Authors Accepted Manuscript

Effect of Pre-hole Offset on the Property of the

Joint during Laser-assisted Friction Stir Welding of
Dissimilar Metals Steel and Aluminum Alloys
Xinjiang Fei, Xiangzhong Jin, Ying Ye, Tengfei
Xiu, Hongliang Yang
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S0921-5093(15)30688-2
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2015.11.101
MSA33083

To appear in: Materials Science & Engineering A

Received date: 11 October 2015
Revised date: 29 November 2015
Accepted date: 30 November 2015
Cite this article as: Xinjiang Fei, Xiangzhong Jin, Ying Ye, Tengfei Xiu and
Hongliang Yang, Effect of Pre-hole Offset on the Property of the Joint during
Laser-assisted Friction Stir Welding of Dissimilar Metals Steel and Aluminum
A l l o y s , Materials
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2015.11.101
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Effect of Pre-hole Offset on the Property of the Joint during

Laser-assisted Friction Stir Welding of Dissimilar Metals Steel
and Aluminum Alloys
Xinjiang Fei, Xiangzhong Jin*, Ying Ye, Tengfei Xiu, Hongliang Yang
The State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082,
Peoples Republic of China
*

E-mail: jxz2014@hnu.edu.cn

Abstract: In this paper, the influence of pre-hole offset distance on the properties of
the welding joint during laser-assisted friction stir welding of Q235 steel and 6061-T6
aluminum alloy was studied. The tensile strength of the joints obtained at different
pre-hole offset distances are tested and compared. SEM, EDS and an optical
microscope are used to analyze the compositions of the inter-metallic compounds and
the metallographic structure of the joints, respectively. Results show that the pre-hole
offset distance, the thickness of the inter-metallic compounds layer and the type of the
inter-metallic compounds are the key factors that affect significantly the tensile
strength of the joints in laser-assisted friction stir welding of steel and aluminum alloy.
The tensile strength of joints can be easily guaranteed under such conditions as a
proper pre-hole offset distance is used, thin inter-metallic compounds layer and
iron-abundant inter-metallic compounds are formed.
Keywords: Friction stir welding, Laser, inter-metallic compounds, Pre-hole offset
distance, Tensile strength, Steel and aluminum alloy

Introduction
Lightening the weight of vehicles is an effective way to reduce oil consumption
and pollution, so more and more light metal materials such as aluminum alloys,
1

magnesium alloys and so on are used in automobile and aerospace industry. Among
these light metal materials, aluminum alloys are the main one kind of light metal
materials with extensive applications because of their excellent performances of light
weight, corrosion resistance, plasticity and mechanical properties.
However, due to the great differences in physical and mechanical properties such
as hardness, melting point and poor weld ability between aluminum alloys and steels,
it is difficult to obtain a sound joint between aluminum alloys and steels using
conventional welding methods. At present, the main welding techniques for joining
steel and aluminum alloy are laser welding[1], explosion welding[2], braze welding[3]
and ultrasonic welding[4]. All the above welding techniques together with other
conventional welding methods joint the work-pieces to be welded based on melting
materials, so while using them to weld aluminum alloys and steels, such a problem as
the formation of brittle inter-metallic compounds are inevitable, which will affect
significantly the mechanical properties of the welds.
Friction stir welding(FSW), which was invented by The Welding Institute of
Cambridge U.K.[5] in 1991, is now widely used in welding light metal materials such
as aluminum alloys and magnesium alloys. Different from other welding methods
based on melting materials, FSW is a solid state joining technology, which has such
advantages as low welding temperature, less deformation, less welding defects(e.g less
porosity, less cracks etc) and easy to obtain welds with high mechanical properties.
Because of the huge differences in physical and mechanical properties such as
hardness, melting point and strength between aluminum alloys and steels, such
2

