Partially melted zone cracking in AA6061 welds

Partially melted zone (PMZ) cracking susceptibility in AA6061 alloy was studied. Role of prior thermal history, gas tungsten arc welding techniques such as continuous current (CC) and pulsed current (PC) and use of different fillers (AA4043 and AA5356) were studied. Role of different grain refiners...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Materials in engineering 2008, Vol.29 (1), p.179-186
Main Authors: Prasad Rao, K., Ramanaiah, N., Viswanathan, N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AA6061
Aluminum alloy
Gas tungsten arc weld
Grain refiners
Partially melted zone
Pulsed current
Scandium
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Partially melted zone (PMZ) cracking susceptibility in AA6061 alloy was studied. Role of prior thermal history, gas tungsten arc welding techniques such as continuous current (CC) and pulsed current (PC) and use of different fillers (AA4043 and AA5356) were studied. Role of different grain refiners such as scandium, zirconium and Tibor in the above fillers was studied. Varestraint test was used to study the PMZ cracking susceptibility. Metallurgical analysis was done to corroborate the results. PMZ cracking was severe in T6 temper than in T4 irrespective of filler material. PMZ cracking susceptibility was more with AA5356 than in AA4043. It was less with pulsed current GTAW. PMZ cracking susceptibility was reduced with addition of grain refiners. Out of all, lowest PMZ cracking susceptibility was observed with 0.5%Sc addition to fusion zone through AA4043 filler and PC technique. The concentrations of magnesium and silicon were reduced at the PMZ grain boundaries with grain refiner additions to fusion zone through AA5356 or AA4043.
ISSN:0261-3069
DOI:10.1016/j.matdes.2006.10.022