Influence of welding speed on the fatigue of friction stir welds, and comparison with MIG and TIG

The objective of this investigation was to determine whether the fatigue strength of friction stir (FS) welds is influenced by the welding speed, and also to compare the fatigue results with results for conventional arc-welding methods: MIG-pulse and TIG. The Al–Mg–Si alloy 6082 was FS welded in the T6 and T4 temper conditions, and MIG-pulse and TIG welded in T6. The T4-welded material was subjected to a post-weld ageing treatment. According to the results, welding speed in the tested range, representing low and high commercial welding speed, has no major influence on the mechanical and fatigue properties of the FS welds. At a significantly lower welding speed, however, the fatigue performance was improved possibly due to the increased amount of heat supplied to the weld per unit length. The MIG-pulse and TIG welds showed lower static and dynamic strength than the FS welds. This is in accordance with previous comparative examinations in the literature on the fatigue strength of fusion (MIG) and FS welds. The TIG welds had better fatigue performance than the MIG-pulse welds. The softening of the alloy around the weldline has been modelled. Using a model without adjustable parameters, a fair description of the hardness profiles across the weld as a function of welding speed was obtained. The softening in front of the Friction Stir Welding tool was also estimated. At the low and high welding speeds a full and partial softening is predicted, respectively.