Effect of Weld Defects on Tensile Properties of Lightweight Materials and Correlations With Phased Array Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation

Abstract

Fusion welding of Aluminum and its alloys is a great challenge for the structural integrity of lightweight material structures. One of the major shortcomings of Aluminum alloy welding is the inherent existence of defects in the welded area. In the current study, tests have been conducted on tungsten inert gas (TIG) welded AA6061-T651 aluminum alloy to determine the effects of defect sizes and its distribution on fracture strength. The information will be used to establish weld acceptance/rejection criteria. After welding, all specimens were non-destructively inspected with phased array ultrasonic and measured the projected area of the defects. Tensile testing was performed on inspected specimens containing different weld defects: such as, porosity, lack of fusion, and incomplete penetration. Tensile tested samples were cut along the cross section and inspected with Optical Microscope (OM) to measure actual defect sizes. Tensile properties were correlated with phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) results and through microscopic evaluations. Generally, good agreement was found between PAUT and microscopic defect sizing. The tensile strength and toughness decreased with the increase of defect sizes. Small voids (area ratio <0.04) does not have significant effect on the reduction of tensile strength and toughness values. Once defective “area ratio (cross sectional area of the defect) / (total specimen cross sectional area)” reached a certain critical value (say, 0.05), both strength and toughness values decline sharply. After that critical value both the tensile strength and toughness values decreases linearly with the increase of defect area ratio.