problems as how to soften simultaneously steels and aluminum alloys and the
formation of brittle inter-metallic compounds still existed in friction stir welding of
these two materials. As a promising solution to the above problems, laser
assisted friction stir welding was proposed[6,7]. In laser assisted friction stir welding,
the strength and hardness of steel can be reduced obviously by means of a focused
laser beam with high intensity in front of the rotating tool in the steel side to preheat
the steel work-piece, which can realize simultaneous softening of steel and aluminum
alloy and improve the flow ability and mixture of the materials.
Some researchers have done a number of works on friction stir welding of steels
and aluminum alloys. Kimapong et al[8] studied the effect of welding parameters on
the friction stir lap welding of steel and aluminum . They found that the shear strength
of the joint could not be improved by increasing the tilt angle or pin diameter, but
the inter-metallic compounds could be reduced and a sound joint could be obtained by
increasing the pre-hole diameter. Elrefaey et al[9] investigated experimentally the
influences of welding parameters such as rotating speeds and traveling speeds on the
joint strength during friction stir lap welding of pure aluminum plate to low carbon
steel plate with the thickness of 2.0mm and 1.2mm respectively. Bisadi et al[10]
studied the effects of rotational and welding speeds on joint properties and
microstructure in friction stir lap welding of commercially pure copper and Al5083
and analyzed the defects of the joints. Lee[11] investigated the microstructure of the
weld joint, the chemical composition and the diffusion of elements during friction stir
welding of austenitic stainless steel and Al alloy. Tanaka et al[12] researched the
3

tensile strength and microstructure of the joints in friction stir welding A7075-T6
aluminum alloy to mild steel with the thickness of 3mm and concluded that the joint
strength is improved with the decrease of the thickness of inter-metallic compounds
layer on the interface, however, the joint strength is still lower than that of the base
aluminum alloy. Chen et al[13] carried out experimental study on friction stir lap
welding AC4C aluminum alloy to three kinds of steel(zinc-coated steel, brushed finish
steel and mirror finish steel) and found that Zn can improve the weld ability between
steel and aluminum. Uzun et al[14] investigated the hardness and microstructure of
friction stir welding joints between Al6013-T4 and X5CrNi18-10 steel and indicated
that the tensile strength of Al6013-T4/X5CrNi18-10 joints is approximately 70%
higher than that of the Al6013-T6 alloy base metal. Bang et al[15] carried out gas
tungsten arc assisted hybrid friction stir welding Al6061-T6 and STS304 stainless steel
and mentioned that the mechanical properties of the joints were improved compared
with traditional friction stir welding.
Besides the above works, some authors have done some studies on laser assisted
friction stir welding. Chang et al[16] used laser assisted friction stir welding technique
to join aluminum alloy to magnesium alloy with Ni foil as filler material . They
pointed out that the number of brittle inter-metallic compounds was decreased and the
joint strength was improved in the case of hybrid welding with Ni foil because a small
amount of Ni-based inter-metallic layers existed instead of Al12Mg17. Merklein et al[17]
carried out laser assisted friction stir butt welding of an aluminum alloy sheet to a steel
sheet with the thickness of 1mm. Their results showed that the tensile strength is
4

improved, the wear of the tool is reduced and the sound joint is formed compared
with traditional friction stir welding. Kohn et al[18] studied the processing parameters
during LFSW on AZ91D Mg alloy plates with the thickness of 4mm and found that
preheating work-piece with laser beam can obviously reduce the wear between
work-piece and tool, improve the welding speed and reduce the cost of experiments.
Hyun et al[19] welded Inconel 600 with laser assisted friction stir welding and
mentioned that compared with traditional friction stir welding, the welding speed of
LFSW is 1.5 times faster, finer grains are obtained and the hardness and tensile
strength are improved.
Regarding of laser assisted friction stir welding such dissimilar metals as steels
and aluminum alloys, pre-hole offset is a very important factor that will affect greatly
the joint properties. From what mentioned above, most of the research works done
on laser assisted friction stir welding are mainly limited to the effect of such process
parameters as rotation speed and traveling speed on the joint properties. But few
attentions are paid to the effect of pre-hole offset distance on laser assisted friction stir
welding of steel and aluminum alloy.
At the beginning of the welding, the pin of the tool was penetrated into pre-hole
as Fig.1 shows. The diameter of pre-hole is smaller slightly than that of the pin. It can
reduce the wear of the pin compared with the condition that there is no pre-hole.
Whats more, the pre-hole offset distance as Fig.2 shows has a great effect on the
tensile strength of the joints in laser-assisted friction stir welding of steel and
aluminum alloy. In this paper experiments on laser assisted friction stir welding of
5

6061-T6 aluminum alloy and Q235 steel are carried out, and the effect of pre-hole
offset distance on the properties of steel/aluminum joints is investigated by means of
tensile strength test, SEM, EDS composition analysis and metallographic structure
analysis.

