j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8

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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmrt

Original Article

Effects of laser oscillating frequency on energy

distribution, molten pool morphology and grain
structure of AA6061/AA5182 aluminum alloys lap
welding

Lin Chen, Chunming Wang, Gaoyang Mi, Xiong Zhang*

State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and
Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

article info abstract

Article history: This paper studied lap welding on 1.5 mm AA6061 and AA5182 aluminum alloy sheets with
Received 20 June 2021 laser beam circular oscillation. The joint form is commonly used in new energy car bodies
Accepted 29 September 2021 to achieve the purpose of reducing weight and combining the strength and toughness of
Available online 5 October 2021 two aluminum alloys. The effects of oscillating frequency on the weld formation, grain
structure and mechanical properties were mainly investigated combining with numerical
Keywords: simulation. The asymmetric weld morphology and the influence of frequency on weld
Laser welding formation were studied by energy distribution, temperature histories and keyhole depth.
Circular oscillation The increase of frequency can cause the actual heat input, linear energy and keyhole depth
Numerical simulation to decrease, resulting in the molten pool to change from an elongated droplet shape to a
Molten pool flow nearly elliptic shape, and the transition from keyhole mode to conduction mode, thus the
Keyhole evolution grain size gradually reduced. The columnar crystals width in the left and right sides were
Grain structure different, attributing to the different solidification parameters at the both sides of the same
isotherm. The tensile strength can reach the maximum value of 156 MPa, where the lap
surface was the main source of crack. The dilution of the strengthening phase and the
grain size together affected the internal microhardness distribution of the weld. A wide
HAZ (heat affected zone) was presented in the oscillating weld. This work can provide a
research basis for the optimization of the weld formation, grain structure and properties of
this kind of joint, which has potential application in the new energy vehicles.
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

oscillating welding can not only make full use of the advan-
1. Introduction tages of laser welding, for example, high welding efficiency,
small heat-affected zone and high energy density, but also
Aluminum alloy laser welded joints are widely used in the make up for the shortcomings of conventional laser welding,
new energy automotive and aerospace industries [1]. Laser such as easy formation of collapse and pore defects [2]. The
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhang_xiong@hust.edu.cn (X. Zhang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.09.141
2238-7854/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
3134 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8
circular oscillating pattern has been considered as a better
way to obtain the excellent weld formation [3], which can well
meet the requirements of partially-penetrated and defect-free
in the industry of new energy vehicles.
For the research of laser oscillating welding, many
scholars were currently in progress, which mainly focused on
grain refinement, energy distribution optimization, and melt
flow in the molten pool. Regarding the mechanism of grain
refinement, some scholars believed that the preferred
orientation growth direction of the grains were disordered by
the changing temperature gradient and heat flow diffusion
direction during the oscillating welding process, thereby
achieving the purpose of grain refinement [4]. Other scholars
considered that the temperature gradient inside the molten
pool was greatly reduced during laser oscillating welding, and
the temperature distribution was more uniform, which was
beneficial to the growth of equiaxed crystals. For example,
Hagenlocher et al. [5] illustrated that circular oscillation of
laser beam can greatly decrease the temperature gradient by
establishing the analytical model of temperature gradient
and solidification rate, which was an important factor for the
formation of equiaxed grain. Jiang et al. [6] studied that laser
oscillation made temperature distribution more even near
the weld center, which benefited to the growth of equiaxed
grains.
The energy distribution of the molten pool is a key factor to
affect temperature distribution and melt flow, which can be
uniformed by laser beam oscillation. Zhang et al. [7] demon-
strated that the circular oscillating welding can disperse the
energy distribution, thereby greatly reducing the peak tem-
perature and the temperature gradient inside the molten pool.
