Frictions stir welding of copper under different

welding parameters and media

H. Farrokhi, A. Heidarzadeh and T. Saeid*
Defect free friction stir welding of pure copper plates was conducted in air condition at a rotation
speed of 1600 rev min21 and traverse speeds of 50 and 100 mm min21. The microstructural and
mechanical properties of defect free joints produced in air and underwater conditions were
compared. The results revealed that a finer microstructure can be achieved by underwater friction
stir welding. The hardness of joints welded in both conditions was higher compared to the base
metal. Moreover, in comparison with the base metal, the joints welded in air and underwater
conditions exhibited lower and higher tensile properties respectively.
Keywords: Friction stir welding, Underwater, Microstructure, Hardness, Tensile properties

Introduction
Copper and its alloys are widely used in industrial
applications due to their unique properties such as high
corrosion resistance, excellent thermal conductivity and
appropriate combination of strength and ductility.1
Therefore, demands for welding of these materials are
increasing, particularly in electronic and nuclear industries. However, joining of copper by conventional fusion
welding methods encountered problems such as large
distortion, solidification cracking, porosity, oxidation
and joint brittleness, which are detrimental to the joint
properties.1,2
Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid state joining
method that was first patented in 1991 by The Welding
Institute.2,3 It is considered to be the most significant
development in metal joining during the last decades. In
addition, it is a green technology due to its energy efficiency, environment friendliness and versatility.4,5 In this
process, a non-consumable rotating tool moves along
the joining line as shown in Fig. 1a,6 and consequently,
severe plastic deformation with frictional heating causes
formation of joint. Based on microstructural characterisation, three different regions, the nugget zone (NZ),
the thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ) and the
heat affected zone (HAZ), have been recognised in FSW
joints.7
The application of FSW for joining copper and its
alloys has been considered by researchers because of
better joint properties and absence of fusion welding
associated difficulties.814 Generally, the investigators
have applied high heat input condition, i.e. high rotation
speed and low traverse speed, in order to reach defect
free copper welds. For example, Okamoto et al.15 fabricated a copper backing plate for cooling by FSW at a
rotation speed of 1300 rev min21 with a traverse speed
Faculty of Materials Engineering, Sahand University of Technology,
Tabriz, Iran
*Corresponding author, email saeid@sut.ac.ir

of 170 mm min21. Lee and Jung16 welded copper plate of

4 mm thickness successfully at a tool rotation speed of
1250 rev min21 with a traverse speed of 61 mm min21.
Similarly, Sakthivel and Mukhopadhyay17 obtained sound
friction stir welded joints of 2 mm thickness copper sheet
at a tool rotation speed of 1000 rev min21 with a welding
traverse of 30 mm min21. The high heat input conditions
produce adequate heat due to higher friction,18 which
results in enough plastic flow and elimination of defects.
In the FSW, a thermomechanical phenomenon occurs
and both the mechanical and thermal features control the
final microstructure and mechanical properties of material.
During FSW, microstructure modification takes place by
dynamic recrystallisation; nevertheless, the grain growth
appears, because the material is exposed to high temperature for a certain period of time.19 Accordingly, the high
heat input conditions generate sufficient heat for grain
coarsening of dynamically recrystallised grains,18 which
will cause poor mechanical properties. In order to reach
good metallurgical and mechanical properties in friction
stir welds, it is necessary to prevent the grain growth.
Therefore, controlling the thermal features of FSW, using
other welding ambient instead of air, is believed to
influence final microstructure and mechanical properties
of joints.
Some investigators have studied the underwater
FSW.1923 Darras and Kishta19 friction stir processed
the AZ31 magnesium samples in three ambient of air,
room temperature water and warm water. They reported
that controlling the thermal boundaries of the process,
through underwater conditions, is beneficial in attaining
more grain refinement. Fu et al.20 carried out underwater FSW in cold and hot water, as well as in air, for
7050 aluminium alloys. They found that better tensile
properties can be achieved for joint welded in hot water.
Zhang et al.21 conducted underwater FSW on a 2219-T6
aluminium alloy at a fixed traverse speed and various
rotation speeds. They showed that the tensile strength of
the joint is fully dependent on the rotation speed. In
addition, they found that increasing the rotation speed
will cause to increase dislocation density, grain size and

2013 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute
Received 1 May 2013; accepted 13 June 2013
DOI 10.1179/1362171813Y.0000000148

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Frictions stir welding of copper

1 a schematic illustration of FSW, wherein rotational tool stirs along welding direction and b location of thermocouple

formation of voids in the SZ. Similarly, Upaghyay and

Reynolds22 compared the mechanical properties of
AA 7050T7 sheet friction stir welded in air and underwater. Their results demonstrated that underwater welds
show improvement in tensile strength and elongation. In
another study, Jie et al.23 carried out underwater FSW of
2219 aluminium alloy, and their results indicated that the
tensile strength of the joint can be improved from 324 to
341 MPa using external water cooling action.
Although some researchers have been investigated the
FSW of copper, an investigation into the microstructural and mechanical properties of underwater friction
stir welded copper is lacking. The objective of this study
is therefore to compare the microstructural and mechanical properties of pure copper joints produced by
conventional and underwater FSW.