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of laser-assisted FSW

Fig.2 Schematic illustration of pre-hole offset distance

1. Experimental Setup
Fig.3 shows a schematically axonometric view of the laser assisted friction stir
6

welding experimental configuration. When the tool rotates, sufficient heat induced by
both laser beam and friction between the work-piece and tool is generated to soften the
material to be welded. Friction-induced heat includes mainly two parts. One is from
the friction between the work-piece and the tool shoulder, the other one is from the
friction between the work-piece and the tool pin. Through the rotation of tool pin, the
softened material moves from the front side to the back side of the tool, then mixes
and forms joints between the butted plates of steel and aluminum.
The friction stir welding machine is modified by an X52 milling machine. A fiber
laser unit is used. The laser beam is located in front of the welding direction on the
steel side, whose role is to soften and lower the yield stress of the steel. The tool with a
probe diameter of 6mm, a shoulder diameter of 20mm and a probe length of 2.7mm is
made of tungsten and molybdenum alloy with high temperature resistance.

Fig.3 Schematics of the laser-assisted FSW process

7

A Q235 steel plate with thickness of 3mm is joined to 6061 aluminum alloy plate
with the same thickness by laser assisted friction stir welding. The tensile strength of
Al6061 and Q235 steel is about 270MPa and 370MPa respectively and their chemical
compositions are listed in Table 1 and Table 2. The shape of both plates is rectangular
and the dimension is 150mm in length and 50mm in width. According to Watanabe et
al.[20], steel plate is supposed to be placed in the advancing side of the tool. Before
welding, a pre-hole with diameter of 5.8mm was cut by wire-electrode machining on
the plate of steel and aluminum alloy. Six kinds of pre-hole offset distances of 0.8mm,
1.0mm, 1.2mm, 1.5mm, 1.8mm and 2.1mm respectively are used in this paper.
The welding parameters adopted in our experiments are as follows. Laser power
is 800W, the rotation speed is 950rpm and the traveling speed is 23.5mm/min. Other
welding parameters such as tool plunge depth and tool tilt angle are fixed in all
experiments.

Fe
bal
Al
bal

Table 1 Chemical compositions of Q235 steel (%)

C
Si
Mn
S
P
N
0.16
0.20
0.61
0.023
0.019
0.0045
Si
0.4-0.8

O
0.019

Table 2 Chemical compositions of Al6061 (Wt%)

Fe
Mn
Mg
Zn
Cr
Ti
Pb.Bi
Cu
0.7
0.15 0.8-1.2 0.25 0.04-0.35 0.15
/
0.15-0.4

After welded, tensile test specimens are machined according to the Standard of
ASTM: E8/E8M-11, whose dimensions are shown in Fig.4. Then, the tensile strength
of joint are measured respectively for the specimens with the above six kinds of
pre-hole offset distances. Moreover, Vickers hardness in the weld are tested.
The surface of metallographic specimens are ground with 2000 grit sand paper

and polished with W0.5 diamond abrasion paste first. Then, aluminum alloy is etched
with Keller reagents (1%HF, 1.5%HCl, 2.5%HNO3 and 95%H2O) and steel is etched with
nital consisted of 4% nitrate and 96% ethanol. Finally, metallurgical structure of the
joints are analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Optical Microscopy
(OM). Characteristics of brittle inter-metallic compound layers are studied by SEM
and Energy-dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). Fractography of tensile fracture
surfaces is observed by SEM.

