Effects of Friction Stir Welding Speed on AA2195 alloy

Abstract

The application of friction stir welding (FSW) to aerospace has grown rapidly due to the high efficiency and environmental friendly nature of the process. FSW is achieved by plastic flow of frictionally heated material in solid state and offers many advantages of avoiding hot cracking and limiting component distortion. Recently low density, high modulus and high strength AA2195 are used as substitute for conventional aluminum alloys since the weight saving is critical in aerospace applications. One of the problems for this alloy is weld metal porosity formation leading to hot cracking. Combination of FSW and AA2195 provides synergy effect to improve mechanical properties and weight saving of aerospace structure such as cryogenic fuel tanks for launch systems. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of friction stir welding speed on mechanical and microstructural properties of AA2195. The friction stir welded materials were joined with four different tool rotation speeds (350~800 rpm) and five welding speeds (120~360 mm/min), which are the two prime welding parameters in this process.