Grain Refinement in Al-Mg-Si Alloy TIG Welds Using Transverse Mechanical Arc Oscillation

摘要

Reduction in grain size in weld fusion zones (FZs) presents the advantages of increased resistance to solidification cracking and improvement in mechanical properties. Transverse mechanical arc oscillation was employed to obtain grain refinement in the weldment during tungsten inert gas welding of Al-Mg-Si alloy. Electron backscattered diffraction analysis was carried out on AA6061-AA4043 filler metal tungsten inert gas welds. Grain size, texture evolution, misorientation distribution, and aspect ratio of weld metal, PMZ, and BM have been observed at fixed arc oscillation amplitude and at three different frequencies levels. Arc oscillation showed grain size reduction and texture formation. Fine-grained arc oscillated welds exhibited better yield and ultimate tensile strengths and significant improvement in percent elongation. The obtained results were attributed to reduction in equivalent circular diameter of grains and increase in number of subgrain network structure of low angle grain boundaries.