Fig.4 Dimensions of the specimens for transverse tensile testing

2. Results and Discussion

3.1 Effect of Pre-hole Offset Distance on Tensile Strength
The effect of pre-hole offset distance on tensile strength of the joints is shown in
Fig.5.
Fig.5 demonstrates that the tensile strength of the joints increases first and then
decreases as the pre-hole offset distance increases. The highest tensile strength of
196MPa occurs at the pre-hole offset distance of 0.8 mm. When the pre-hole offset
distance reaches 2.1 mm, tensile strength of the joint is only 53MPa. It can concluded
9

that the distance of pre-hole offset plays a very important role on the tensile strength
of the joint, either excessive or insufficient offset distance will reduce the tensile
strength. The main reason for this phenomenon is that different pre-hole offset
distances have an effect on the heat input and output of the tool pin as well as liquidity
of steel and aluminum alloy, thus affect the tensile strength of the joint.
tensile strength
200

tensile strength (MPa)

180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2.0

2.2

pre-hole offset distance (mm)

Fig.5 Relationship of tensile strength and pre-hole offset distance

The effect of pre-hole offset distance on the tensile strength can be explained in
details below. Fig.6 shows the relationship among pre-hole offset angle, tool pin radius
and pre-hole offset distance. It can be seen that
cosa

Where

rL
r

a is the pre-hole offset angle r is the tool pin radiusand L is the

pre-hole offset distance.

In the case of pre-hole deviating a distance L, the heat flux induced by the tool
pin in steel side and in aluminum side can be deduced as formula (2) and (3)
10

respectively,
T2

q1 21ra k1 z1dT

(2)

T1

q2 22 r a k2 z 2 dT
T4

T3

Where q1 , q2 are the heat flux induced by the tool pin in steel-side and in
aluminum-side

1 , 2 are the friction coefficients for steel-side and aluminum-side

k1 , k 2 are the correction coefficients of yield stress for steel-side and aluminum-side

z1 , z 2 are the yield stresses of steel and aluminum alloy T1 , T2 are the minimum
T3

T4

are the minimum

temperature and peak temperature in aluminum-side respectively,

r is the radius of

temperature and peak temperature in steel-side,

and

the tool pin is the rotation speed of the tool pin.

Fig.6 Schematic illustration of the relationship among pre-hole offset angle, tool pin
radius and pre-hole offset distance
11

As is shown in formula (1)the pre-hole offset angle increases as the pre-hole

offset distance increases. Formula (2) shows that the heat flux in steel-side enhances
when the pre-hole offset angle increases. Formula (3) demonstrates that the heat flux
in aluminum-side diminishes when the pre-hole offset angle increases. Due to the laser
heat source is all located on the steel plate, the heat input of steel plate is greater than
that of aluminum plate. So if the pre-hole offset distance is too largethe heat input in
steel-side will be extremely high, and even is close to or exceed the melting point,
which is unable to form a solid state joining. In this casethe steel-side metal will
become loose because of overheating, and liquefied crack may be generated. At the
same timea unfilled hole will be remained at the end of welding inside the aluminum
plate because of a lack of enough heat input. It is also difficult to obtain a satisfied
solid state joining. If a suitable pre-hole offset distance is adopted, the heat distribution
between steel and aluminum alloy can be balanced (the heat input is neither too high
nor too low), which is beneficial to form a sound joint, and improve the tensile
strength of the joint. Fig.7 shows the weld appearance when the pre-hole offset
distance is too excessive and some defects such as holes and cracks can be seen.
Contrary to Fig.7, Fig.8 shows the weld appearance when a proper pre-hole offset
distance is used, nearly no defect is found.
But it doesnt mean that the smaller the pre-hole offset distance, the higher the
tensile strength of the joints. From Fig.5, it can be found that the tensile strength is
only 158 MPa when the offset distance is 0.6 mm, which is lower than that of the joint
while the offset distance is 0.8 mm. The main reason is that if the offset distance is too
12

small, the stir pin has little contact with the steel plate, a lack of enough heat and
consequent insufficient liquidity and flow ability will occurs in steel-side, which
makes it hard to stir the steel to the aluminum alloy. Therefore, there exists an
appropriate pre-hole offset distance at which the tensile strength of the joints is high
during laser assisted friction stir welding of steel and aluminum alloy.

