Microstructures and Failure Mechanisms of Friction Stir Spot Welds of Aluminum 6061-T6 Sheets
Microstructures and Failure Mechanisms of Friction Stir Spot Welds of Aluminum 6061-T6 Sheets
Microstructures and Failure Mechanisms of Friction Stir Spot Welds of Aluminum 6061-T6 Sheets
6061-T6 Sheets
August 1, 2006
Abstract
Microstructures and failure mechanisms of friction stir spot welds in aluminum 6061-T6
micrographs of the cross sections of friction stir spot welds in lap-shear specimens before
and after failure are examined. These friction stir spot welds show the failure mode of
nugget pullout under lap-shear loading conditions. The experimental observations suggest
that under lap-shear loading conditions, the failure is initiated near the possible original
notch tip in the stir zone (SZ) and the failure propagates along the circumference of the
nugget to final fracture. Microindentation hardness data of base metal (BM), heat affected
zone (HAZ), thermal-mechanical affected zone (TMAZ) and SZ are obtained. The
interface between the HAZ and the TMAZ is the softest region, where the cracks of friction
stir spot welds in the lap-shear specimens under the loadings initiate and lead to fracture of
the specimens.
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Keywords: Friction stir spot weld; Lap-shear specimen; Fracture; Microstructure
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Corresponding author: Tel.:+886-4-22857207; fax:+886-4-22858362
1. Introduction
components produced from these alloys, by stamping, casting, extrusion and forging, have
advantages of the resistance spot welding process are its relatively low capital cost, ease of
maintenance, and high tolerance to poor part fit up compared with other fusion welding
technologies [1]. However, resistance spot welding of aluminum sheets by contrast has
several technological challenges. First, the electrode tip life is shorter than that for welding
steel sheets. Resistance spot welding of aluminum sheets is also likely to produce such
defects as porosity, as reported in Thornton et al. [2] and Gean et al. [3]. Recently, a new
friction stir spot welding technology has been developed by Mazda Motor Corporation and
Kawasaki Heavy Industry [4,5] with much lower operating and investment cost.
A schematic illustration of the friction stir spot welding process is shown in Fig. 1
[4]. The process is applied to join two metal sheets. A rotating tool with a probe pin
plunges into the upper sheet and a backing tool beneath the lower sheet supports the
downward force. The downward force and the rotational speed are maintained for an
appropriate time to generate frictional heat. Then, heated and softened material adjacent to
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the tool deforms plastically, and a solid state bond is made between the surfaces of the
One benefit of friction stir spot welding compared to the conventional fusion
welding processes is that for aluminum-based alloys, it is possible to make joints where the
strength of the weld is comparable to that of the base metal alloy. Aluminum alloys are
difficult to be fusion-welded due to the requirements of (i) gas shielding of weld pool, and
(ii) removal of oxide layers prior to or during the welding process [6,7]. In addition,
aluminum alloys are subject to voids and solidification cracking defects when they cool
from a liquid [8,9]. Therefore, friction stir spot welding offers significant performance
advantages. Because melting is avoided, the energy input used for friction stir spot welding
is considerably low. Consequently, the HAZs and residual stresses associated with the
observations. A tool with a flat tool shoulder and a cone-shaped probe pin was used.
Micrographs of friction stir spot welds in lap-shear specimens before and after failure are
obtained. Microstructures for friction stir spot welds are then presented. Finally, the
failure mode and failure mechanism for these friction stir spot welds are discussed.
2. Experimental procedures
Table 1 lists the chemical compositions (wt.%) of the 6061-T6 aluminum sheets. Fig. 2
schematically shows a lap-shear specimen used to investigate the strength of friction stir
spot welds under shear loading conditions. The weld nugget is idealized as a cone. The
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approximately 12 mm, an overlap length of the upper and lower sheets being 50 mm, and a
length of 100 mm. As also shown in Fig. 2, two spacers with a length of 30 mm are
attached to the both ends of the lap-shear specimen to induce a pure shear to the interfacial
plane of the nugget for the two sheets and to avoid the initial realignment during testing.
