditions on friction stir weldability of that the axial thrust (Z-force) was generally affected by
AA6061 aluminum alloy and observed that the O temper the rotational speed, tool diameter, and welding speed.
condition displayed an increment in hardness in the weld Astarita et al. [18] performed an experiment to find the
region due to grain refinement whereas those welded in mechanical properties of the welded joints of AA6061T6
T6 temper condition revealed a significant hardness drop Aluminum alloy made by arc and FSW and found that the
in the weld region resulting from over-aging. Further, joints produced by FSW had greater mechanical strength
İpekoğlu et al. [11] investigated the effect of temper con- than the joints that was welded by manual argon-arc
dition prior the joining and PWHT on microstructural and welding. The mechanical properties of the welded joints
mechanical properties of friction stir butt-welded AA7075 obtained by FSW process was very much dependent on
aluminum alloy and revealed that the FSW resulted in a the sizes of the tool and the size of the rubbing shoulder;
strength under-matching when the AA7075 was welded when the tool size was larger, the better properties were
in T6 condition while a significant strength over-matching obtained. Various researchers proposed different meth-
was recorded in the joints produced in O temper condi- ods to decrease the heat input for example decreasing
tion. The PWHT resulted in a significant recovery in the of TRS to travel speed ratio, cooling of plates by water
strength and thus joint performance when welded in T6 during FSW [19], and using of backing plate for cool-
condition. There was a decrease in the joint performance ing purpose [20, 21] but most of these methods were
value of the joints welded in O temper condition although found effective in reducing the heat input only in HAZ
the strength was increased. In another study of PWHT of and TMAZ and had not much effect on the stir zone [22,
FSWed AA6061 Al-alloy of different temper condition, 23]. Accordingly, a different method is required to regain
İpekoğlu et al. [12, 13] found that the PWHT enhanced the hardness lost during FSW due to partial annealing
the mechanical properties of the AA6061 alloy in both of the joint which can be achieved by using a reinforce-
O and T6-temper conditions much higher than those of ment powder such as silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon
respective as-welded plates and comparable to those of nitride (Si3N4) in the welding zone which is believed to
the respective base plates. enhance the hardness and wear resistance properties of
Liu et al. [14] reported an improvement in the strength aluminum alloy. Eftekharinia et al. [24] studied the wear
of ZK60 alloy by post heat compression and ageing properties and microstructure of AA6061/SiC surface
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composite obtained from friction stir processing by min of welding speed while for maximum tensile elonga-
using different types of pins and number of passes and tion the parameters were obtained at TRS of 1300 rpm and
concluded that the geometry of the pin had major role welding speed of 60 mm/min. These finding has been used
in the distribution of the particle and it also affected the for the parameter selection process of this experiment.
microhardness of stir zone. They found that the stir zone This study aims to perform the FSW of AA6061-T6 with a
hardness was maximum when square shaped tool was different combination of tool rotational speed and feed to
used due to better dispersion of silicon carbide particle identify the best combination of these two parameters at
resulting in uniform microhardness variation. The num- which proper heat is generated to produce sound welding.
ber of pass also affected the microhardness and maxi- Further, the objective is to find the effect of reinforcement
mum microhardness was found with four passes. Ahmed of silicon carbide and silicon nitride in the welding zone
et al. [25] investigated the effect of welding parameters on tribo-mechanical properties of the friction stir welded
on friction stir welded joint of AA6082 reinforced with joints.
aluminium oxide (Al2O3). Different TRS and reinforced
percentage of Al2O3 was taken. Marzoli et al. [26] inves-
tigated the properties of FSW of A l2O3/20p reinforced 2 Material and experimental setup
AA6061 alloy and concluded that the stirring effect of
the tool influenced the distribution of reinforcement In this experiment, AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy sheets of
particles and its shape. Kumar et al. [27] studied the dimension 60 mm × 150 mm with 5 mm thickness were
effect of Zn as an alloying element at the joint interface used for friction stir welding. The micropowders of sili-
and found that the phase constituents were important in con carbide (average particle size ~ 20 µm) and silicon
deciding the soundness of the welded joints. Li et al. [28] nitride (average particle size ~ 45 µm) were introduced in-
investigated the effect of different welding parameters between the AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy sheets during the
on mechanical properties and microstructure of AA6061- FSW process. Based on the earlier optimized parameters
T6 butt welded joints by a stationary type shoulder and for defect-free weld joints as discussed in the introduction
concluded that the hardness profiles in both HAZ and section, for maximum tensile strength and maximum ten-
TMAZ of AA6061T6 SSFSW joints revealed the softening sile elongation, the process parameters in this experiment
regions along the both retreating side and advancing have been selected as TRS of 750, 1000 and 1400 rpm and
side. The lowest hardness value was observed as 60% welding speed of 56, 80 and 112 mm/min to conform the
of the base metal hardness and the welding speeds had earlier findings as well as the limitations of FSW machine.
more influence on the hardness profile as compared to At first, a total of 9 different samples were welded with
the tool rotation speeds. Tool pin profile had also an different combinations of TRS and travel speed without
effect on tensile strength of the joint. Marzbanrad et al. any kind of micro-powder addition. A rectangular groove
[29] performed experiments with different tool pin pro- of width and depth of 1.4 mm and 2.0 mm respectively
files and evaluated the microstructural and mechanical was machined out along the top center-line of two adjoin-
properties of friction stir welded joint and concluded ing plates using a shaper machine for accommodating
that the peak temperature was higher in square pin 1.2 g of SiC and 1.0 g S i3N4 microparticles. The FSW tool
profile than any other tool pin profile, and the higher (Fig. 1) was prepared on a lathe machine from mild steel
temperature favored the plasticizing of the mixture and and further tempered at 900 °C to increase its strength and
solid diffusion and the superior tensile properties were hardness. A square-pin (6 mm x 6 mm) geometry was used
found with square pin profile. for better dispersion of silicon carbide and silicon nitride
Balasubramanian et. al [30]. demonstrated optimized microparticles in the welding zone. The shoulder diam-
process parameters of TRS of 1100 rpm and welding eter and pin length of the FSW tool were kept 18 mm and
speed of 100 mm/min for producing defect-free friction 4.5 mm respectively. A total 27 FSW joints were prepared
welded joints in AA6061 aluminum alloy. Similarly, Raja- as shown in Table 1.
