Effects of Tool Pin Profile and Tool Shoulder Diameter on the Tensile Behaviour of Friction Stir Welded Joints of Aluminium Alloys

Abstract

— For fabricating light weight structures, it requires high strength-to weight ratio. AA6061 aluminium alloy is widely used in the fabrication of light weight structures. A356 aluminium alloy has wide spread application in aerospace industries. Friction stir welding is solid state joining process which is conducting for joining similar and dissimilar materials. The friction stir welding parameters play an important role for deciding the strength of welded joints. In this investigation, A356 and AA6061 alloys were friction stir welded by varying triangular, square, hexagonal pin profiles of tool keeping the remaining parameters same and AA6061 alloys were friction stir welded by varying tool shoulder diameter as 12mm,15mm,18mm without changing other parameters. Tensile properties of each joint have been analyzed microscopically. From the experimental results, it is observed that hexagonal pin profiled tool and 15mm shoulder diameter tool provides higher tensile properties when compared to other tools.