Materials Science and Engineering A 456 (2007) 344–349

Influence of friction stir welding parameters on grain size and

formability in 5083 aluminum alloy
Tomotake Hirata a,∗ , Taizo Oguri a , Hideki Hagino a , Tsutomu Tanaka a ,
Sung Wook Chung b , Yorinobu Takigawa c , Kenji Higashi c
a Technology Research Institute of Osaka Prefecture, 2-7-1 Ayumino, Izumi-city, Osaka 594-1157, Japan
b Division of Technology Licensing Organization, Osaka Industrial Promotion Organization, Creation Core Higashi Osaka,
50-5 Aramoto-Kita, Higashi Osaka-city, Osaka 577-0011, Japan
c Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Sakai-city, Osaka 599-8531, Japan

Received 25 August 2006; received in revised form 24 November 2006; accepted 8 December 2006

Abstract
Friction stir welding (FSW) has received a great deal of attention as a new solid-state welding technique. In the present study, the relationship
between the microstructure of stir zone and the mechanical property of FS-welded 5083 aluminum alloy was investigated. The microstructures
of the stir zones consisted of fine equiaxed grains at various FSW conditions in FS-welded 5083 Al alloy. However, the grain size of the stir
zone decreased with the decrease in friction heat flow during FSW. The ductility in FS-welded 5083 Al alloy increased with the decrease in
friction heat flow. It was indicated that the formability in FS-welded 5083 Al alloy was improved by the refinement of grain size of the stir
zone.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Aluminum alloy; Friction stir welding; Grain size; Hall–Petch relation; Formability

1. Introduction However, most applications of FSW are presently limited to two-

Recently, because of aluminum’s light weight, it has been
considered an energy-saving structural material in advanced
applications. In addition, aluminum is an easily saved resource
because it can be recycled, and thus can be expected to
be an environmental friendly metallic material. One such
application would be its use in automobiles, which would
facilitate transportation; numerous similar examples could
be cited in support of employing aluminum as a structural
material.
Friction stir welding (FSW) is a relatively new joining pro-
cess. It was developed initially for aluminum alloys, by The
Welding Institute (TWI) of United Kingdom [1]. FSW is a
solid-state joining method that is energy efficient, environmen-
tally friendly, and versatile. It is considered by many to be
the most significant development in metal joining in a decade.
Therefore, many works about FSW has been reported [2–17].
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 725 51 2695; fax: +81 725 51 2749.
E-mail address: hirata@tri.pref.osaka.jp (T. Hirata).
dimensional planes. Therefore, when FS-welded Al sheets are
formed into a three-dimensional shape, they must exhibit ade-
quate formability similar to that of the base material sheet. In
this way, an improvement in the ductility of FS-welded Al alloy
sheets would be necessary in order to increase the number of
aluminum’s potential applications.
5083 Al alloy (Al–Mg–Mn alloy) has a high degree of corro-
sion resistance and excellent mechanical properties. Therefore,
5083 Al alloy is expected to be applied as a structural mate-
rial. Several papers are found reporting FSW in 5083 Al alloy
[5,7–14]. However, the formability of FS-welded 5083 Al alloy
has not been fully investigated.
It is well known that the microstructure in the stir zone is
changed by dynamic recrystallization during FSW [15–17]. The
microstructure in the stir zone is influenced by FSW parame-
ters. It is therefore considered that the formability of FS-welded
material is influenced by FSW parameters. In light of this, the
present study examined the influence of FSW parameters on the
microstructure of the stir zone and the formability of FS-welded
5083 Al alloy sheets. In addition, the optimum FSW condition
was discussed.

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2006.12.079
 T. Hirata et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 456 (2007) 344–349 345