kumar et al. [31] found the optimized process parameter The samples for the tensile testing were prepared by
of TRS of 1178 rpm and welding speed of 115 mm/min. cutting the welding joint in the direction perpendicular to
In another study, Rajkumar et. al [32]. obtained the opti- the welding direction by using a power hacksaw. The ten-
mized process parameter of TRS of 1150 rpm and welding sile test specimen was prepared according to the ASTM-E8
speed of 84.3 mm/min for producing the greatest tensile [34] standard consisting the stir zone in the center of gage
strength in FSW of 6061 aluminum alloy. In a similar study, length and the tensile test was performed on universal
Heidarzadeh et al. [33] demonstrated that the optimum testing machine (UTM). The microhardness of the welding
process parameters to get maximum tensile strength of zone was measured by a Vickers microhardness tester with
FSW joints of AA6061 alloy were 920 rpm of TRS, 78 mm/ a load of 5 kgf for 10 s. The samples were also prepared for
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Table 1 Sample with specific Sample no. Welding speed/ RPM Tensile strength Powder used Specific wear rate
sand abrasion wear rate at (Avg) (mm3/N m)
sliding distance of 1046.15 m,
counter of 3000, wheel speed S1 56/1400 204.57 No 0.0223832
of 320 rpm and applied load
S2 80/1400 186.67 No 0.0324208
of 10 N
S3 112/1000 204.25 No 0.0253891
S4 56/1400 173.71 SiC 0.0191626
S5 80/1400 171.71 SiC 0.0142780
S6 112/1000 173.76 SiC 0.0098228
S7 56/750 171.43 Si3N4 0.0118089
S8 80/1000 163.71 Si3N4 0.0152979
S9 112/750 165.75 Si3N4 0.0141706
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Fig. 2 Typical microstructure of friction stir welded joint without any reinforcement at welding speed of 112 mm/min and tool rotational
speed of 1000 rpm a BM, b HAZ, c TMAZ, d SZ
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Fig. 3 Typical microstructure (optical and SEM image) of FSW joint at welding speed of 112 mm/min and tool rotational speed of 1000 rpm
a and b without using any reinforcement, c and d with SiC as reinforcement, e and f with S i3N4 as reinforcement
similar experiments and found that the maximum ten- a small value of around 31 MPa by adding SiC powder.
sile strength of FSW joint was around 240 MPa and the The tensile strength of the welding joints produced by
difference in result occurred due to the thickness of the using Si3N4 micropowder showed a totally different trend
plates, tool type and process parameter that author had and the maximum tensile strength of these joints was
taken. Exactly similar trends were observed in the weld- observed at welding speed of 56 mm/min and 750 rpm.
ing joint by using SiC micropowder. The maximum ten- The tensile strength was much lower as compared to the
sile strength of 173 MPa was observed at two combina- tensile strength of the joint without powder. The greater
tions of welding speed and tool rotational speed; one at decrement in tensile strength of the joints occurred
56 mm/min, 1400 rpm and another at 112 mm/min and due to bigger particle size of silicon nitrite which was
1000 rpm (Fig. 6). The tensile strength was decreased by envisioned to introduce brittleness in the joint. It was
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120
100
80
Hardness (Hv)
Without Powder
60
With Silicon Carbide
40 Powder
With Silicon Nitride
20 Powder
0
BM -15 -12 -9 -6 -3 0 3 6 9 12 15 BM
Distance from weld center(mm)
Fig. 6 Tensile strength of FSW joints zone which also dropped the microhardness value in the
welding zone.
At the welding speed of 56 mm/min and TRS of
750 rpm, the microhardness profile shown in Fig. 10 exhib-
ited that there was an improvement in the microhardness
of the stir zone and the hardness was greater when SiC
microparticles were used as reinforcement than the Si3N4
microparticles. The usage of silicon nitride reinforcement
also increased the hardness in the stir zone but the grains
produced were much coarser than with SiC reinforced FSW
joints.
The specific wear rate of the selected samples is shown
in Table 1 and Fig. 12. The lowest wear rate was observed
in the sample S6 and highest wear rate was observed
in the sample S2. Because of the smaller grain size and
higher hardness and better distribution of SiC particle, the
Fig. 7 Percentage Elongation of FSW joints
wear resistance of the FSW joint was improved. Uniform
distribution of SiC microparticle might also envisaged to
improve the wear resistance. Samples S7 produced by
120 FSW at 56 mm/min and 750 rpm using silicon nitride as
reinforcement expressed also highest wear resistance next
100
to S6 sample. In overall, the reinforcement of silicon car-
80 bide and silicon nitride significantly enhanced the wear
Hardness(Hv)
Without Powder
60
resistance of FSW joint with a minor sacrifice in the tensile
With Silicon Carbide strength and percentage elongation. Eftekharinia et.al [24]
40 Powder
also observed that the wear resistance was considerably
With Silicon Nitride
20 Powder
improved by addition of SiC particles because the higher
hardness of SiC particles led to lower material loss and
0
lower wear rate.
-15
-12
12
15
BM
BM
-9
-6
-3
0
3
6
9
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