Fig.7 Weld appearance with 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance

Fig.8 Weld appearance with 0.8mm pre-hole offset distance

3.2 Inter-metallic Compounds

The formation of brittle inter-metallic compounds during welding is one of the
important factors that affect the performance of butt joint. In this paper, SEM and EDS
are used to analyze the brittle inter-metallic compounds for the two groups of welds
with offset distance of 0.8mm and 2.1mm respectively. Spot scanning is done at
13

different points in the upper part middle part and bottom part of the brittle
inter-metallic compound layers in the steel/aluminum alloy interface in the
cross-section perpendicular to the weld line. The results obtained are shown in Fig.9
~Fig. 14.

Fig.9 Microstructure and composition at point 1 in the upper part of the welding nugget zone for

laser assisted friction stir welding of steel and aluminum alloy with 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance
Fig.9 and Fig.10 are the SEM and EDS pictures at point 1 and point 2 in the upper
part of the welding nugget zone when the offset distance is 2.1mm, respectively. It is
found that the main elements consist of 72.21 % aluminum and 27.79% iron at point 1
and 79.86% aluminum and 20.14% iron at point 2. So it can be inferred that the
inter-metallic compounds at point 1 and point 2 in the upper part of the welding
nugget zone are mainly FeAl3 and FeAl4, respectively.
Fig.11 shows the SEM and EDS pictures at point 3 in the middle part of the
welding nugget zone when the offset distance is 2.1mm. It can be found that aluminum
element makes up 81.69%, and iron takes up 18.31%. So it can be deduced that the
inter-metallic compounds here is mainly FeAl4.
14

Fig.10 Microstructure and composition at point 2 in the upper part of the welding nugget zone for

laser assisted friction stir welding of steel and aluminum alloy with 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance

Fig.11 Microstructure and composition at point 3 in the middle part of the welding nugget zone for

laser assisted friction stir welding of steel and aluminum alloy with 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance
Fig.12 and Fig.13 are the SEM and EDS pictures at point 4 and point 5 in the
upper part of the welding nugget zone when the offset distance is 0.8mm, respectively.
It can be observed that the inter-metallic compound at point 4 is made up of 76.70%
aluminum and 23.30% iron, while it is 71.21% aluminum and 28.79% iron at point 5.
It can be suggested that the inter-metallic compounds at point 4 and 5 are mostly FeAl3
and Fe2Al5, respectively.
15

Fig.12 Microstructure and composition at point 4 in the upper part of the welding nugget zone for

laser assisted friction stir welding of steel and aluminum alloy with 0.8mm pre-hole offset distance

Fig.13 Microstructure and composition at point 5 in the upper part of the welding nugget zone for

laser assisted friction stir welding of steel and aluminum alloy with 0.8mm pre-hole offset distance

Fig.14 Microstructure and composition at point 6 in the middle part of the welding nugget zone for

laser assisted friction stir welding of steel and aluminum alloy with 0.8mm pre-hole offset distance
16

Fig.14 is the SEM and EDS pictures observed at point 6 in the middle part of
welding nugget zone when the offset distance is 0.8mm. It can be seen that aluminum
takes up 77.07%, and iron occupies 22.93%. So it can be turned out that the
inter-metallic compounds here is mainly FeAl3.
The average thickness of inter-metallic compounds layer in Fig.9(Fig.10) and
Fig.11 are 13.5m and 4.3m, respectively. The average thickness of inter-metallic
compounds layer in Fig.12(Fig.13) and Fig.14 are 3.8m and 1.9m, respectively.
The inter-metallic compounds in bottom part of the welds are also detected with EDS.
The results indicate that there is no obvious brittle inter-metallic compounds layer
existed in the bottom of the welds both for 0.8mm and 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance.
From Fig.9 to Fig.11 and Fig.12 to Fig.14, it can be found that the thickness of
inter-metallic compounds layer gradually decreases from the upper part to the bottom
of the interface regardless of 0.8mm or 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance. The reason for
this fact is that the welding temperature has a very important influence on the
formation of brittle inter-metallic compounds. The higher the welding temperature, the
thicker the inter-metallic compounds layer. As for laser assisted friction stir welding,
the welding temperature in the upper part of steel/aluminum interface is always higher
than that in the lower part, because the laser heat source is located on the top surface
of the steel plate and the shoulder of the stir tool contacts directly the top surface of
steel/aluminum, which result in more heat generated in the top part of the welds than
that in the bottom part of the welds.
Compared the corresponding results for 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance (i.e Fig.9
17