2. Experimental procedures Table 1

FSW parameters used in the present study
Rolled sheets of 5083-O aluminum alloy (Al–4.60Mg– Sample Rotational speed, Welding speed,
0.73Mn–0.12Cr–0.03Fe–0.02Si) with a thickness of 3 mm were Rt (rpm) V (mm/min)
used in FSW. Single-pass friction stir butt welds were made Sample A 500 100
using an FSW tool with a shoulder and pin 12 and 4 mm in diame- Sample B 800 100
ter, respectively. The welding direction was parallel to the rolling Sample C 800 200
direction. The inclination angle was set to 3◦ . Several conditions Sample D 1000 100
of thermal generations were chosen, and the FSW conditions –
rotational speed, Rt, and welding speed, V – were changed from
500 to 1000 rpm and from 100 to 200 mm/min, respectively. Tensile tests were performed at room temperature at a cross-
The FSW parameters used in the present study are shown in head speed of 2 mm/min. The tensile test was performed five
Table 1. Samples for observing the microstructures were cut times under the FSW condition, and the average value was cal-
perpendicular to the welding direction and then anodized in culated. The tensile strength and yield strength were calculated
Barker’s solution. Hardness measurements were made along the using a cross-section of the base material. The bulge test rather
cross-section of the weld. The load was set at 0.98 N. than an Erichsen test was performed on the weld at room tem-
The formability of FS-welded material was evaluated in terms perature, because the thickness of the sheet was 3 mm. The test
of the results of tensile and bulge tests. The uniaxial tensile test samples were extracted in 100 mm squares. The burr at the stir
was performed on the weld. Specimens for the uniaxial tensile zone was eliminated. The punch diameter was 40 mm and the
test were extracted from a FS-welded sheet. Tensile direction punch’s pushing speed was 20 mm/min. The lubricant was Erich-
was perpendicular to the welding direction. A burr at the stir sen grease. The bulge test was performed three times under the
zone was removed. The specimen’s gage length was 40 mm. FSW condition, and the average value was then calculated.

Fig. 1. Microstructures of the stir zones under the various FSW conditions.
346 T. Hirata et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 456 (2007) 344–349

Table 2 However, both data was almost the same under all FSW
Mechanical properties of FS-welded 5083 alloys under the tensile tests conditions. It was therefore suggested that the asymmetrical
Sample Yield stress (MPa) Tensile stress (MPa) Elongation (%) morphology at the stir zone had little influence on formability.
Sample A 149 334 20.7
The result of bulge test was similar to that of the tensile test.
Sample B 136 332 16.4 Samples A and C exhibited excellent formability under biaxial
Sample C 148 316 24.6 tension. The value of the dome height of Sample C was almost
Sample D 138 333 18.1 the same with that of the base material. Fig. 3 shows appearances
of specimens after bulge tests. In the majority of commercially
processed aluminum alloy sheets, failures in equibiaxial stretch-
3. Results ing occur either in the rolling direction, RD, or in the transverse
direction, TD. In the base material sheet, the failure occurred
3.1. Observation of cross-section in the TD. It has been reported that the failure in the TD occurs
when there is another form of directional inhomogeneity which
Cross-sections of the weld joints under the various FSW can be inherited from the rolling process [18]. In Samples A,
conditions were observed. Neither cracks nor porosity was vis- B and D, the failure occurred in the RD and samples fractured
ible, indicating a good quality. The microstructures of the stir at the stir zone, when the punch pushed from both the top and
zones under the various FSW conditions are shown in Fig. 1. bottom of the welded sheet. On the other hand, in Sample C,
Microstructures were observed to evolve into fine equiaxed the failure occurred in the RD when the punch pushed from the
grains under every FSW condition. The grain size in stir zone bottom of the welded sheet. However, the failure occurred in
decreased with decreased Rt, and increased V. the TD when the punch pushed from the top of the welded sheet
and this failure in Sample C was very similar to that in the base
3.2. Mechanical properties material.

3.2.1. Tensile test

The results of the tensile tests are shown in Table 2. These
results include yield stresses, tensile stresses, and elongations
under uniaxial tension under various FSW conditions. Sample
C fractured at the base material and the others fractured at the
stir zone. Samples A and C exhibited high yield stresses. As
for elongation, Samples B and D exhibited insufficiently short
elongations. On the other hand, Samples A and C exhibited large
elongations. The value of Sample C was almost the same with
that of the base material.
3.2.2. Bulge test
The results of bulge tests under various FSW conditions are
shown in Fig. 2. The morphology of the stir zone at the top and
bottom was not symmetrical during FSW. Therefore, the punch
pushed from both the top and bottom of the FS-welded material.
Fig. 2. Results of bulge tests of FS-welded materials compared with that of the
base material.
4. Discussion
It is well known that mechanical properties in welded metal-
lic material are influenced by the strength of the weld joint. In
general, yield stress, σ y , is related to grain size, d, through the
Hall–Petch equation [19,20]:
σy = σ0 + ky d −1/2 , (1)
where σ 0 is the friction stress and ky is a positive yielding con-
stant associated with the stress required to extend dislocation
activity into adjacent unyielded grains. In the absence of appre-
ciable work hardening, Eq. (1) is reformulated in terms of the
hardness, Hv, through the following relationship:
Hv = H0 + kH d −1/2 , (2)
where H0 and kH are the appropriate constants associated with
the hardness measurements. The hardness in the stir zone under
every FSW condition was then measured, and the relationship
between grain size and hardness was examined. The hardness
in the stir zone was increased slightly with the decrease in grain
size in the present 5083 alloy. Fig. 4 shows the data regarding
the present 5083 alloy summarized together with other reported
data for examination of the relationship between hardness and
grain size in stir zone. The hardness against the reciprocal of
the square root of grain size for the stir zone of FS-welded 5083
alloys is plotted in this figure according to the Hall–Petch rela-
tionship. As shown in Fig. 4, Hv was roughly proportional to
d−1/2 . Thus, the hardness increased with the decrease in grain
size. It was therefore considered that the stir zone’s high hard-
ness value associated with fine grains influenced the high degree
of formability in Samples A and C.
It has been considered that the friction heat flow is a very
important factor for FSW because the microstructure in the stir
 T. Hirata et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 456 (2007) 344–349 347