images using Clemex image analysis software. The software differentiates dissimilar grains using various colour
contrast and then calculates corresponding diameter DEq
of each grain from its area according to the following
equation9
 1=2
4A
:
DEq ~1 2247
(1)
p
where A is area (mm2).
Tensile test samples were cut perpendicular to the
FSW direction according to ASTM E-8 standard.
Tensile tests were conducted using a universal tensile
test machine at a crosshead speed of 2 mm min21. In
addition, the hardness measurements were carried out
along the centreline on the transverse cross-section of
the joints using a Vickers hardness (HV) tester at a 100 g
load for 10 s.

Experimental
Commercially pure copper plates with a length of
220 mm, a width of 100 mm and a thickness of 2 mm
were used in this investigation. Bead on plate FSW was
performed by a vertical milling machine, while the plates
were secured in place using specially designed fixtures.
The welding tool had a simple cylindrical pin and
shoulder with the diameters of 4 and 12 mm respectively. In addition, it was made of H13 hot work steel
because of its suitable mechanical properties in the
process. First, FSW was performed at rotation speeds of
600, 800, 1000, 1250 and 1600 rev min21 and traverse
speeds of 50, 100 and 150 mm min21 in air condition.
The defect free conditions, in which the macrostructure
of joints was void free, were selected. Then, underwater
FSW was conducted in selected defect free conditions.
The microstructural and mechanical properties of joints
welded at both conditions were studied and compared.
Type K thermocouples were used to measure the
temperatures at the bottom in the middle of the plates
during FSW, as illustrated in Fig. 1b. The microstructure of joints was studied by optical microscopy. The
metallographic specimens were cross-sectioned from the
FSW joints transverse to the welding direction, polished
and then etched with a solution of 20 mL nitric acid and
10 mL acetic acid. Average grain size and size distribution histograms were achieved by analysing at least three

Results and discussion

Defect free welds were achieved under a rotation speed of
1600 rev min21 and traverse speeds of 50 and 100
mm min21. A three-dimensional macrograph of a defect
free joint welded in air condition is shown in Fig. 2. At
lower rotation speeds and higher traverse speeds, tunnelling and void defects were observed because of inadequate
heat generation and materials flow. A macrograph of a
joint containing tunnelling and void defects is represented
in Fig. 3. Based on the microstructural features, four
different zones, i.e. base metal (BM), NZ, TMAZ and
HAZ were distinguished in the microstructure of welds, as
illustrated in Figs. 2 and 4. Frictional heating and severe
plastic deformation during FSW cause the formation of
fine and equiaxed grains within NZ, which is a typical
feature of dynamically recrystallised structures. The grains
in the TMAZ become elongated due to the plastic flow of
material, and in this zone, recrystallisation does not occur
because of inadequate deformation strain. The microstructure in the HAZ exhibits coarse and equiaxed grains,
because this zone experiences a thermal cycle but does not
undergo any plastic deformation.5
Rotation and traverse speeds are two important
parameters influencing the microstructural and mechanical
properties of welds produced by FSW.18,24 Figure 5a and b
shows the effect of traverse speed on microstructure of NZ

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Frictions stir welding of copper

2 Three-dimensional optical macrograph of pure copper after FSW at rotation speed of 1600 rev min21 and traverse
speed of 50 mm min21

3 Macrograph of joint containing tunnelling and void

defects after FSW

4 Typical microstructure of joint showing NZ, TMAZ, HAZ

and BM

at constant rotation speed of 1600 rev min21. It can be

seen that by increasing traverse speed, grain size of NZ
decreases. The grain size of the NZ is determined by the
dominant factor among the two factors, i.e. degree of
deformation and the peak temperature attained during
FSW.25 At constant rotation speed, increasing the traverse
speed reduces both the degree of deformation and the peak
temperature. Lower amount of plastic deformation
increases the recrystallised grain size, and decreasing peak
temperature decreases the grain size of the NZ.25 Hence, it
can be concluded that peak temperature is the dominant
factor determining grain size in this study. Furthermore,
high traverse speed causes formation of welding defects
due to insufficiant heat generation and plastic flow of
material.18,24 Figure 5b and c illustrates the influence of

