Abstract

Friction stir processing (FSP) has been applied to cast aluminum alloy A356 plates to enhance the mechanical properties through microstructural refinement and homogenization. the effect of tool geometry and FSP parameters on resultant microstructure and mechanical properties was investigated. the FSP broke up and dispersed the coarse acicular Si particles creating a uniform distribution of Si particles in the aluminum matrix with significant microstructural refinement. Further, FSP healed the casting porosity. These microstructural changes led to a significant improvement in both strength and ductility. Higher tool rotation rate was the most effective parameter to refine coarse Si particles, heal the casting porosity, and consequently increase strength. the effect of tool geometry was complicated, and no systematic trend was observed. for a standard pin design, maximum strength was achieved at a tool rotation rate of 900 rpm and traverse speed of 203 mm/ min. post-FSP aging increased strength for materials processed at higher tool rotation rates of 700 to 1100 rpm but exerted only a marginal effect on samples prepared at the lower rotation rate of 300 rpm. Two-pass FSP with 100 pct overlapping passes resulted in higher strength for both as-FSP and post-FSP aged conditions.

Department(s)

Materials Science and Engineering

Comments

National Science Foundation, Grant 50525103

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1073-5623

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 Springer; ASM International, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Nov 2006

Included in

Metallurgy Commons

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