Investigation And Optimization Of Friction Stir Welding Of Ze42 Magnesium Alloy

Abstract

ABSTRACT newline newline newline newline newlineFriction Stir Welding (FSW) is used to join materials into parts and parts into structures and assemblies. The interest in the use of Magnesium as a structural material in industrial applications has increased greatly in recent years. This increase is primarily due to the low weight of Magnesium compared to other structural materials as well as its ability to resist corrosion. Recently Magnesium has its application in consumer products, automotive and aerospace industries. The most important alloying ingredients used in Magnesium alloys are Aluminum, Zinc, Manganese, Silicon, Zirconium, Rare-Earth metals, and Strontium. newlineIn this work ZE42 Magnesium alloy were considered to conduct research work in FSW process. This research work was carried out to find optimal strength of the material behavior during friction welding process. The selection of appropriate parameters in FSW is essential, not only to optimize the welding process in order to maintain the highest level of productivity, but also to obtain the most desirable mechanical properties of the weld. The process parameters identified for FSW are tool rotation speed, welding speed, tool pin profile and axial force. FSW is carried out using response surface method design of experiments of four parameters, five level and 31 sets of experiment using Minitab software. The weld quality is measured in terms of ultimate tensile strength and hardness. For the obtained parameters the welds were performed on the ZE42 Magnesium alloy. Welded samples characteristics such as the micro hardness, tensile properties, X-Ray diffraction, Differential Therman Analysis (DTA)/Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR) spectroscopy results were identified. The analysis of variance was employed to investigate the effect of input parameters on tensile strength and hardness of weld. The ANOVA results indicate that the welding speed and axial force is the significant input parameter that has the highest statistical influence on ha