Wang et al. [8] successfully predicted the cross-section and
surface morphology of the laser oscillating weld by means of
the energy distribution on the basis of the melt pool over-
lapping ratio model proposed by Hao et al. [9]. Chen et al. [10]
concluded that as the amplitude increased, the distribution of
energy became wider and the energy density decreased,
which reduced the temperature gradient of the molten pool
and the Marangoni force, resulting in a decrease in the uni-
formity of element mixing.
During the oscillating welding process, the molten pool
flow is more complicated, and the interaction between the
keyhole and the melt is more varied. At present, it is difficult
to directly observe the behavior of the keyhole inside the
molten pool. The high-speed synchrotron x-ray imaging is
currently an effective method. For example, Lu et al. [11]
presented a method for in-situ monitoring of the keyhole
depth to judge the weld penetration status during laser
welding, which was validate by experiments. Luo et al. [12]
accurately extracted the boundary and width of the molten
pool based on visual recognition technology and optimized
edge detection algorithm to better observe the real-time dy-
namic behavior of the molten pool. Zhao et al. [13] used this
method to observe the phenomenon of keyhole critical
instability during the laser powder bed fusion. Fetzer et al. [14]
observed the formation process of pores in laser oscillating
welding by this mean. However, the experimental cost of in-
situ x-ray monitoring the entire welding process was too
expensive, and it was limited by platform construction and
device resolution.
Therefore, the numerical simulation was generally per-
formed to study and analyze the dynamic behavior of the
molten pool. Some researchers were mainly dedicated to
exploring the reasons of pore formation. Pang et al. [15] pro-
posed a 3D transient multiphase model to describe the
keyhole and weld pool dynamics in deep penetration fiber
laser welding. On this basis, Liu et al. [16] studied the laser
sinusoidal oscillation welding of 7075 aluminum alloy and
found that the porosity defect was affected by the staying time
of the laser beam in the low-speed region, and the longer the
duration, the more unstable the keyhole. Some researchers
were devoted to studying the melt flow regularity. Hao et al.
[17] believed that the fluid velocity in the melt pool of oscil-
lating welding was more uniform, the velocity gradient was
smaller, thus the fluid velocity near the keyhole was slower,
which was beneficial to maintain the stability of the keyhole
and molten pool flow. And a new eddy current was added
perpendicular to the longitudinal section of the weld, making
the melt flow more complicated. Zhang et al. [7] found that a
high-speed vortex was formed in the front of molten pool due
to the presence of the periodic drag force between keyhole and
melt during circular oscillating welding. Most of the above
simulations were about medium and thick plates. When it
comes to the simulation of thin sheet, most were finite
element simulations optimized for welding distortion [18,19].
Regarding the flow field simulation, Geng et al. [20] developed
a numerical model for full-penetration laser welding of
aluminum alloy sheets, successfully simulated the heat
transfer, convection and solidification behavior during the
welding process, and analyzed their effects on the
microstructure.
The dynamic evolution of the keyhole during the laser
oscillating welding of thin sheets is also diverse, which is a
worthy and interesting field to study. Few previous studies
have applied laser oscillating welding to the lap joints of
aluminum alloy sheets. Due to the need to meet the applica-
tion requirements, both the upper and lower sheets should be
well joined, but the lower sheet cannot be full penetrated, so
the appropriate process window is narrow. Based on the above
research, this work mainly studied the keyhole evolution and
solidification process during circular oscillating welding with
different frequencies combined experiment and simulation.
The effect of oscillating frequency on the forming mechanism,
melt flow regularity, keyhole dynamic behavior and grain
structure were analyzed, which can provide some new in-
sights of further research on laser circular oscillating welding.
2. Experiments
2.1. Experimental platform
Lap welding was performed on AA6061-T6 and AA5182-O
aluminum alloys with oscillating laser beam. AA6061-
AA5182 dissimilar aluminum alloy joints are generally
considered to be a good way to connect sidewalls and rear
walls of the automotive. This method can combine the well
formability and high strength of the two alloys. AA6061
aluminum alloy is strengthened by precipitation, and the
main elements are Mg and Si, which has good specific
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8 3135

