Comparison between Mechanical Properties and Joint Performance of AA 2024-T351 Aluminum Alloy Welded by Friction Stir Welding, Metal Inert Gas and Tungsten Inert Gas Processes
Miodrag Milčić,
Damjan Klobčar,
Dragan Milčić,
Nataša Zdravković,
Aleksija Đurić,
Tomaž Vuherer
Affiliations
Miodrag Milčić
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nis, Aleksandra Medvedeva 14, 18000 Niš, Serbia
Damjan Klobčar
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Dragan Milčić
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nis, Aleksandra Medvedeva 14, 18000 Niš, Serbia
Nataša Zdravković
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nis, Aleksandra Medvedeva 14, 18000 Niš, Serbia
Aleksija Đurić
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of East Sarajevo, Vuka Karadžića 30, 71123 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tomaž Vuherer
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
The aim of this work is to study joining Al 2024-T3 alloy plates with different welding procedures. Aluminum alloy AA 2024-T351 is especially used in the aerospace industry. Aluminum plates are welded by the TIG and MIG fusion welding process, as well as by the solid-state welding process, friction stir welding (FSW), which has recently become very important in aluminum and alloy welding. For welding AA2024-T35 with MIG and TIG fusion processes, the filler material ER 4043—AlSi5 was chosen because of reduced cracking. Different methods were used to evaluate the quality of the produced joints, including macro- and microstructure evaluation, in addition to hardness and tensile tests. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the FSW sample was found to be 80% higher than that of MIG and TIG samples. The average hardness value of the weld zone of metal for the MIG- and TIG-produced AA2024-T3511 butt joints showed a significant decrease compared to the hardness of the base metal AA2024-T351 by 50%, while for FSW joints, in the nugget zone, the hardness is about 10% lower relative to the base metal AA2024-T3511.
