Mechanical Properties and Fracture Toughness of Aluminum Vessels by Friction Stir Welding

Mechanical properties and fracture toughness in friction stir welded joint of vessels of structural aluminum alloy type A5083-O are investigated. Welded joint from 25 mm-thick plate is fabricated by one-side one-pass friction stir. Charpy impact energy and critical crack-tip opening displacement (CTOD) in friction stir weld are much higher than those of base metal or heat-affected zone, whereas mechanical properties such as stress-strain curve and Vickers hardness do not have a conspicuous difference. Effects of microstructure on crack initiation and propagation are studied in order to clarify the difference of fracture toughness between stir zone and base metal. Both tensile test and bending test show that the fine-grained microstructure in stir zone induces to increase ductile crack initiation and propagation resistance by analyzing fracture resistance curves and diameter of dimples in fracture surface. It is found that high fracture toughness value in stir zone is affected fine-grained microstructure by friction stirring.