Fig. 1 e Schematic of lap welding for AA6061/AA5182 aluminum alloys.

strength and hot crack resistance [21]. AA5182 aluminum

Table 1 e Chemical compositions and mechanical
alloy is solid solution strengthened by Mg element, which has properties of the aluminum alloys (wt.%).
good elongation and formability [22].
Elements (wt%) Mg Si Fe Cu Mn Cr Al
The diagram is shown in Fig. 1. AA6061 was welded to
AA5182 in the form of lap joint, and the laser beam was irra- AA5182-O 4.50 0.08 0.27 0.05 0.35 0.03 Bal
AA6061-T6 0.94 0.58 0.16 0.23 0.03 0.07 Bal
diated on the upper surface of AA6061. The size of test plate
was 100 mm
200 mm
1.5 mm. The width of overlap area Mechanical sUTS (MPa) ε(%) Microhardness
was 20 mm. For this experimental platform, the laser head properties (HV)

was droved by the KUKA robot. The galvanometer scanner AA5182-O 233 ± 3 18 ± 2 ~84
built-in the laser head can realize high precise beam oscilla- AA6061-T6 333 ± 3 12 ± 2 ~106
tion. The Ytterbium Fiber laser (YLS-30000, IPG, Germany)
with a fiber diameter of 300 mm was used, and the beam
diameter at the irradiation plane (focal plane) was 500 mm (the Since circular oscillation included two directions, clock-
defocus amount used in this study was 0). wise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW), one of the directions
Prior to welding, the test plates should be cleaned and should be selected to further study the effect of oscillation
removed the oxide film to reduce the impact of unimportant frequency on laser circular oscillating welding, it was neces-
factors on the experiment. The laser head was tilted to the sary to validate that the results of the two directions were
welding direction with the angle of 10 deg. During welding, mirror symmetry by pre-experiment. The parameters and
pure argon gas was used as the shielding gas above the melt results of the pre-experiment were put in supplementary
pool with a flow rate of 20 L/min (3.33e-4 m3/s) to avoid material 2.
oxidation. The measured values of the chemical compositions
and mechanical properties of AA5182-H32 and AA6061-T6
2.2. Experimental setup
base metals are given in Table 1. The tensile strength of
In this study, the effect of oscillating frequency was mainly
AA6061 (~333 MPa) is better than AA5182 (~233 MPa), but its
investigated on laser circular oscillation welding processes.
elongation is worse than AA5182 (see Table 1).
There are many important welding parameters in laser cir-
Some regulations in this study included: the x-axis direc-
cular oscillation welding, including oscillating pattern, oscil-
tion indicated the welding direction, the oscillating amplitude
lating frequency, oscillating amplitude, laser power and
(A) referred to the diameter of the circular path, i.e., the
welding speed. Compared with laser welding without oscil-
amplitude equaled the diameter of the laser trajectory. When
lating, the characteristic parameters of laser oscillation
facing the welding direction, the left side of the weld was
welding are the first three parameters. Therefore, the selec-
designated as the left, and the right side of the weld was
tion of laser power and welding speed was based on the
designated as the right.
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consideration of energy conservation and welding efficiency.
The determination of the beam rotating direction was put in
the pre-experiment, and the CCW pattern was chosen for the
further investigation. A series of experiments have been done
on the determination of oscillating amplitude. The surface
morphology of the weld was as a criterion of evaluation. When
the amplitude was 2 mm, the welds in the frequency range to
be studied were well-formed. Moreover, when the amplitude
was 2 mm, the frequency range was wider. Thus, the welding
parameters were given as Table 2:
After welding, the samples were extracted from the steady
stage of the welds for metallographic analysis. The samples of
optical microscope were etched by Keller solution (HNO3: HF:
H2O ¼ 6:2:92) for about 30s. The electron backscattered
diffraction (EBSD) specimens were electrochemical etched
with 10% potassium permanganate solution. The specific po-
sition of EBSD specimen was about 0.1 mm down from the
upper surface of the weld and parallel to the upper surface. To
observe the dynamic behavior of the molten pool, high-speed
imaging (Phantom V611) was performed on the upper surface
of the molten pool assisting with an auxiliary light source
(CAVILUX Smart Laser Unit). The tensile properties were
tested using Instron 8801 as the rate of 1.0 mm/min. The size
of tensile sample was illustrated in Fig. 1.
2.3. Energy distribution calculate
To quantitatively compare the energy distribution of welds at
different oscillating frequencies, an energy distribution model
was optimized from the proposed model of Mahrle et al. [23].
The calculated energy distribution was theoretical, which was
suitable for horizontal comparison. The energy integral dis-
tribution was determined by the Eq. (1).
ZT
Eðx; yÞ ¼ qðx; y; tÞdt
0
where E was the laser energy integral distribution on the
surface of the test plates, T was the integral period.
Gaussian distribution was chosen to characterize the en-
ergy distribution of laser spot, which was proper to simulate
laser welding of thin sheets and validated by Han et al. [24].
The equation was shown in Eq. (2).
h i!
3Q 3 ðx  xðtÞÞ2 þ ðy  yðtÞÞ2
qðx; y; tÞ ¼ ð1  hÞ$ 2 exp 
pr0 r20
where Q was the laser power, and r0 was radius of focal point,
was the energy attenuation and taken as 40% [20,25], (x(t),y(t))
was the coordinate of the moving tracks.
Table 2 e The parameters of the experiment.
Parameters T1 T2
Oscillating pattern CCW CCW CCW
Laser power, P (W) 5000 5000 5000
Welding velocity, v (mm/s) 50 50 50
Oscillating amplitude, dc (mm) 2 2 2
Oscillating frequency, f (Hz) 100 150 200
Based on the three-dimensional coordinate system in
Fig. 1, the moving tracks can be described by the equation of
welding parameters. Eq. (3) and Eq. (4) were the paths of CW
and CCW patterns, respectively.

