Study the Role of Friction Stir Welding Tilt Angle on Microstructure and Hardness

This paper presents an investigation of research objectives on the effect of tilt angle on microstructure and mechanical properties of dissimilar aluminum alloy sheets between AA5083 and AA6061, 5mm plates by using Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process in butt joint. The base materials of AA5083 and AA6061 were located on the retreating side (RS) and advancing side (AS), respectively. The welding process and the welding parameters such as tool pin profile, tool rotation speed, welding speed and tilt angle influenced the mechanical properties of the Friction Stir Welding joints significantly. For this experiment, the Friction Stir Welding materials joined under five different tilt angles (from 0oto 4o) with 86mm/min of welding speed and 910 rpm of tool rotation speed which were set similarly. Microscopic examination on the weld samples showed significant variation in the microstructure especially in the region of heat-affected zone (HAZ), weld nugget or dynamically recrystallized zone (DXZ) and in the base metal.