The indentation on the surface of the upper sheet of the specimen is caused by the tool
Fa Machinery Co., Ltd.) as shown in Fig. 3(a). A fixture was designed for friction stir spot
welding of specimens. The fixture with a specimen is shown in Fig. 3(b). The specimen is
mounted on a backing tool by four bolts. Granite was selected as the material for the
backing tool to achieve low heat conductance through the backing tool. A load cell (CLP-
5B, Tokyo Sokki Kenkyujo Co., Ltd.) was placed under the backing tool to measure the
downward force during friction stir spot welding. We used a NI SCXI-1121 isolated input
module with a sampling rate up to 3.33 105 samples/sec to acquire signals from the load
cell and a NI SCXI-1600 module with a sampling rate of 200,000 samples/second and 16-
bit resolution to provide data acquisition and control capabilities.
For the conventional friction stir spot welding process, the important processing
parameters are the tool geometry, the rotational speed, the holding time and the downward
force. As schematically shown in Fig. 4, during the friction stir spot welding process in this
investigation, the rotational speed is kept constant and the downward force is controlled by
the riveting machine control unit. Initially, the downward force increases almost linearly
for a period of time. Then the downward force is kept nearly constant for a period of time
and finally decreases almost linearly to zero. As shown in the figure, ti represents the time
that the tool contacts to the top surface of the upper sheet and t f represents the time that
tool extracts from the top surface of the upper sheet. The time between ti and t f
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represents the total holding time. The rotational speed, constant downward force, holding
time t f ti , and force holding time for the friction stir spot welding of the specimens are
shoulder and a cone-shaped probe. Fig. 5(b) shows a schematic plot of an extracted tool
and two welded sheets after welding. The diameters of the tool shoulder and the probe pin
used in this investigation are 12 mm and 5 mm, respectively. The depth of the probe pin is
1.5 mm. The angle of the chamber with the probe end surface is 10. H is the plunge
depth of the tool. The actual bonding diameter for the weld is denoted as Dc . The plunge
depth, H , and the diameter of the weld, Dc , will depend upon the processing parameters.
The lap-shear specimens were then tested by using a tensile testing machine (Wain-
Tsiang Ltd., Taiwan) at a monotonic displacement rate of 5.0 mm per minute. The load
and displacement were simultaneously recorded during the test. Tests were terminated
when the two sheets of the specimen were separated. In order to understand the
specimens were obtained using a diamond indenter with a 1-kgf load and a 10 sec dwell
time.
Fig. 6(a) shows a lap-shear friction stir spot weld specimen. Fig. 6(b) shows a
close-up top view of the friction stir spot weld on the upper sheet. As shown in the top
view, the top surface of the weld looks like a button with a central hole. The squeezed-out
material is accumulated along the outer circumference of the shoulder indentation. Fig. 6(c)
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shows a close-up bottom view of the friction stir spot weld on the lower sheet. In the
bottom view, the contact mark due to the backing tool can be seen.
In order to understand the failure mechanisms of friction stir spot welds under lap-
shear loading conditions, optical micrographs of the cross sections of friction stir spot
welds before and after failure were obtained. A systematic investigation of the processing
parameters of holding time and constant downward force was carried out in order to obtain
the friction stir spot welds of the lap-shear specimens failed in the circumferential failure
mode under tensile tests. Note that the circumferential failure mode may be preferred over
the interfacial failure mode. It can be explained by the higher failure loads of the friction
stir spot welds in aluminum 6061-T6 lap-shear specimens failed in the circumferential
mode than those failed in the interfacial mode [10]. Sawhill and Furr [11] reported similar
testing. Fig. 7(b) shows close-up views of regions I, II, III and IV as marked in Fig. 7(a)
where the BM is not shown. In Fig. 7(a), there is an indentation with a profile that reflects
the shape of the probe pin and the flat shoulder of the tool. The bottom surface is kept
almost flat except near the central hole. Near the outer area of the central hole, there is a
gray area which represents the SZ where the upper and lower sheets are bonded. The
diameter of the nugget is nearly 6.5 mm, which is the diameter of the nearly circular gray
area of the micrograph shown in Fig. 7(a). Note that for common low carbon steel, the
standard nugget diameter for resistance spot welds is 5.5 mm with a 5.5 mm sheet thickness
[12]. Two notch tips can be seen near points A and B. The notch tips extended into the
weld appear to be formed from the unwelded interfaces between the two sheets. Note that
in the SZ no defects were observed compared with the aluminum resistance spot welds
where porosity was encountered.
