Advanced Materials Research Vol.

795 (2013) pp 182-189

© (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.795.182

The Effect of Rotational Speed on Flow Behavior and Weld Properties in

Friction Stir Welding of Pure Aluminum
Hasan I. Dawood 1a, Kahtan S. Mohammed2b and Zurida A. Wahab3c
1,2,3
Universiti Malaysia Perlis, School of Materials Engineering, Taman Muhibah-Jejawi-Arau 02600
Perlis, Malaysia
a
hassanissa72@yahoo.com, btompetorage954@yahoo.com, czuridawahab@gmail.com

Keywords: Friction stir welding; Dissimilar joints; Heat affected zone ; Weld nugget.

Abstract. Friction stir welding is a solid state green welding technique. Its key benefit is to allow
welding of aluminum that cannot be readily done by fusion arc welding. In this study, two pure
aluminum strips of 2mm thick were friction stir welded together. For all welding pairs, three
rotational speeds of 1000, 1500 and 2000 rpm were used. The traverse speed, axial force and tool
geometry were kept constant. Parameters optimization based on the results of the micrographic,
macrographic, microhardness and tensile strength, indicated that sound joints with the best
mechanical and microstructural properties can be obtained at rotational speed of 1500 rpm and
welding transverse speed of 60 mm/min. Microscopic examination and local mechanical properties
analysis suggested that mechanical mixing is the major material flow mechanism in the formation
of the nugget stirred zone.

Introduction
The assembly of metals has been the fundamental topic for many years, in particular with regard to
light weight alloys several problems have been found using traditional fusion welding technologies.
Joints defects such as voids and inclusions can seriously compromise the mechanical performance
of the weld. Moreover gas protection shields have to be used and this add another complexity to the
process [1]. Friction stir welding (FSW) is a relatively new joining process. It was developed
initially for aluminum alloys, by the Welding Institute (TWI) of United Kingdom [2].
Solid state stir welding (SSSW) or friction stir welding (FSW) is a novel welding method to join
metals such as aluminum alloys and titanium alloys. Now, this welding technique has a wide
application potential in aerospace, ship building, automobile and other manufacturing industries. It
is applicable to a wide spectrum of aluminum alloys, copper and magnesium. It has proven to be
effective in joining high melting point metals like steel, nickel and titanium alloys. Particularly
dissimilar alloys or those considered unweldable by conventional welding techniques, such as
tungsten inert gas (TIG) [3]. The FSW technology is expected to replace the fastening, riveting and
arc welding [4]. The process and terminology of FSW are schematically represented in Fig1. The
advancing side (AS) is the side where the velocity vectors of tool rotation and traverse direction are
on the same direction and the side where the velocity vectors are in opposite directions is referred to
as retreating side (RS). Although a considerable literature is available for FSW of thick butt joints
for pure aluminum. The problems of weld defects like voids, cracks, distortion are still representing
a serious headache to the researchers in the welding community. This article is a preliminary study
to adapt the tools, machine parameters and the work piece. It aims to examine the effect of probe
rotational speed on the mechanical and microstructural properties of the weld joints. In fact this
research is a part of a comprehensive research comprises the effect of probe profile, shape, pin
length, traverse speed, preheating, tilt angle, applied load and heat transfer parameters on FSW of
Al alloys.

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 Advanced Materials Research Vol. 795 183

Fig.1 : Schematic diagram of friction stir welding process.

Experimental
In this study two sheets of pure Al were used. Each 2 mm in thickness, 40 mm in width and 100
mm in length. They were friction-stir butt welded together according to the configuration
schematically represented in Fig. 1. The microstructure of the received Al base metal is shown in
Fig. 2. The aluminum base metal has elongated grains in the rolling direction.

Fig.2 : The microstructure of the received base metal of aluminum.

The medium carbon steel probe (0.446 % C, 0.79 Mn, 0.012 P, 0.0052 S; balance Fe) was
conventionally heat treated to Rc 60. It was of smooth shoulder and unthreaded columnar pin as
depicted in Fig.3.

