Studies on the effect of vibration on hot cracking and Grain size in AA7075 Aluminum alloy Welding

摘要

The aim of this present study is to investigate the vibration effect which is applied during Gas tungsten Arc welding (GTAW) welding in order to improve the quality of high strength Aluminum alloy weldment. An important metallurgical difficulty in arc welding of high strength aluminum alloys is formation of hot cracking. When Aluminum alloy is welded by GTAW process, weld fusion zone shows coarse columnar grains during weld metal solidification. This often leads to poor resistance to hot cracking. In this work, an attempt is made to reduce the hot cracking and to refine the fusion zone grains in welding of aluminum alloys through vibratory treatment. The material used for the investigation is AA7075 aluminum alloy, which is highly prone for hot cracking. Vibratory treatment was carried out in the frequency range of 100Hz to 2050Hz. Weldments made with and without vibratory treatment were compared using weld cracking tests and other characterization tests like micro structural analysis, hardness measurements. Test results show that by applying vibratory treatment, hot cracking can be largely controlled in arc welding.