xðtÞ ¼ x0 þ vt þ 0:5,A,cosð2,p,f ,tÞ
CW (3)
yðtÞ ¼ y0  0:5,A,cosð2,p,f ,tÞ

xðtÞ ¼ x0 þ vt þ 0:5,A,cosð2,p,f ,tÞ
CCW (4)
yðtÞ ¼ y0 þ 0:5,A,sinð2,p,f ,tÞ
where (x0, y0) represented the initial position of the laser spot,
A was the oscillating amplitude, f was the oscillating
frequency.
Etotal represented the theoretical total energy input in a
certain period of time, which can be calculated by Eq. (5).
Z q Zn
Etotal ¼ Eðx; yÞdxdy (5)
p m
where m, n, p, q specified the total range of laser energy dis-
tribution within a certain period of time, the range of the x-
axis was from m to n, and the range of the y-axis was from p to
q. E(x, y) was the energy density value of a certain point in the
range.
Etotal Etotal
Eave ¼ ¼ Z t qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (6)
l
x0 ðtÞ þ y02 ðtÞdt
2
0
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
vr ¼ x02 ðtÞ þ y02 ðtÞ ¼ v2x þ v2y (7)
where Eave was the average linear energy per unit length, t was
the specified length of time, l was the total length of the
scanning path, x0 ðtÞ and y0 ðtÞ were the derivatives of x(t) and
y(t), which represented the velocity components of the laser
(1) beam in the X and Y directions, respectively.
2.4. Numerical models
Flow-3D v11.2 software assisted with the Flow WELD module
(2.4.1.3.7) were used for the transient numerical simulation. A
series of physical models were established for the physical
phenomena of heating, convection and evaporation in the
laser oscillating welding process. Some physical processes
and related influencing factors were studied and analyzed,
(2)
such as, the deposition of laser energy, the formation of
keyhole, the flow and solidification of the molten pool. The
specific settings of calculation domain, governing equations,
heat source, driven force, boundary conditions and the ther-
mal material properties can be seen in the supplementary
material 1 to make it clear how the models were set up. To
improve the calculation efficiency, the mathematic models
were simplified: (1) The fluid was treated as a laminar
T3 incompressible Newtonian fluid. (2) The heat source was
Gaussian distribution. (3) The space of air and/or metal vapor
was simplified to be void region, which were regions of uni-
form properties that provide a boundary condition at the free
surface, and the influence of the metal vapor on the interface
was considered indirectly.
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3. Discussion
3.1. The mechanism of asymmetric morphology
The cross-sections of partially-penetrated circular laser
oscillating welds (both CW and CCW) showed uncommonly
asymmetrical weld morphologies, as shown in Fig. 2. The
welding conditions were: the laser power was 5000 W and the
welding velocity was 50 mm/s, the oscillating frequency and
amplitude were 3 mm and 50 Hz, respectively. The CCW
pattern was taken as the example. The simulation results
were validated by comparing the crossesectional profile of
experimental results at the stable stage. As shown in Fig. 3(a),
the melt region meant the zone reached above the melting
point temperature during the welding process and re-
solidified after the welding process was completed. The red
color represents the complete melt region and the blue color
represents unmelt region. The profile of the melt region was in
good agreement with the experimental result, which was
marked with black dashed line. On this basis, the temperature
curves of P1 and P2 at the boundary of the molten pool were
extracted and presented in Fig. 3(b). The laser did not run on P1
and P2, but had the thermal effect on them. From the diagram
of laser beam trajectory and speed, the scanning speed vs at
the right and left ends has a significant difference. Calculated
by Eq (7), vs1 was 421 mm/s and vs2 was 521 mm/s. Thus, the
heating time for P2 was shorter than P1, the heat accumulation
Fig. 2 e Weld morphology: (a) CW weld, (b) CCW weld, (c) top surfaces, (d) weld characterize sizes.
3137
was lower, i.e., Dt2 was shorter than Dt1. At the time of T3, the
profile of the weld was basically formed. At this time, point P1
reached the second temperature peak. Meanwhile, point P2
had just gone through a period of cooling and then the tem-
perature slightly increased by the influence of the right. Thus,
the temperature of the left end point (P1) was higher than the
right end point (P2) at the time of T3. Moreover, P2 had a
smaller cooling rate during the cooling stage. Therefore, the
molten pool profile was smoother at the right, but steeper at
the left of CCW pattern weld. In summary, at the smoother
side of the weld profile, the laser spot moved faster and the
cooling rate was smaller.
3.2. Effect mechanism of oscillating frequency on
formation
To study the effect of oscillating frequency on weld formation,
the cross-sectional morphologies were compared at different
frequencies, as shown in Fig. 4. With the increase of the
oscillating frequency, the phenomenon of hump/undercut-
ting gradually appeared, the weld width gradually decreased,
ranging from about 3500 to 3000 mm, and the penetration
depth gradually decreased, ranging from about 2000 to
1600 mm. The appropriate depths presented at 100 Hz and
150 Hz, while the shallower penetration of the lower plate was
at 200 Hz.
Based on Eqs (1)e(4), the energy distribution of the laser at
different oscillating frequencies within the same time of 0.1 s
3138 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8

Fig. 3 e Simulation results of cross section: (a) melt region of CCW pattern (b) temperature histories of P1 and P2.

was calculated, and Eq (5) was used to calculate the theoretical

Etotal ¼ ð1  hÞ $ Q$t (8)
total energy input. The results indicated that the total energy
inputs within the same period were the same under the three where h, Q, and t had the same meanings as represented
oscillating frequencies, about 300 J, which can be also ob- above, which were energy attenuation, laser power and
tained by the Eq (8): specified length of time, respectively.

Fig. 4 e Weld morphology of different frequencies: (a) 100 Hz, (b) 150 Hz, (c) 200 Hz, (d) weld characterize sizes.
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8 3139

Fig. 5 e The calculated results of laser energy distribution for different frequencies: (a) top view of 100 Hz; (b) left view of
100 Hz; (c) top view of 150 Hz; (d) left view of 150 Hz; (e) top view of 200 Hz; (f) left view of 200 Hz.