Fig. 3 : The welding probe configuration

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The entire tool assembly was inserted into the milling machine as shown in Fig 4 and the butt
joint work pieces were clamped directly to the milling table.

Fig. 4 : Assembling configuration of the sample at the milling machine

Different FSW conditions were tried by setting the milling machine spindle to different
rotational speed (Rt). The traverse speed (V) of the milling table was kept constant at 60 mm/min
throughout the tests. The welding parameters and the probe dimensions are shown in Table 1. Prior
to welding, the workpiece welding surface was cleaned with acetone and then placed on a baking
plate and clamped rigidly by anvil along the welding direction to prevent lateral movement.
Different Al-Al strips welding processes were conducted. The welded samples were removed and
prepared for microstructural analysis and mechanical properties evaluation. The specifications of
the cutting, grinding and polishing were done according to the American Standard Testing of
Materials (ASTM E3) [5]. Transverse tensile test and Vickers micro-hardness test were executed to
evaluate the welding bond and the welding zone respectively. Samples for observing the
microstructures were cut perpendicular to the welding direction and then anodized Keller’s reagent
was used to reveal their microstructure.

Table 1 : Welding parameters and tool dimensions

Process parameters Values

Rotational speed Rt (rpm) 1000 , 1500 , 2000

Welding traverse speed V 60
(mm/min)
Axial force (KN) 7.0

Pin length (mm) 1.5

Tool shoulder diameter D (mm) 16
Pin diameter, d (mm) 4

Results and discussion

Fig. 5 (a) express the surface appearance of the friction stir welding of similar aluminum 2mm
thickness plates using low rotational speed of 1000 rpm. The weld nugget zone (NZ) joint was not
well performed and the semicircular metal traces are observed in the stir zone. The gap between the
two welded strips is evident. As the heat generated by the pin and the shoulder at the welding zone
is proportional to the rotational speed. It is clear that it was not sufficient to produce defect free
 Advanced Materials Research Vol. 795 185

weldments [6]. At the bottom of the aluminum plates, it can be shown the two Al strips were not
successfully joined as shown in (b). This may be attributed to poor heat generation and to the non
firm clamping of the butt jointed Al pairs.

Gap

a) b)

Fig. 5 : (a) The front and (b) the back view of the Al-Al strips longitudinal weld zone at conducted
at speed of 1000 rpm.

At higher rotational speed of 1500 rpm, the surface morphology of the NZ became smoother
and free of defects, it reveals finer microstructure as opposed to that conducted at 1000 rpm shown
in Fig. 6 (a) and (b).

NZ Defect free weldments

a) b)

Fig. 6 : (a) The front and (b) back view of the Al-Al weld zone at rotational speed of 1500 rpm.

Fig. 7 (a) shows the surface morphology of the highest utilized rotational speed i.e., the 2000
rpm, the surface shows onion rough rings like striated structure. The back side of The Al-Al weld at
high rotational speed showed some cracks. These cracks evolved as a result of the excessive heat
generated by the shoulder, the Al surface rubbing action and the flow of the metal by the stirring
action as shown in Fig. 7 (b) [6].
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Crack
Onion Like striated structure

a) b)

Fig. 7 : (a) The front and (b) back view of the Al-Al strips weld zone at the highest rotational speed
of 2000 rpm. Rough widely striated structure is evident.

As a consequence of the interaction between the stirring tool and the material, The FSW process
results in five different microstructure zones; the nugget zone in the centre of the weld line where
the pin has passed, the shoulder–workpiece contact zone at the top surface, the thermo–
mechanically affected zones (TMAZ) immediately adjacent to the side of the nugget, the next
adjacent to the TMAZ is the heat affected zones (HAZ) that experiences a thermal cycle but not a
mechanical shearing and finally the unaffected base parent material [7, 8, 9]. The microstructure of
the HAZ, the HMAZ and the NZ are shown in Fig. 8. There is a distinct boundary between the
recrystallization zone (NZ) and the deformed zones of the TMAZ and the HAZ [10].

