Through thickness property variations in a thick plate AA7050 friction stir welded joint

In this study, moderately thick (32 mm) AA7050 plates were joined by friction stir welding (FSW). Various methods were used to characterize the welded joints, including nugget grain size measurements at different locations through the thickness, micro-hardness indentation through nugget, thermo-mechanically affected zone (TMAZ), and heat affected zone (HAZ) at different cross section heights, and residual stress measurement using the cut compliance method with full thickness and partial thickness specimens. All testing results are consistent with the presence of a strong gradient in peak temperature through the plate thickness during FSW.