It was indicated that when the laser power was constant,
the total energy inputs in the same time period were the same.
Laser oscillation only affected the range and way of energy
distribution. The scanning speed of the laser beam (local
moving speed) and the total length of the scanning path were
greatly increased, thereby affecting the average linear energy
and the local linear energy distribution.
From the top view of energy distribution (Fig. 5(a), (b) and (c)),
the central area presented adjacent distribution of peaks and
valleys when the frequency was 100 Hz; while the energy dis-
tribution was more uniform near the weld centerline when the
frequency was 150 Hz or 200 Hz. As seen from the left view of the
energy (Fig. 5(b), (d) and (e)), the energy peaks were distributed
on the left and right sides of the molten pool, and the energy
valley was distributed along the weld centerline, and the dis-
tribution trend and value were both similar. Therefore, the fac-
tor that had the greatest influence on the weld formation was
the average linear energy (Eave). The greater the oscillating fre-
quency, the greater the actual travelling speed of the laser beam,
so the actual traveling length was prolonged. From 100 Hz to
200 Hz, the linear energy was 4769.5 J/m, 3184.7 J/m and 2392.3 J/
m, respectively. Therefore, a rough conclusion can be drawn
that as the linear energy reduced, the weld width and penetra-
tion decreased accordingly.
3.3. Effect of oscillating frequency on dynamic behaviors
of molten pool
In addition to the influence of laser energy distribution on
weld formation, the molten pool flow is also a factor that
cannot be ignored. Therefore, combined with high-speed
camera real-time monitoring and numerical simulation of
molten pool flow, we carried out a quantitative analysis of the
molten pool flow and its changing laws.
The frame rate of high-speed camera is 5000 fps, and the
cycles of the three frequencies of 100 Hz, 150 Hz and 200 Hz are
0.01 s, 0.00667 s and 0.005 s, respectively. So the time intervals
were selected as 0.002 s, 0.0014 s and 0.001 s, respectively, for
one cycle of image extraction. The shape of the molten pool
was outlined by the white line. As the oscillating frequency
increased, the upper surface area of the molten pool was
reduced and the sharp corners of the molten pool tail became
relatively rounded, as shown in Fig. 6. When f ¼ 100 Hz: the
molten pool presented an elongated teardrop shape. When
f  150 Hz: the shape of the molten pool began to become
irregular ellipse. When f ¼ 200 Hz, the melt metal can oscillate
out of the left side of the molten pool (i.e. higher than the top
surface of the upper plate), causing the hump and undercut-
ting of the weld.
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Fig. 6 e Dynamic behavior of the molten pool in an oscillating period for different frequencies: (a) 100 Hz, (b) 150 Hz, (c)
200 Hz.
For understanding the regulation of the oscillating fre-
quency on the thermal and dynamic behaviors of molten pool,
numerical simulations with different frequencies were
analyzed. Fig. 7 showed the comparison of the simulation
results (melt region) and the experimental results (black
dotted line). The simulation results basically presented the
change trend of the experiment within the allowable error
range.
The top surface morphology of the molten pool can better
reflect the solidification process. The top views of the molten
pools in the steady stage for the three cases were shown in
Fig. 8(a), which appear the accordant results with the high-
speed imaging, as the oscillating frequency increases, the
length of the molten pool along the welding direction
decreased, and the length of the simulation results were in
good agreement with the experimental measured values. As
we all know, the key factors that affect the length-to-width
ratio of the molten pool in laser welding without oscillating
are the welding speed and the actual heat input. There was a
significant difference in the laser travelling path between laser
welding with and without oscillating. Therefore, the under-
standing of the factor of “welding speed” in circular oscillating
welding can be regarded as the forward distance per unit
cycle. As shown in Fig. 9(a), when the frequency decreased,
the forward distance in a unit cycle increases. For 100 Hz,
150 Hz and 200 Hz, the lengths were 52mm, 53mm and 54mm,
respectively. Thus, the length-to-width ratio of the molten
pool may be larger with the forward distance increasing, and
the teardrop-shaped with sharp tail feature may be formed
more easily.
Another reason may be that the change of frequency can
cause the actual heat absorption of the molten pool to be
different. As abovementioned, the total theoretical energy
Fig. 7 e Comparison of simulation results and experimental results: (a) 100 Hz, (b) 150 Hz, (c) 200 Hz.
inputs for the three cases were the same. The increase in
frequency may intensify the stirring effect of the laser beam
on the molten pool and enhance the convection heat transfer
between the molten pool surface and the air (i.e. the heat loss
of the molten pool).
Moreover, the reduction of the depth of the keyhole can
weaken the multiple laser absorption and heat transfer inside
the keyhole, which led to the reduction of the actual heat
absorption of the molten pool. Fig. 10 showed the evolution of
the keyhole depth within a cycle for the three frequencies. The
depth of the keyhole changed periodically. The scanning path
of the laser beam in the molten pool can be divided into two
types of zones: one was forward movement zone, the forward
movement of laser beam led to the progression of the melt
pool, where the keyhole depth was relatively shallow (A2, B2
and C2 in Fig. 10); the other was back movement zone, the
laser beam moved back into the already existing melt pool,
where the keyhole depth obviously increased (A1, B1 and C1 in
Fig. 10). When the frequency was 100 Hz or 150 Hz, a deeper
keyhole can be formed, and the variation range was about
1.1 mme2.0 mm. The aspect ratio of the keyhole formed by
150 Hz was obviously reduced from that of 100 Hz, i.e., the
energy concentration of the unit area decreased with the in-
crease of frequency. When the frequency was 200 Hz, no
obvious keyhole was formed, which indicated that the trans-
fer mode converted from keyhole mode to conduction mode.
It can be inferred that there may be a threshold for keyhole
formation of laser linear energy between the frequency of
150 Hz and 200 Hz. The local linear energy was inversely
proportional to the laser scanning speed. As shown in Fig. 9(b),
the beam scanning speed improved greatly with the increase
of the laser frequency. The ranges were about 600e700 mm/s,
900e1000 mm/s and 1200e1300 mm/s for 100 Hz, 150 Hz and
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8 3141

