Study of Microstructure and Mechanical

properties of aluminum alloy welded by

MIG and TIG welding processes
Veer Singh1 Vikash Paroothi2
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,Rama University,Kanpur
[email protected]
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MITRC, Alwar (Rajasthan)
1
[email protected]

Abstract— In this study, conventional fusion welding high-speed-train industry where such light
processes: MIG, TIG and solid state process friction weight metal is broadly used. However FSWed
stir welding (FSW) were applied to 6 mm thick samples have more strength than that of MIG welded
plates of aluminium alloy. The weldments were samples. The weld metal microstructure of MIG
evaluated by performing microstructural welded specimen contains equiaxed dendrites as a
examinations including optical microscope and result of solidification process during MIG welding
scanning electron microscope (SEM) and as well as while FSWed specimen have wrought
hardness measurements. Mechanical testing has been microstructure.
done by means of tensile and bend tests. The Keywords-Tungsten inert gas welding; metal inert
mechanical properties and microstructural features gas welding; friction stir welding; aluminium
of Aluminum (Al5052) weldments processed by gas alloy5052;mechanical properties; microstructures.
tungsten arc welding (GTAW) and gas metal arc
1. INTRODUCTION
welding (GMAW) and friction stir
Among aluminium alloys, 5086-H32 (AlMg4),
welding are investigated.
commonly used in defence, shipbuilding,
Weldments processed by both
automotive, railway, aviation and aerospace
methods are mechanically softer than the parent
industries, is a representative non-age-hardenable Al-
material Al5052, and could be potential sites for
Mg alloy that possesses an attractive
plastic localization. The microstructure of the welds,
combination of properties such as light weight, moderate
including the nugget zone and heat affected
high strength, good corrosion resistance, workability, and
zone, has been compared in these three methods using
proven weldability, good electrical and thermal
optical microscopy. The
conductivity [1–6].
mechanical properties of the weld are have also been
For the joining of aluminium alloys, fusion
investigated using hardness and tensile tests. It is
welding processes have commonly been used in several
revealed that Al weldments processed by GTAWare
industrial applications. A solid state
mechanical more reliable than those by
process-friction stir welding, (FSW) invented and
GMAW. The former bears higher strength, more
patented at The Welding Institute (TWI) of UK in
ductility, and no apparent microstructure defects.
1991, is considered to be the most significant
Perceivable porosity in weldments by GMAW is
development in metal joining in a decade. This relatively
found, which could account for the distinct
new welding process has initially and particularly been
mechanical properties between weldments processed
applied for welding the high strength aluminium alloys
by GTAW and GMAW. It is suggested that caution
and other metallic alloys that are hard to weld by
should be exercised when using GMAW for Al5052
conventional fusion welding. FSW of aluminium alloys
in the
has been used in
 the applications of aircraft, shipbuilding, automotive, railway, defense industries and
Table1.Chemical composition and mechanical properties of base metal
Chemical composition (wt%)
Si Fe Cu Mn Mg Cr Ni Zn V Ti Al
0.163 0.399 0.010 0.093 2.217 0.213 0.01 0.010 0.02 0.02 BAL
Mechanical properties
Proof stress0.2(MPa) Tensile strength(MPa) Elongation(%)
240 331 15.2
analysis as well as hardness measurements with 200
attracted extensive research interest due to the potential g load. Mechanical testing, tensile and bend tests were
engineering importance and problems such as reduced applied and in addition, fracture surfaces of the joints
strength of the joints, distortions, residual were studied and discussed with
stresses, gas porosities, metallurgical microstructure and SEM images.
precipitations in the weld metal and HAZ, lack of fusion,
high coefficient of thermal expansion, solidification 2. Material and experimental procedures
shrinkage, high solubility of hydrogen and other
gases associated with conventional welding In this paper, a non-heat treatable 5052-
[2–10]. B209 Al- -Mg alloy which is mainly used in the
The rapid development of FSW in construction of tactical military vehicles and
aluminium alloys and its successful implementation into shipbuilding has been used. In Table 1, the chemical
commercial applications has motivated its application to composition and the mechanical properties of the base
more non-ferrous materials and other metals [2, 9]. In metal have been demonstrated.
FSW, as a basis, a non-consumable tool with a special Welding processes that have been applied to the
designed pin and a shoulder is plunged into the abutting base metal are: MIG and TIG as conventional fusion
edges of the plates to be joined to a preset depth and welding processes and friction stir welding as solid
moved along the weld joint. Heat is generated state welding process. Butt joints of double sided welds
through the frictional contact between the rotating tool were obtained.
shoulder, abutting material surface and plastic MIG and TIG welds were produced semi-
deformation of work piece [2, 5, 6, 9, 11–14]. automatically in industrial conditions, with an ER
In the literature, friction stir weldability of 5356 (AlMg5Cr (A)) wire of 1.6 mm diameter in
5083 aluminium alloy has been investigated by several combination with 99.999 % Argon shield gas. Arc
researchers [8, 14–23]. However, a study about the
voltage and welding current varied respectively between
friction stir weldability of 5052 B209 alloy has not
240 V and 300V and between 180 A and
been found up to now. It is not only important to show
the feasibility of FSW, but also to delineate its 200 A. I grooves were cleaned with acetone and
advantages and/or disadvantages over other techniques stainless steel brush prior to welding. AISI 4340 (0.40 %
[9]. So, the objective of this investigation is to determine C, 0.70 % Mn, 0.30 % Si, 0.80 % Cr, 1.80
and compare the microstructural and % Ni, 0.25 % Mo) tool was used for friction stir welding
mechanical properties of of the plates shown in fig 1. M5 threaded tool had a
double-sided friction stir (FS) welds and shoulder diameter of 20 mm and 3.6 mm height standard
conventional MIG and TIG welds of 6mm thick pin. The welding tool was rotated in anti-clock direction
5052-B209 aluminium alloy. The microstructural with 2◦ tool tilting from the plate normal. 1600 rpm
investigation of the weld zones includes light optical and 125 mm min−1 tool rotational and
microscope (LOM) and transmission translation speeds were used,
electron microscope (TEM) examinations, EDX respectively.
Visual inspection of the welds was made with
reference to ANSI/AWS B.1.11. Weld
reinforcement and spatter dimensions were Weld reinforcement of the specimens was ground
measured. All welded plates were subjected to distortion off. The tests were carried out using a Tinioulesen
measurements. universal testing machine (fig 2) at room temperature.
As metallographic examination, the cross To determine the fracture mode of welded joints,
sections of the welded joints were prepared, fracture surfaces of the specimens were examined using
polished and etched with modified Keller’s reagent for light microscope and scanning electron microscope
about 30sec, visualized as macro- and (SEM).
micrographs using LOM.