rotation speed on the microstructure of NZ at constant

traverse speed of 150 mm min21. It is obvious that grain
size of NZ is increased at higher rotation speeds. Similar
results were observed by Xie et al.26 Higher rotation speeds
generate more heat during FSW and hence more grain
growth.5,6
The underwater FSW of copper plates was conducted
at a rotation speed of 1600 rev min21 and traverse
speeds of 50 and 100 mm min21. As stated, defect free
joints were achieved in these situations under air
condition. The underwater FSW was performed in
order to reduce the heat input. Since, the lower heat
inputs can be achieved by better heat transfer from the
welding tool and plate into the surrounding water in
comparison with air condition. The top surface images
of joints welded at air and underwater conditions are
shown in Fig. 6. As can be seen from Fig. 6, the weld
surface is smoother in underwater condition. In addition, the amount of flash on the surface of joints welded
at underwater condition is lower than that of air
condition.
Figure 7 shows the temperature histories of the joints
at various conditions (air and underwater). Thermal
histories give important data about peak temperatures,
heating and cooling rates. This information is very
important in controlling the microstructure and mechanical properties of the joints. As can be seen from
Fig. 7, underwater condition not only reduces the peak
temperature but also increases the cooling rate. The NZ
microstructures and related grain size distribution
histogram of joints welded at both air and underwater
conditions are depicted in Fig. 8. From Fig. 8, it is clear
that the grains are finer in underwater condition due to
lower peak temperature and have higher cooling rate
during welding. The measured Vickers hardness profiles
of the joints under different welding conditions are
illustrated in Fig. 9.Three important results can be

5 Microstructure of NZ welded at rotation and traverse speeds of a 1600 rev min2150 mm min21 with average grain size
of 35 mm, b 1600 rev min21150 mm min21 with average grain size of 17 mm and c 1000 rev min21150 mm min21 with
average grain size of 10 mm

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6 Top surface images of joints welded in a air and b underwater conditions

underwater condition are higher than those of air condition. In addition, the maximum hardness of 113 HV is
reached at a traverse speed of 100 mm min21 in underwater condition that is approximately equal to the
hardness of a cold worked copper.
In the FSW process, the grain size of the welds is
controlled by two thermomechanical factors: strain rate
and peak temperature. This effect can be explained by
the ZenerHollomon parameter Z (s21) described as
follows27
:
Z~ eexpQ=RT
(2)
7 Temperature histories of joints welded at various conditions (air and underwater)

achieved from this figure. First, the BM has low hardness

of 6062 HV because of its initial annealed state. Second,
under a lower traverse speed of 50 mm min21 (higher
heat input), the hardness values are lower than those of
100 mm min21 in both air and underwater conditions.
Third, at the same traverse speed, the hardness values for

where e? (s21) is the strain rate, T (K) is the temperature,

R is the gas constant and Q is the activation energy.
According to equation (2), the higher Z can be achieved
from higher strain rates and/or lower peak temperatures,
which results to finer grains. Furthermore, the strain
rate in the FSW can be defined as follows27
: kpvre
e~
Le

(3)

8 Microstructure of NZ welded at rotation speed of 1600 rev min21 and traverse speed of 100 mm min21 in a air condition with average grain size of 20 mm, b underwater condition with average grain size of 7 mm and c related grain size
distribution histograms

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9 Hardness prole of joints welded in both the air and

underwater conditions

where k is a constant depending on the material features

and tool shape, v is rotation speed and re and Le are the
effective radius and depth of the dynamically recrystallised NZ respectively. In this study, the rotation speed v
is constant, and therefore, the strain rate remains
approximately constant. As a result from equations (2)
and (3), the effect of strain rate e? on the grain size can be
neglected in both air and underwater conditions.27
Consequently, the main effect of underwater condition
will increase Z (i.e. decreasing the grain size) by
reduction in T (equation (2)). It can be concluded that
the reduction in grain size and increase of hardness in
underwater condition is because of reduction in the heat
input that causes a decrease in both peak temperature
and exposure time to higher temperatures, with respect
to air condition.23,28
Figure 10 illustrates the stressstrain curves for BM
and samples welded at different conditions. The tensile
test data reveal three more important results. First, the
fracture occurs at joint and BM respectively for the
joints welded at the air and underwater conditions.
Second, higher traverse speeds cause higher tensile
properties. This is attributed to lower heat input in
higher traverse speeds that leads to formation of finer
grains (equation (2)). Third, more reduction in heat
input during FSW in underwater condition increases the
amounts of both tensile strength and elongation
compared to BM.

Conclusions
In this investigation, first, the defect free friction stir
welds of pure copper were reached in air condition, and
second, the metallurgical and mechanical properties of
joints welded at air and underwater conditions were
compared. The results can be summarised as follows.
1. The defect free joints of commercially pure copper
were achieved with a tool rotation rate of 1600 rev min21
and traverse speeds of 50 and 100 mm min21.
2. The underwater FSW reduces the heat input during
the process and results in finer microstructure compared
to FSW in air condition.
3. Hardness of joints improves FSW in both air and
underwater conditions, while joints welded at higher
traverse speeds and in underwater condition have the
highest hardness.
4. In comparison with BM, the tensile strength and
elongation of joints increase in underwater condition but
decrease in air condition.

Frictions stir welding of copper

10 Engineering stressstrain curves of BM and joints

welded in both air and underwater conditions

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