NZ

TMAZ

HAZ

Fig.8 : The NZ, HAZ and TMAZ areas.

There is a remarkable difference in the internal structures of the NZ and the TMAZ whereas the
nugget zone is composed of fine-equiaxed recrystallized grains, while the TMAZ is composed of
coarse-bent recovered grains [11].
Fig. 9 represents the hardness plot of the FSW weld joint at rotational speed of 1500 rpm. The
hardness of the HAZ and the NZ are lower than that of the base metal (BM). The difference in
hardness values between HAZ and NZ is attributed to the grain refinement in NZ due to the
interaction of the pin with the material in this region which tends to increase the hardness in this
region according to equation(1). This zone experienced large plastic strain and the microstructure is
highly refined as opposed to the base material. Whilst the heat affected zone (HAZ) adjacent to the
(TMAZ) experiences a thermal cycle only but not a mechanical shearing. It is more appropriate to
 Advanced Materials Research Vol. 795 187

overcome or minimize the HAZ softening to improve the mechanical properties of the weldments as
the hardness in the stir zone was increased slightly with the decrease in the grain size according to
the Hall-Petch Relation [12].

Hv = Ho + kH d −1/2 (1)

Where HV is the hardness, Ho a n d kH are the appropriate constants associated with the
hardness measurements. It was observed that the hardness of the stir zone increase with the decrease
in the friction heat flow because the grain size in the stir zone decreases when the friction heat flow
is decreased.

TMAZ

TMAZ
BM

HAZ

HAZ
NZ

BM

(mm)

Fig. 9 : Transverse Vickers micro-hardness profile for the Al- Al at rotational speed of 1500 rpm.

As shown in Fig. 9, the traverse Vickers micro-hardness is not equal across the welding zone.
The hardness of the base metal is higher than that of the HAZ, TMAZ and NZ but the hardness
value at the NZ peaks to a relatively higher value than that of the HAZ and TMAZ, this attributed to
the refining of the grain size at this region as we have mentioned earlier in equation (1).
Tensile test was carried out for medium and high rotational speeds. Fig. 10 shows the tensile
strength versus the rotational speed of 1500 and 2000 rpm. At speed of 1500 rpm the tensile
strength of the weld center line was higher than that at 2000 rpm. The tensile strength of the
samples welded at rotational speed of 2000 rpm showed very poor strength due to excess friction
heat generation at the weld zone. Similar result was observed when there is insufficient heat
generation. This was the case at (1000) rpm. The best data was obtained when the rotational speed
was around (1500) rpm. It is more appropriate to overcome or minimize the HAZ softening to
improve the overall mechanical properties of the weldments [13].
188 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Materials (ICoSM 2013)

100
90
80
Tensile strength (N/mm²)

Average tensile
Average tensile strength
strenght at rpm
at 1000 1000
70
rpm
60 Average tensile strenght at 1500 rpm
50
40 Average tensile strenght at 2000 rpm

30
Tensile strenght for base metal
20
10
0
1000 1500 2000 Base metal Rotational speed (rpm)

Fig.10 : The tensile strength versus the rotational speeds for aluminum weld.

Conclusion
Four different regions were distinguished in Al-Al FSW process, the NZ, TMAZ, HAZ and the BM.
Controlling the welding parameters particularly the rotation speed and the probe design has yield
sound and defect free weldments. The NZ showed lower hardness value as opposed to that of the
base metal indicating multiple contradiction effects of work hardening, softening and grain
refinement acting simultaneously. However, at rotational speed of 1500 rpm the weld joint showed
no sign of surface defect such as porosities, cracks and inclusions. The outcome was weld joints of
strength higher than that of the base metal.

Acknowledgement:
This work is supported under the grant No. 9001-00338 of the Universiti Malaysia Perlis
(UniMAP). The authors gratefully acknowledge the outstanding support provided by the technicians
of the work shop of Materials Engineering School, UniMAP.

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