Fig.3 Tensile test specimen

3. Results and discussion

Fig.1 Schematic representation of friction 3.1. Sample preparation and microstructure

stirs welding process examination
SEM investigation has also been applied to the The samples were taken from butt welded
Thermo-mechanical affected zones of friction stir pieces of Al5052 being the base metal. Pre-weld cleaning
welded specimen. Vickers Micro hardness measurements of weld joint surfaces was performed, in order to remove
were carried out as line analysis, under 200 g test load at grease, rust, moisture in 20–30 mm distance of the
2 mm depth from the face and root side of each cross groove on both sides. To examine the microstructures
section of the welds. around the weldments, we prepared samples by cutting
For mechanical testing, transverse tensile (fig off a weldments in the transverse direction and ground
3) and bend test specimens were prepared from the with emery paper of finer grade (180, 320, 600, 800 and
welded plates with reference to EN 895 and EN 1000) and polished using the 6μ, 3μ and 1μ of diamond
910 standards, respectively. particles. The samples were etched with chemical
solution that contained 150 ml distilled water, 6ml nitric
acid, 3ml hydrofluoric acid (KELLER’S reagent) for
about 20 seconds before being observed under the optical
microscope (20x, 50x and 200x magnification)and also
used to identify grain size and porosity in the weldments.
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was also
used to identify grain size and porosity in the weldments.
After the visual inspection of the plates, MIG
and TIG welded joints were determined to be acceptable
as no surface cracks and discontinuities were detected.
Due to the high heat input, the largest amount of
distortion was determined on the MIG welded plate.
The microstructural investigation was
carried out on the metallographic

Fig.2 Tinioulesen universal testing machine

specimens of the joints using LOM, adapted with friction stir welded samples are illustrated in Fig. 4. In
image analyses system. Micrographs of fusion and fusion welded cross sections, depending on the

Fig.4 Micrographs of the weld zones:(a) MIG weld metal(WM),(b) MIG WM+HAZ,(c) TIG WM,(d) TIG
welded WM+HAZ, (e) FS WM,(f) FS WM+ TMAZ.