Fig. 8 e The simulation result of molten pool size: (a) temperature distribution, (b) the comparison of size.

Fig. 9 e (a) The scanning path of laser beam for different frequencies, (b) The scanning speed of laser beam for different
frequencies.

200 Hz, respectively, thus, the local linear energy dropped
significantly. The change of the local linear energy corre-
sponded to the periodic change of the keyhole, when the local
linear energy was larger, the keyhole was deeper.
3.4. Effect of oscillating frequency on grain structure
The oscillating frequency can affect the heat transfer mode of
the molten pool, and the thermal effect can affect the solidi-
fication process, and then play a role on the grain structure. To
verify the influence of on the grain structure, the EBSD test
was carried out, which presented that the columnar crystals
generally grew along the normal direction of the molten pool
boundary, as shown in Fig. 11. Compared with the normal
non-oscillating beam [26], the circular oscillating beam can
significantly increase the amount of the equiaxed crystals.
From Fig. 15 in ref. [26], it can be seen that the width of the
equiaxed crystal under the normal non-oscillating beam was
about 1000 mm, and the size of the equiaxed crystal was about
90 mm; while the width of the equiaxed crystal in this study
was about 2000 mm, and the average size was about 55 mm, the
equiaxed crystals become wider in region and smaller in size,
so the amount of equiaxed crystals greatly increased.
Firstly, the grain size of different regions was summarized,
as shown in Table 3. As the oscillating frequency increases,
the center equiaxed crystal size decreased slightly, ranging
from about 63.64 mm to 46.05 mm, moreover, the width of the
columnar crystals on both sides also gradually decreased, and
the width of the right columnar crystals was larger than that
of the left columnar crystals on the whole. From the above
analysis, as the frequency increased, the actual heat input of
the molten pool reduced and the temperature decreased. It is
well known that as the temperature increases, the migration
rate of grain boundaries increases, which promotes the
growth rate of grains. Therefore, the larger the frequency, the
finer the overall grain size.
Fig. 11(d) showed the corresponding pole figures for the
texture at different regions of the three cases. The central
3142 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8

Fig. 10 e The evolution of keyhole depth over time and the longitudinal section keyhole morphology.

Fig. 11 e EBSD results: (a) 100 Hz, (b) 150 Hz, (c) 200 Hz, (d) pole figures for the texture under different frequencies at different
regions.