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For the friction stir spot weld made by the tool, as the tool continues to rotate and
plunge into the upper and lower sheets, the material under the tool shoulder near the probe
pin is stirred. Outside the SZ, the interfacial surface of the upper and lower sheets is
distorted into a macroscopic curved interface as shown in region IV in Fig. 7(a). The
shoulder indentation squeezes out a portion of the upper sheet material and, consequently,
the thickness of the upper sheet material under the shoulder indentation decreases, resulting
in a radial expansion of the upper sheet along the outer circumference of the shoulder
indentation. However, due to the constraint of the neighboring material, the sheet is
therefore bent along the outer circumference of the shoulder indentation. The bending of
the sheet creates a gap between the upper and lower sheets. The squeezed out material
from the shoulder indentation forms a ring along the outer circumference of the shoulder
indentation on the top surface of the upper sheet. The squeezed out material can be seen in
Fig. 7(a). In Fig. 7(b), a micrograph of the BM shows relatively coarse grains. A close-up
view of region I shows less coarse grains in the HAZ than in the BM. A close-up view of
regions II shows finer and distorted grains in the TMAZ. Close-up views of regions III and
IV show very fine equiaxed grains in the SZ. The equiaxed grains in the SZ are probably
formed due to stir and recrystallization. These equiaxed grains appeared in the SZ of
friction stir welding are also reported by Liu et al. [13]. In Fig. 7(b), a close-up view of
region IV shows that the curved interface becomes vague and disappears close to the SZ.
Fig. 8 shows a failed lap-shear friction stir spot weld specimen and close-up views
of the friction stir spot weld in the failed lap-shear specimen. The circumferential failure
mode or the nugget pullout failure mode can be seen on the lower sheet of the failed
specimen in Fig. 8(a). Fig. 8(b) shows a top view of the failed friction stir spot weld. The
hole diameter is almost the same as the indentation diameter Di or the tool shoulder
diameter Dt . Fig. 8(c) shows a top view of a friction stir spot weld on the lower sheet of
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the failed specimen. As shown in Figs. 8(a) and 8(c), a small portion near the left hand side
of the remaining weld nugget is removed possibly due to tearing and rubbing of the upper
sheet. Figs. 8(a) and 8(c) show clearly the failure occurs very close to the outer
circumference of the shoulder indentation.
Fig. 9 shows a cross sectional view and close-up views of a friction stir spot weld in
a partially failed lap-shear specimen. The arrows in Fig. 9(a) schematically show the
loading direction. The HAZ, the TMAZ, and the SZ are also indicated in Fig. 9(a). As
shown in Fig. 9(a), near the upper right portion of the friction stir spot weld, marked as Leg
2, a crack (marked as point A) appears to emanate from the tip of a curved notch that
terminates near the boundary of the SZ. However, no failure or damage can be seen in the
lower left leg, marked as Leg 1, due to the different geometries of the nugget in the upper
and the lower sheets, in contrast to the failure process of the resistance spot weld as shown
in Lin et al. [14]. The failure of the friction stir spot weld in the lap-shear specimen may be
initiated in the upper sheet near the middle part of the nugget, marked as point A and then
propagates along the nugget circumference, marked as point B. Finally, the upper sheet is
torn off with some part of the nugget, marked as point C. A similar failure mechanism was
also observed in HSLA steel lap-shear specimens [15] and in mild steel square-cup
notch is shown near the right hand side of the weld nugget. The zigzag curved interface
between the upper and lower sheet is shown in the square marked D. As shown in Fig. 9(c),
the growth of the curved crack does not follow the zigzag curved interface. Fig. 9(d) is a
close-up view of the zigzag curved interface in the square marked D in Fig. 9(c). Fig. 9(d)
clearly shows that the location of the curved crack is not along the zigzag curved interface.
It is possible that the curved crack growth occurring in the TMAZ near point A in Fig. 9(a)
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is due to asymmetrical weld nugget geometry and inhomogeneous material properties in the
TMAZ.
tensile tests. The average of the failure loads of these five specimens under the loading is
4457 N. The maximum and minimum of these five failure loads are 4709 N and 4155 N,
respectively. Observations of the micrographs of the cross sections of the five failed
friction stir spot welds revealed that they have the same failure mechanisms under the
loading conditions.