fusion of the aluminium alloy and high microstructural characterization, three distinct zones have
temperatures experienced by adjacent material, a fairly been observed in friction stir welded samples. The
wide heat affected zone (HAZ) has been nugget zone with onion ring structure and thermo-
observed. mechanical affected zone (TMAZ) that experiences
As the same filler metal has been used for the both temperature and deformation during
MIG and TIG welding, similar microstructural the process and HAZ, have been identified. An onion
morphologies have been observed, however some ring structure can be observed in the nugget zone
porosity has been determined in the weld metal (WM) whose recrystallized fine grain
of MIG welded sample. Based on the
structure is generated as a result of plastic observed at the friction stir welded 5086-H32 alloy as
deformation and frictional heating. The nugget with shown in Figs. 4e and 4f.
onion rings and with a structure like pan-cake, the
transition between the nugget and TMAZ, can be

Propagated towards the bottom region. For the hardness

distribution in the weld zones, the solid solution
hardened Al alloys have shown very different behaviour
than the precipitation hardening alloys as reported by
Mishra and Ma [9] and Lee et al. [24]. In the papers, for
precipitation hardening alloys, it is explained that a
softened region was formed in the weld zone because the
precipitates disappeared or coarsened by the welding
heat. Especially, such a softening
was caused by dissolution and
growth of strengthening precipitates (Mg2Si, MgZn2)
during the thermal cycle of the welding. However, for the
solid solution hardened alloys, generally a roughly
homogeneous was determined as hardness profile
depending on the dislocation density and strain
hardening mechanism of the alloys.
3.2. Hardness properties
The hardness profile of friction stir welded
5052-B209 sample has been determined almost
homogeneous similar to the reported graphs in the
literature for the 5083 alloy. It has been explained by
Lee et al. [24], Svensson et al. [25] and Sato et al. [26–
28], that this situation was mainly governed by not only
dislocation density, but also the distribution and size of
the small Al6(Mn, Fe) particles. Figure 6b shows the
mean values of the tensile properties of MIG, TIG and
friction stir welded joints. Examination of the tensile test
results of the welded joints has demonstrated that the
average joint efficiency values of the welded joints are
82 %, 76 % and 85 % of the base material, respectively.
The hardness plots confirm the order of the
Fig.5 (a), (b), (c) SEM images of MIG, TIG tensile strength values of the welded joints. Fracture of
and FS welded joints the welds occurred in the weld metal (WM) for fusion
Figure 5a is an enlarged SEM photograph welded and thermo mechanically affected zone (TMAZ)
showing a dimple pattern that indicates ductile fracture advancing side for the friction stir welded joints,
and the porosity in this matrix occurred. Figure 5b respectively. The strength increasing effect of strain
also contains the photograph of dimple patterns and some hardened 5052-B209 aluminium alloy was eliminated
defects which caused fracture to initiate. Figure 5c by the high heat input of
exhibits the ductile fracture phenomena of FS welded
specimens. Tensile testing of these joints showed that
cracking tended to occur initially at the upper region
of the joint and
fusion welding and porosities in weld metal are the 130HV, very high for an alloy of this type. The hardness
reason. It was mentioned previously that the base of FSWed samples is related to the hardness of the
material is in an extremely work hardened state. The stir zone, whereas the hardness of MIG samples
base material has a Vickers hardness of about is related to the weld metal.

Fig.6 (a) First and second pass hardness distributions of MIG,TIG and FS welded joints, respectively,(b)
Comparison of mean the base metal strength values with welded joints

Table.2 Summary of welding conditions applied for both

GMAW and GTAW

Specification GMAW GTAW

Preheating No No in the GTAW and GMAW weldments are

79.38±1.89 HV1 and 72.15±5.18 HV1,
Welding Alternating Alternating respectively.Vickers micro-hardness of the GTAW
current current current weldments is almost the same as that of the parent
material, while that in the GMAW weldments is
Welding 240v 240v about 10% less than that of the parent material. The
voltage variations in hardness mentioned above can be readily
correlated with the microstructure developed both during
Shielding gas 100% argon 100% argon and after the welding process. As stated above, the 5xxx
series alloys are predominantly work hardenable alloys
Shielding gases 2.5-3*10-4m3/s 2.5-3*10-4m3/s and so it is this microstructure,
flow rate typical of rolling/work hardening that is the main
contributor to the high hardness of this region compared
Post heating No No to the weld zone (Kristensen et al. 2004; Uyyuru &
Kailas 2006). It was shown that the welding process has
Filler rod ER5356 ER5356 dramatically altered the microstructure of the material in
this region. The heavily worked microstructure of the
Welding Aluminium rod Aluminium base material has been completely replaced by equiaxed
electrode coated with electrode grains around 8μm in diameter that have little sub-
copper structure, typical of a recrystallized microstructure