equiaxed crystal region presented texture-less characteristics, weld zone was distributed with equiaxed grains, and the
and the texture strengths of the three frequencies were quite lower part was distributed with columnar grains. As the fre-
small about 2, while the columnar grains on the left and right quency increased, the angle between the epitaxial growth
sides developed strong rotated cube textures. The formation direction of columnar crystals and the horizontal direction
mechanism was the compromise between the preferential gradually decreased.
growth direction of the grains and the direction of maximum
heat flow at molten pool boundary [27], and the grains with
orientations closer to the maximum temperature gradient at
the trailing edge of the molten pool had a growth advantage. Table 3 e The grain size at different regions.
The rotation angle and texture strength of the columnar Oscillating Grain size
grains of left side were generally higher than those on the frequency
Central Left Right
right side. As the frequency increased, the texture strength equiaxed grain columnar columnar
decreased slightly, indicating that the increase of frequency (diameter, mm) grain (width, grain (width,
contributed to alleviating the orientation of the grains, mm) mm)
thereby reducing anisotropic property. 100 63.64 28.4 19.7
The grain structure along the longitudinal section of the 150 55.98 21.4 15.4
weld centerline is shown in the Fig. 12. The upper part of the 200 46.05 18.9 11.3
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8
Fig. 12 e EBSD results of the depth distribution cut at the center line along the longitudinal direction: (a) the diagram of the
specimen location; (b) 100 Hz; (c) 150 Hz; (d) 200 Hz.
From the macroscopic morphology, the curvature of the
upper surface of the molten pool was different on the left and
right sides, i.e. the molten pool presented an asymmetric
morphology, which was caused by the difference in heat
accumulation. Therefore, the solidification characteristic pa-
rameters on both sides of the molten pool were different. The
grain growth was highly dependent on the solidification pa-
rameters. To compare the solidification rate (R) on areas 1 and
2, the analysis diagram was shown in Fig. 13, the “1” side
corresponded to the right side of the weld in Fig. 11, and the
“2” side corresponded to the left side of the weld in Fig. 10. The
black solid line was the tangent to the molten pool, in a very
small time (dt), the solidification rate can be approximated as
the component of the welding speed along the normal direc-
tion of the tangent. Since a was slightly larger than b, R1 was
slightly smaller than R2. Area 1 and area 2 were located on the
same isotherm. Using the ratio of the temperature difference
between the isotherm and maximum temperature of the
molten pool and the distance between their locations to
roughly estimate the temperature gradient (G), so G1>G2. In
summary, (G
R)1>(G
R)2. Larger G
R can result in the
smaller microstructure [28], thus, the columnar crystals on
the right side of the weld were relatively finer and the texture
strengths were relatively lower.
3143
3.5. Effect of oscillating frequency on mechanical
properties
3.5.1. Tensile property
For the three frequencies, the displacement-force curves and
their fracture cross-sections were shown in the Fig. 14. Over-
all, the tensile strengths of the three welds were similar, and
the maximum tensile force was in the range of 2.45e2.81 kN.
Since the weld was in the form of tensile fracture, and the final
break occurred on the lower sheet (AA5182) of the lap joint,
the equation s ¼ AF (where area A ¼ 18 mm2, cross-sectional
area of one sheet) can be used to calculate the stress, so the
range of ultimate tensile strength (UTS) was 136.1e156.1 MPa.
The tensile strains of the three types of welds were almost the
same, about 2%. This may be due to the fact that the welds
eventually fractured at the base metal, and the overlap gap
between the upper and lower sheets was equivalent to the
source of prefabricated crack sources, so the elongation was
small. Different from the normal lap weld which exhibited
shear fracture, the three circular oscillating welds all pre-
sented the form of tensile fracture. Their average tensile
strength was larger than that of the conventional non-
oscillating weld (130 MPa) [26] under the same parameters,
and their average tensile strain was also larger than that of the
3144 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8

Fig. 13 e The schematic diagrams of the solidification rate and temperature gradient for the molten pool.

Fig. 14 e The tensile property: (a) the displacement-force (engineering stressestrain) curves of the three cases, (b)
mechanical properties of 100 Hz, 150 Hz and 200 Hz; (c) fracture location of 100 Hz; (d) fracture location of 150 Hz; (e) fracture
location of 200 Hz.
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8 3145

Fig. 15 e The schematic diagram of the crack growth for the lap joint.

conventional non-oscillating weld (~1.3%) [26], indicating that
a wider lap surface and finer grains are beneficial to the
improvement of the overall mechanical properties of the
weld.
During the tensile process of the sample, the schematic
diagram of the crack growth was shown in Fig. 15. The overlap
gap was equivalent to the prefabricated crack source. It can be
seen from the cross section of the fracture, the crack gener-
ated at the gap at the fusion line. On the left side of the molten
pool with steeper contour, the direction of crack initiation was
along the tangent direction of the profile and propagated
directly to the AA5182 base metal. It can be seen from Table 1
that the tensile strength of AA5182 is much less than AA6061.
So cracks originated from the gap, extended a distance along
the fusion line, and then propagated to the AA5182 base
metal, where final fracture occurred.
On the right side of the molten pool with flatter contour,
the direction of crack initiation extended to the inside of the
weld. The sheet at the unclamped end bent in the tensile
process, which can cause the direction of the crack tip to
change, or even raise multiple cracks. When the grain size of
the weld was finer, the grain boundary was more interlaced,
the resistance of the crack propagation was greater, thus the
tensile property was better. Therefore, the cracks that

Fig. 16 e Microhardness distributions along the horizonal direction of the welds: (a) Measured position; (b) 100 Hz; (c) 150 Hz;
(d) 200 Hz.
3146 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8

Fig. 17 e EPMA results of the weld center for the element distribution of Al, Mg, Si and Fe: (a)e(b) 100 Hz weld; (e)e(h) 150 Hz
weld.

propagated in the base metal were more likely to break, so
that the final break of such lap joint generally occurred at the
base metal on the left side with steeper contour.
3.5.2. Microhardness
The microhardness of the three types of welds was tested and
compared, as shown in Fig. 16. The test direction was hori-
zontal, and the specific location was shown in the schematic
diagram. It can be seen from Table 1 that the microhardness of
the upper base metal (AA6061) was ~106 HV, and the micro-
hardness of the lower base metal (AA5182) was ~84 HV. The
microhardness values of the three welds were all lower than
the microhardness of the two base metals, and the range was
between 60 and 70 HV. The average microhardness of the weld
zone was the lowest at 100 Hz. With the increase of frequency,
the microhardness of the weld zone increased slightly, but the
difference of the three welds was quite small.
To verify the effect of element distribution on the micro-
hardness, the wavelength dispersive spectrometer (WDS) maps
of the weld center are presented in Fig. 17, which shows the
welds under 100 Hz and 150 Hz. It can be found that the dis-
tribution and content of Al, Mg, Si, Fe at 100 Hz and 150 Hz are

Fig. 18 e EDS analysis results for the test line of microhardness.