zone is strongly influenced by the friction heat flow. There are
two main mechanisms for friction heat flow during FSW. One
is the friction heat flow from the shoulder, and the other is that
from the pin. However, it has been reported that the friction
heat flow from the pin is considerably small in comparison with
that from the shoulder [21]. Therefore, only the friction heat
flow from the shoulder was considered in the present study. It
has been reported that the friction heat flow from the shoulder
during FSW, Q, can be evaluated by [22]:
Q = 43 π2 μPRtD3 ,
where μ is the friction coefficient, Rt the rotational speed, P
the applied pressure, and D is the shoulder diameter. However,
the FSW tool moves during FSW. Thus, the friction heat flow
during FSW is evaluated by Q/V. In addition, it is often that Q/V
is evaluated by Rt/V from Eq. (3).
The relationship between the yield strength, tensile strength,
elongation, dome height, and Rt/V in the present 5083 alloy
is shown in Fig. 5. It was concluded that the yield strength
increased slightly with a decrease in Rt/V. In addition, the elon-
gation and dome height increased with a decrease in Rt/V. The
data regarding the present 5083 alloy was summarized together
with other reported data. Most of the data of P during FSW has
(3) not been reported. Therefore, only the data of D was considered
from Eq. (3). It was assumed that μ during FSW was almost
the same value. The relationship between RtD3 /V and d in the
stir zone is shown in Fig. 6. This figure includes the data of D

Fig. 3. Appearances of specimens after bulge tests. The rolling direction is vertical.
348 T. Hirata et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 456 (2007) 344–349

Fig. 3. (Continued ).

measured in the macrograph of the weld joint [14]. It has been
reported that strain stored in the base material only negligibly
affects the evolution of the grain structure in the stir zone during
FSW [23]. Therefore, this figure includes the data of both 5083-
O and 5083-H. It was suggested that there was an error to some
extent because P was not considered. It was, however, evident
that the relationship between RtD3 /V and d is roughly expressed
by a single straight line. In the present study, the friction heat
flow during FSW could not be evaluated precisely, however, it
was evident that RtD3 /V had a close relation to grain size and
the formability was improved by the refinement of grain size of
the stir zone. Therefore, Rt/V was considered to be very impor-
tant factor in the formability of the FS-welded material from
the industrial point of view. It was concluded that the forma-
bility in FS-welded material was improved by decreasing the
friction heat flow in FSW and was almost the same with that in
base material when the material was welded at optimum FSW
condition.

Fig. 5. Relationship between the elongation, dome height, and Rt/V in the
Fig. 4. Relationship between Hv and d−1/2 in FS-welded 5083 alloys. present 5083 alloy.
 T. Hirata et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 456 (2007) 344–349
Fig. 6. Relationship between RtD3 /V and d in FS-welded 5083 alloys.
5. Conclusion
The influence of FSW parameters on the grain size of the
stir zone and the formability of FS-welded 5083 Al alloy was
examined in the present study. The microstructures of the stir
zones consisted of fine equiaxed grains at various FSW condi-
tions in FS-welded 5083 Al alloy. The hardness of the stir zone
increased with the decrease in friction heat flow because the
grain size in the stir zone decreased with the friction heat flow.
The tensile strength under each FSW condition was almost the
same. However, the ductility was improved according to changes
in the combination of Rt and V, and the formability in FS-welded
5083 Al alloy was improved by decreasing the friction heat flow.
Acknowledgement
This work is a part of Osaka East Urban Area Industry-
Government-Academia Collaboration Project on FSW “CITY
AREA” sponsored by MEXT, 2004–2007.
349
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