The Vicker micro-hardness of 5083

aluminum alloy is about 79.83±1.67 HV1, and those
and similar to that found previously in 5xxx, 6xxx and the test samples were fitted into the jaws of the
7xxx series aluminum stir welds. testing machine and subjected to tensile stress until the
sample fractured. During the test, the various stress-strain
3.3. Tensile properties diagrams were drawn for each of the tensile stress
until the sample fractured. During the test, the various
The welded samples were tested for tensile stress-strain diagrams were drawn for each of the
strength using the Tinioulesen UTM. The edges of samples from where the tensile load is determined.
This is used in determining the strength and stiffness
Specimen Tensile Elongation (%) of the materials.
stress(MPa)
Table 3. Tensile test results for welded specimens
Double Vee- 100 2.86
butt TIG
welded
specimen 1

Double Vee- 120 4.44

butt TIG
welded
specimen 2

Double Vee- 150 4.88

butt MIG
welded
specimen 1

Double Vee- 185 7.15

butt MIG Fig.7 (a) compressive stress-strain (true)
welded curve of parent material AL 5052, GTAW, GMAW
specimen 2 weldments

FSW tensile 204 21

Specimen(1000
r/min) weldments, by looking at the fracture points from the
tensile stress–strain curves. Failure occurs in the
weldments for both types of samples. From the
macroscopic observations on the broken surfaces of the
The mechanical responses of both the parent GMAW and GTAW welded samples, GTAW exhibits a
materials and the welding zones are shown in fig 7. (a) ductile shear fracture in the whole fracture surface
gives the quasi-static uniaxial compressive stress–strain with a shear angle of 47◦ ,while the GMAW one exhibits
curves for the parent material, TAW and GMAW a fibrous facture surface at one side and a shear fracture
weldments shown in table 3. Here the ends represent the surface at another. They both have a gray, fibrous
interruption of the tests at those points because there was appearance. The dimples formed during the coalescence
no failure observed till the applied strain during of micro voids suggest fracture in ductile manner.
compression. The quasistatic uniaxial tensile stress– Fracture surfaces in GTAW welded samples have knife
strain behavior of GMAW and GTAW samples are edged conical dimples, while dimple edges in the
shown. There is a striking difference in the ductility fracture surface
of the two types of
of GMAW samples are smooth ellipses. These properties and hardness distributions, mechanical
differences indicate more plastic deformation in GTAW properties, examining of fracture surfaces of the joints
samples than that in GMAW samples. In the face and have been studied in the present work. Following
root bend test results of the welded specimens, conclusions can be drawn: The
although MIG and TIG welded specimens microstructure of double stir zones was mainly composed
show some cracks, no crack was of onion ring structures in the nugget zones with fine
observed in friction stir welded specimens, see Table and equiaxed grains, and double TMAZ were observed
4. because of welding from double sides that
Mechanical testing by means of tensile and bend improves the mechanical
tests has proved some more advantages of the friction stir properties. In addition, the onion ring structure region
welding process compared to fusion welding processes. becomes wider, as the tool rotation speed is increased.
Selecting the best filler alloy for a given application The hardness profile was found roughly
depends on the desired performance relative homogeneous similar to the examples in the literature.
to weldability, strength, ductility, and The present study has demonstrated that the tensile
corrosion resistance. In general, the filler alloy selected properties of FSW joints were more satisfactory than
should be similar in composition to fusion welded joints. All fracture of FS welded
the base metal alloy. Similarly, 5xxx filler alloys are used specimens were occurred in TMAZ. Bend tests of
to join 5xxx-series base metal alloys. An exception to welded plates have shown that FS welded specimens
this rule is encountered when weldability becomes an do not include any defect like fusion welded
issue. specimens. LOM and SEM
Others Problems are with hot cracking examinations of the fracture surfaces exhibited porosities
encountered when welding under highly constrained in MIG and TIG welds that have caused strength values
conditions or when welding certain alloys that are highly to decrease; however FS welds do not include weld
susceptible to cracking. Such is the case when defects. And also the tensile strength of the FSWed
welding the alloys that have low range magnesium plates is similar to that of the base metal (about 204MPa)
content. To avoid cracking, use of a high-magnesium and elongation is lower than that of the base metal.
filler alloy is recommended.

Table.4 bend test results of the MIG, TIG and FS Acknowledgements

welded joints
Welding Test type Specimen Test result The authors would like to acknowledge KS
process code engineering works, for their contribution and
technical support. The cooperation of Chennai CNC
MIG Face bend M86F1 No crack centre for making tensile test specimen using wire cut
EDM is also acknowledged. In addition many thanks to
TIG Face bend T86F1 Harmless Prof. N.Srirangarajalu and his team for SEM and optical
crack photographs.

FSW Face bend F86F1 No crack References

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