to Fig.11) with those for 0.8mm pre-hole offset distance (i.e Fig.12 to Fig.14), it can
be seen that the thickness of the inter-metallic compounds layer with 0.8mm pre-hole
offset distance is smaller than that of 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance, because the
welding temperature for the former case is lower than that for the latter case. As what
mentioned above, the heat input in steel-side increases with the increase of pre-hole
offset distance due to severe friction existed between the stir tool and the steel plate.
Bozzi et al[21] found that the thicker the inter-metallic compounds layer, the lower the
tensile strength of the joints. From Fig.5, it can be seen that the tensile strength of the
joint with 0.8mm pre-hole offset distance is higher than that of the joint with 2.1mm
pre-hole offset distance, which is also verified the above analysis.
Haghshennasa et al[22] demonstrated that the type of the brittle inter-metallic
compounds in the steel/aluminum interface has a very huge effect on the tensile
strength of the joint. The welds performance of the aluminum-abundant inter-metallic
compounds is worse than that of the iron-abundant inter-metallic compounds in the
FSW interface. From Fig.9 to Fig.11, it can be observed that the inter-metallic
compounds are mainly made up of FeAl3 and FeAl4 when 2.1mm pre-hole offset
distance is used, but from Fig.12 to Fig.14, the inter-metallic compounds are mostly
FeAl3 and Fe2Al5 when 0.8mm pre-hole offset distance is adopted. In other words, the
aluminum-abundant inter-metallic compounds (such as FeAl4) layer is obtained when
the pre-hole offset distance is 2.1mm, however the iron-abundant inter-metallic
compounds layer (such as Fe2Al5) is got when the pre-hole offset distance is 0.8mm,
which is in good agreement with the above results of the tensile strength test, i.e, the
18

tensile strength of the joints with 0.8mm pre-hole offset distance is greater than that of
the joints with 2.1mm pre-hole offset distance.

3.3 Microstructure
Fig.15 shows the macrograph of cross section of the weld. The metallographic
structure of the joints obtained by laser assisted friction stir welding of steel and
aluminum alloy is analyzed with an optical microscope, as shown in Fig.16 to Fig.18.

Fig.15 Macrograph of cross section of the weld

Fig.16 Metallurgical microstructure of the crystalline grains in steel side in WN, TWAZ and HAZ

Fig.16 and Fig.17 are the metallurgical microstructure of the steel side and the
aluminum side respectively. From Fig.16 and Fig.17, it can be seen that the crystalline
grains are of different magnitude in different zones. From the welding nugget zone
(WN) to the heat affected zone (HAZ), the size of the crystalline grains gradually
increases. The thermo-mechanical affected zone (TMAZ) is narrow, and the
crystalline grains in TMAZ are fine, which is caused by the mechanical stirring of the
19

pin tool.

Fig.17 Metallurgical microstructure of the crystalline grains in aluminum side in WN, TWAZ and
HAZ

Fig.18 shows the interface structure of steel and aluminum alloy. It can be found
that the welding nugget zone of butt joint is mainly within the aluminum side due to
pre-hole offset. Meanwhilethe welding nugget zone (WN), the thermo-mechanical
affected zone (TMAZ) and the heat affected zone (HAZ) can be obviously
distinguished in steel side, but they have no apparent boundaries in aluminum side.
Moreover, the grains in welding nugget zone (WN) in steel side are refined. The main
reason is that the grains here undergo dynamic recrystallization process. Besides, some
broken steel fragments exist in the welding nugget zone of aluminum alloy side, which
result from such a fact that the steel is softened due to laser heating and the friction of
the stirring tool, then the softened steel are torn under the severe shear force of the pin
tool and finally embedded into the aluminum alloy. Whats more, in the interface
between steel and aluminum alloy, there is a narrow inter-metallic compounds layer
with average thickness of about 4m.