Based on a recent study of Lin et al. [14], the necking/shear failure mechanism is
the principal failure initiation mechanism of the nugget pullout failure mode in lap-shear
specimens from the mechanics viewpoint. Note that due to the limited ductility, a
combined mode of necking and shear localization is the principal failure mechanism of
aluminum 6111 sheets under biaxial stretching conditions as indicated in Chien et al. [17].
hardness data across the BM, HAZ, TMAZ and SZ were obtained. Indentations were made
with a spacing of 0.5 mm along each of the four parallel lines shown in Fig. 10(a). The
four lines are parallel to the loading direction of the specimen shown in Fig. 2 and on the
cross-section cut through the center of the weld. Fig. 10(b) shows the hardness variation
traversing from the BM, across the HAZ and the TMAZ, and through the SZ. The hardness
initially decreases upon approaching the boundary between the BM and the HAZ, then
drops sharply to a minimum in the TMAZ. After passing the TMAZ, the hardness
gradually increases up to the SZ hardness of about 90 Hv. The interface between the HAZ
and TMAZ is the softest region according to Fig 10, where the cracks of friction stir spot
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welds in the lap-shear specimens under the loadings initiate and lead to fracture of the
specimens. Note that Liu et al. [13] reported that some of their friction-stir-welded joints of
2017-T351 aluminum alloy fractured in the softened regions near the interface between
weld nuggets and TMAZs.
As also shown in Fig. 10(b), the BM is the hardest regions (approximately 120 Hv)
of the specimen. This is contrary to predictions based on grain size arguments alone, which
suggest the hardness maximum may occur in the SZ. The considerable softening of the
4. Conclusions
friction stir spot welds made in this investigation, the circumferential failure mode or the
nugget pullout failure mode was observed. The experimental results suggest that under lap-
shear loading conditions, the failure is initiated near the SZ in the middle part of the nugget
and the failure propagates along the circumference of the nugget to final fracture. The
location of the initial necking/shear failure is near the possible original notch tip and the
failures of the friction stir spot welds were fractured through the TMAZ near the weld
decreases upon approaching the boundary between the base metal and the HAZ, then drops
sharply to a minimum in the TMAZ. After passing the TMAZ, the hardness gradually
increases up to the SZ hardness. The interface between the HAZ and the TMAZ is the
softest region, where the cracks of friction stir spot welds in the lap-shear specimens under
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the loadings initiate and lead to fracture of the specimens.
Acknowledgement
This project was supported by the National Science Council of the Republic of
China under grant number NSC 94-2212-E-005-019. The authors would also like to
express their appreciation to the staff of the metallurgy laboratory and the machining
centers at National Chung Hsing University and Da Yeh University for their assistance.
References
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Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium of Friction Stir Welding, Kobe, Japan,
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[5] T. Iwashita, Method and apparatus for joining, US Patent 6601751 B2, August, 5,
2003.
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Materials, (1997) 469-489.
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[16] S.-H. Lin, J. Pan, T. Tyan, P. Prasad, A general failure criterion for spot welds under
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Table 1
Chemical compositions (wt.%) of 6061-T6 aluminum sheets
Mg 1.00
Si 0.59
Fe 0.51
Cu 0.30
Cr 0.22
Mn 0.05
Ti 0.02
Zn <0.01
Al Rem.
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Fig. 1. A schematic illustration of friction stir spot welding process.
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Fig. 2. A schematic plot of a lap-shear specimen and the applied force P shown as the bold
arrows.
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Fig. 3. (a) A hydraulic riveting machine for friction stir spot welding. (b) A close-up view
of the tool and the specimen fixture.
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Fig. 4. A schematic plot of the processing parameters as a function of time.
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Fig. 5. (a) A photo of a tool. (b) A schematic plot of an extracted tool and two welded
sheets after welding.
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Fig. 6. (a) A lap-shear friction stir spot weld specimen of aluminum 6061-T6, (b) a close-
up view of the friction stir spot weld on the upper sheet, (c) a close-up view of the friction
stir spot weld on the lower sheet.
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Fig. 7. (a) A micrograph of the cross section of a friction stir spot weld made by the tool,
(b) close-up views of regions I, II, III and IV.
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Fig. 8. (a) A failed friction stir spot weld lap-shear specimen, (b) a top view of a friction
stir spot weld on the upper sheet of the failed specimen, (c) a top view of a friction stir spot
weld on the lower sheet of the failed specimen.
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Fig. 9. (a) A micrograph of the cross section of a friction stir spot weld in a partially failed
lap-shear specimen, (b) a close-up view of region II, (c) a close-up view of region I, (d) a
close-up view of the region marked in the square D.
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Fig. 10. (a) Locations of four horizontal hardness traverses. (b) Hardness profiles.
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