Friction Stir

Welding
Of shipbuilding Steel with Primer

Alejandro Pérez Núñez

Irene Vilches Rey
 Index

Friction Stir Welding 1

Index 2
Introduction 3
Experimental approach 5
Equipment and tools 6
Welding parameters and steel plates 7
Results and discusion : metallographic analysis 9
Results and discusion: microhardeness analysis 14
Results and discusión: tensile test analysis 16
Results and discusion: fatigue test análisis 18
Conclusions 21
References 22
 Introduction

 Friction Stir Welding (FSW) First aluminium Brought to sateel (most widely used)
 Invented last decade, 20th century
 FSW ecologic reduce material waste and harmful gas emissions
Solid-state joining process by rotating tool under axial forcing force
The heat generated by friction between surfaces softens the material base welding
among them
 Welding parameters geometry, rotation speed, plunge depth, tilt angle
limited the by tool wear (since steel is hard)
 Thomas tool wear drawback due to lifetime and costs
 Lienert Rotating speeds, temperature and force
Dynamic recrystallization causing small grain size, being the stirred zone
Thermomecanically heat affected zone (no recrystallization) and heat affected zone hard to
distinguish
 Reynolds teel plate for shipbuilding industry
Confirmed previous conclusions and established characteristics
Found martensite and bainite in the microstructure of the stirred zone
 Konkol new structural steel (HSLA65) for the shipbuilding community using argon as a shielding gas
 Failla, Lakshiminarayan and Balasubramanian confirm the ability of FSW to weld Steel
 All and all during the next decades carried out numerous experiments in FSW
 McPearson Compared fatigue behaviour of sumerged arc and FSW concluded that the fatigue growth rate in the
welded material is lower than in the Base material
 This paper presents a research work aiming to contribute for the implementation of FSW in shipbuilding by
analysing its performance in welding steel with a primer.
Experimental approach

Welding of 4mm steel plates leading to sound welds. Analysing results based on chemical
composition of different zones using EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy) and mechanical
test (microhardness, tensile and fatigue testing)

FSW process
 Equipment and tools

 FSW machine from Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht

 Rotating speed : –5000 to + 5000 rev/min
 Maximum advancing speed of 160 mm/s Welding machine
 Maximum torque of 125 N.m
 Working table dimensions with 2500 x 850 mm (mechanical clamping system and electric actuators)
 Monitor: time, torque, rotating speed, advancing speed in the welding direction, force in X and Z directions
and movement in Z direction.
 The tool was an innovative Tantalum (better mechanical characteristics and strength) based with a shape of a
frustrum cone

 Welding parameters and steel plates

• Welding parameters of the steel plates used (ℓ - Thickness, Fz – Axial force, D – Rotating speed, V
– Transverse speed).

Welding parameters of the steel plates used

• Primer Chemical Composition

Primer chemical composition

 Chemical Composition of the steel plates (in wt%)

Chemical composition of the steel plates

 Results and discusión : Metallographic analysis
 Four main zones are spotted
 Base Material (BM)
 Heat-affected Zone (HAZ), quite wide
 Upper stirrred zone (USZ)
 Lower stirred zone (LSZ)
 There is a lighter stain within the stirred zone that
produced a very light microstructure
 Moreover retreating and advancing sides can be identify.
Macro and Micrographs of the weld FSW-PA-LB-548 at the
 Retreating has semi-elliptical shape beginning of the welding joint
 Advancing has a clear inflection point
 Composition : equiaxed ferrite with small amount of perlite (Konkol)
 HAZ more homogeneus refined zone
 Stirred Zone : mainly constituted of bainite and martensite (Reynolds)

 The light structure of the stirred zone has a non normalized distribution with dispersed aggregates related to
the fact that it was painted with red primer
 It is zinc based primer, with a melting point similar to the zinc while the peak temperatures in the FSW tool
are above this melting point

FSW Temperature measurements of a low

carbon 12% chromium stee

 Therefore assuming a high thermal conductivity of steel there is a temperature rise of the front of the tool
that gets rid of the paint reacting with the steel and creating microstructure and intermetallic formation
among them affecting the properties of the steel.
 Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis of the chemical elements in the welded zones was performed
to compare them with the microstructural composition
 Regions selected for the EDS : Base Material, Stirred Zone and the light region
 This process has a limit, it can not obtain real values of weight percentage for elements with their atomic
number below eight. So, only it is realized a qualitative analysis of the carbon content.
 The results were compared to the chemical analysis

Comparative carbon relation given by the EDS scan after

analyzingthe regions selected

Average percentage (in wt%) of the elements analyzed

by EDS in the regions selected
 Variation in % of the average chemical composition analyzed on EDS scan in the regions selected

• Increasing variation between the BM, the stirred zone and the light
material. Light area contains a 52% more of zinc than the stirred
zone.
• In the isothermic curves can be detected a flow of zinc from the
primer material to the base material and the stirred zone.