 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 1 3 3 e3 1 4 8
similar. Among them, elements such as Mg and Si have a
greater impact on microhardness. It indicated that the heat
accumulation of the molten pool did not reach the threshold of
massive burning of Mg under the three frequencies. Secondly,
the dilution rate was similar. This was because the penetration
depth of the lower plate was deeper at 100 Hz, but the melting
amount of the upper plate was relatively larger; while the
penetration depth of the lower plate was shallower at 150 Hz,
with the melting amount of the upper plate got smaller,
coupled with the diffusion effect of the elements, making the
final element dilution rate similar. The elemental linear dis-
tributions of Al and Mg from weld centerline to the HAZ are
shown in Fig. 18 to observe the distribution trend of the ele-
ments along the horizontal direction. It can be found that the
distribution of elements in the entire weld was relatively uni-
form from the center of the weld to the HAZ, and there was no
obvious rise or fall trend. Thus, the element distribution had
little effect on the microhardness. Moreover, the equiaxed grain
size in the center of the weld was also similar. In summary, the
change of frequency within typical range had little effect on the
overall microhardness of the welds.
It was worth noting that the three sets of weaving welds all
had a fairly wide heat-affected zone (HAZ) on the AA6061 side.
As the distance from the fusion zone got farther, the micro-
hardness value gradually increased until the microhardness
reached approximately 106 HV, which was close to the base
metal level. Because AA6061 is a heat-treatable and strength-
ened aluminum alloy with strong thermal sensitivity. Partial
melting zone is adjacent to the fusion zone, with the heating
temperature between the solidus and the liquidus. The grains
may grow and get coarser under the relatively higher temper-
ature, allowing partial dissolution and growth of the precipitate
[21], resulting in the microhardness here to be the lowest in the
HAZ. When the temperature was lower than the solidus,
microstructure was in the state of over-aging. The coherent
relationship between the transition phase b'' precipitated from
the supersaturated solid solution and the a solid solution was
destroyed, and a stable b phase was formed, which was in a
non-coherent relationship with the a solid solution. The lattice
distortion was reduced, so the alloy began to soften. The farther
away from the fusion zone, the smaller the over-aging effect,
until it was no longer affected by heat and restored the original
strength of the base material. During the laser oscillating
welding, the molten pool was large and the solidification pro-
cess was relatively long, so such a wide HAZ can be formed.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, for aluminum alloys partially-penetrated lap
joints, the influence of frequency of laser circular oscillating
welding on the weld formation mechanism, molten pool flow,
grain growth and weld properties were investigated. The main
conclusions are drawn as follow:
1) Both CW and CCW welds appear asymmetric appearances,
which is corresponding to the variation of local linear en-
ergy, resulting in periodic evolution of keyhole depth. The
side with relatively larger local linear energy has deeper
weld penetration to form a steeper weld profile side.
3147
2) The increase of frequency causes the molten pool to
change from an elongated droplet shape to a nearly elliptic
shape, which is attributed to the increase in heat dissipa-
tion and the decrease in linear energy by beam oscillation.
The depth of the keyhole changes periodically of the cir-
cular oscillating welding.
3) With the increase of frequency, the grain size and the texture
strength gradually reduce. The solidification parameters on
both sides of the same isotherm are different, the side where
the local moving speed of laser beam is greater, G
R is
larger, resulting in finer columnar grains.
4) The crack generates at the overlap gap, propagates along
the fusion line of steeper tangent and finally fractures at
the AA5182 base metal.
5) The overall distribution of the elements of the AA6061/
AA5182 dissimilar aluminum alloys weld is similar to
AA6061 base metal. This is because the weld melts more on
the upper plate (AA6061). After the two metals are diluted
and mixed, the Mg in the lower plate can be added to the
weld in time due to the diffusion effect. In addition, the
grain sizes of the welds at the three frequencies are similar,
so the change of frequency (in the range of 100~200 Hz) has
little effect on the microhardness.
Declaration of Competing Interest
We declare that we have no known competing financial in-
terests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 52075199) and the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51861165202).
We would like to express our deep gratitude to the Analysis
and Test Center of HUST (Huazhong University of Science and
Technology) and the State Key Laboratory of Material Pro-
cessing and Die & Mould Technology of HUST, for their
friendly cooperation.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.09.141.
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