20

Fig.18 Interface structure of steel and aluminum alloy

Fig.19 and Fig.20 are the pictures of SEM observation for fractured work-piece
after tensile test, from which it can be clearly seen that there are lots of fine dimples at
the fracture surface, so we can deduce that the fracture patterns are mainly ductile
fracture mode.

Fig.19 Fractured steel after tensile test for LFSW

21

Fig.20 Fractured aluminum alloy after tensile test for LFSW

3.4 Hardness profile

Fig.21 exhibits the hardness profile measured at the central part of the welds along
the transverse cross section of the welded work-piece. It can be found that in the
aluminum alloy side, the hardness decreases from base metal (BM) to weld zone (WN),
however in the steel side, the hardness profile has the contrary trend. The minimum
hardness occurs about 0-5mm from the weld center (i.e x=0) in the stir zone (SZ) in
the aluminum alloy side. The average hardness in the weld nugget is around 50Hv,
which is even lower than that of aluminum alloy base metal. Same as what mentioned
by Bang et al[15], the decrease of hardness in TMAZ is probably caused by the
dissolution of the second phase particles and coarsening induced by such
thermo-mechanical effects as the dynamic recovery and recrystallization, and the
22

decrease of hardness in HAZ is perhaps resulted from the dissolution of precipitates

during welding. On the contrary, the hardness of TMAZ and HAZ in the steel side is
increased because of the work hardening of the steel.

350

Al alloy side

steel side

300

Hardness value(Hv)

250

200

150
BM HAZ

TMAZ

SZ

TMAZ

HAZ

BM

100

50

0
-13.5-12.0-10.5 -9.0 -7.5 -6.0 -4.5 -3.0 -1.5 0.0 1.5 3.0 4.5 6.0 7.5 9.0

Distance from weld center(mm)

Fig.21 Hardness profiles of cross section of LFSW

3. Conclusion
In this paper, laser assisted friction stir butt welding of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy
and Q235 steel are carried out, and the effect of pre-hole offset distance on the
properties of steel/aluminum joints is studied through tensile strength test, SEM, EDS
composition analysis and metallographic structure analysis. Following conclusions are
obtained:
1 The tensile strength of the joints increases first and then decreases as the

pre-hole offset distance increases. There is an optimal pre-hole offset distance at

which the highest tensile strength of the joints can be reached.
2 The pre-hole offset distance influences obviously the thickness of inter-metallic
23

compounds layer of the interface. When an appropriate pre-hole offset distance

is adopted, the thickness of inter-metallic compounds layer is small. Meanwhile,
the thickness of inter-metallic compounds layer gradually decreases from the
upper part to the bottom of the joint for each pre-hole offset distance.
3 The pre-hole offset distance has a great effect on the type of the inter-metallic

compounds formed in the interface of steel/aluminum. When the pre-hole offset

distance is suitable, iron-abundant inter-metallic compounds can be obtained;
otherwise, aluminum-abundant inter-metallic compounds are formed.
4 The tensile strength of the joints is affected greatly both by the thickness of the

inter-metallic compounds layer and the type of the inter-metallic compounds.

Joints with high tensile strength can be easily obtained when thin inter-metallic
compounds layer and iron-abundant inter-metallic compounds are formed.
5 The welding nugget zone for laser assisted friction stir butt welding of steel and

aluminum is mainly located in the aluminum side due to the offset of pre-hole.
The size of the crystalline grains gradually decreases from the heat affected
zone (HAZ) to the welding nugget zone (WN). The crystalline grains in TMAZ
are fine owing to the mechanical stirring of the pin tool.

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