Isothermal lines in FSW of mild steel

 Another element that shows a similar evolution is Si, with a greatest increase from the stirred zone to the
white region.
 The remaining of the elements, except carbon, shows about the same values in both the stirred zone and the
white region.


Silicon wt% along the line scanned by EDS.

 Results and discusión : Microhardness analysis
 Vickers hardness values measured are in accordance with the microstructures identified under microscopy.
 Hardness corresponds to Base Material lower than in the stirred zone which has more bainite microstructure
(Reynolds)
 Sharp rise is spotted between BM and HAZ and increasing in the stirred zone


548 M1 Microhardness profile. 548 M2 Microhardness profile.

 Increase in the content of aluminium, , chromium, vanadium and carbon which increase the steel hardeness
 Thus, a rise of phosphorus is sighted due to the fact of an embrittlement effect
 The primer before welding causes a temperature and cooling rate variation in comparition to standar
parameters that causes the appear of martensite and small amounts of bainite leading to a decrease in
hardness
 In the light área due to the carbon quantity is a drecease in hardeness

 Results and discusión : Tensile test analysis

 It is possible to observe standardized values for shipbuilding industry such as

 Yield stress : 421 MPa
 Maximum stress : 512 MPa
 Elongation fracture : 31%
 The tensile behaviour is similar to the tensile values and elongation to rupture
 Demonstrated higher mechanical properties

Tensile test results of FSW-PA-LB-548 welded

specimens.
Main results from the tensile tests of the weld FSW-PA-LB-548

Summary of tensile tests results.

 Results and discusión : Fatigue test analysis

 The results obtained from fatigue test analysis has a S-N curve which compared Veritas and Hobbacher
standars. The reference curve used is the fusion welding of steels with N ≤ 107 cycles.
 Nonetheless, since there is no specific standars for FSW there are also faced with fatigue designs FAT112
line which is the highest limit for fusion steel welding


Fatigue test results (weld FSW-PA-LB-548)

 Starting with arrange value of 40% of the σmax and increasing a 10% on each cycle
 Pointing out a softer microstructutred in the welded joint influences the test with higher stress levels,
causing the fracture at a lower number of cycles tan with lower predicted σ
 Early crack nucleation is reduced by the martensinic structure improving fatigue resistance of welded joints
 In comparision with the rest of welding process, the FSW test are globally better in fatigue range stress.


Overall comparison between all the fatigue

results performed and fatigue results from other
studies regarding different welding processes
and/or steels
 In comparision with the rest of welding process, the FSW test are globally better in fatigue range stress.
 Not only the fatigue behaviour of welded joints is slightly better but also stress range above 290 Mpa,
proving the good quality of the results with FSW
 The next equation and table summarise all the results obtained proving that this is a worth process


m : slope of the S-N curve

b : constant from experimental results

S-N equation coefficients of all the fatigue tests performed, as well as

of other relevant studies for comparison
 Conclusions

 All and all, it is posible to prove the viability of FSW in the shipbuilding Steel industry with high quality
welds along with its main benefits such as lower cost, ecological and a lower treatment to the base
material
 Talking about metallurgical properties, it is posible to identify four regions (BM, HAZ, LSZ, USZ).
However if primer is presented before welding, a light region with lower carbon in the stirred zone,
presents different mechanical properties than the surrounding material.
 Refering to microhardeness among BM and SZ (Stirred Zone), the composition of the paint hardness values
on SZ changing standard parameters
 Regarding to mechanical test results, during the tensile ones, fracture ocurred outside the welded region.
About fatigue test between IIW and DNV standards, none of the results were below shipbuilding
parameters, indeed showing better results than the rest of methods.
 References
 Azevedo, José; Quintino, Luísa; Infante, Virginia; Miranda, Rosa Maria; dos Santos, Jorge, 14 January,
2016. “Friction Stir Welding of Shipbuilding Steel with Primer”. Soldagem & Inspecão.
https://www.scielo.br/j/si/a/8KxZ6x4D4MmYD398zN3xK3w/?lang=en
 Lortek, 13 June 2021. Lortek: Soldadura de extrusions por FSW Friction Stir Welding. JPG,
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u-y4kjK1aqE/maxresdefault.jpg