Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Istanbul, Turkey, July 3-6, 2012

Effect of Grain Refining Aluminum by Titanium or Titanium plus Boron on its Weldability using Gas Tungsten Arc Welding
Adnan I.O. Zaid Industrial Engineering Department Jordan University, Amman, Jordan Safwan M.A. Al Qawabah Mechanical Engineering Department Tafila Technical University, Tafila, Jordan Abstract
Aluminum and its alloys are widely used materials in the aircraft and automobile industries due to their high strength-to-weight ratio in addition to other attractive properties e.g. their electrical and thermal conductivities, their resistance to corrosion. Against these advantages there is the main disadvantage, that they solidify in large grain columnar structure which tends to deteriorate their mechanical strength and surface quality. Furthermore, aluminum oxidizes freely in air which makes their weldability difficult and the weldment weak specially in the heat affected zone. To overcome these difficulties and retain their advantages some grain refiners e.g. titanium or titanium + boron are added to their melt before solidification to modify their structure. The binary Al-Ti and the ternary Al-Ti-B master alloys were manufactured and commercially available for this purpose. In this paper, the effect of addition of either Ti or Ti+B to commercially pure aluminum on its weldability is investigated applying the Gas Tungsten Arc Welding method (GTWA) formarly known as TIG, on two sheets of 3 mm thickness welded together by a lap joint at constant air gap and constant AC current level of 50 amperes. Metallographic examination of the weldment of the different combinations of Al with Al and Al with different microalloys, namely Al with Al-Ti, Al with Al-Ti-B and Al-Ti with Al-Ti, Al-Ti-B with Al-Ti-B in the heat affected zone, HAZ, and away from it was carried out for width, porosity, cracks and microhardnessThe results are discussed and compared together.

Keywords
Aluminum, grain refinement, titanium + boron, welding GTWA

1. Introduction
Aluminum and its alloys are very attractive materials due to their high strength to weight ratio, high thermal and electrical conductivities regarding their weight, good corrosion resistance and good appearance. Due to these properties, aluminum and its alloys were used in a wide range of applications in industrial and engineering applications especially in the automobile and aircraft industries. However, aluminum and its alloys posses the disadvantage of solidifying in columnar structure with large grain size which tends to deteriorate their mechanical strength and surface quality [1]. Therefore, it became a necessity to grain refine their structure by addition of some rare earth materials e.g. titanium or titanium + boron, vanadium, etc. and it is becoming now customary in aluminum foundary to add titanium or titanium + boron to the melt before solidification. Therefore, other rare earth elements are added to Al and its alloys to achieve certain mechanical, physical and chemical properties [1, 2, 3]. Welding is one of the most important and versatile means of fabrication and maintenance processes in industry. It is used in joining different commercial alloys in different shapes and applications, for example, in the automobile and aircraft industries particularly in case of aluminum and its alloys. The gas tungsten arc welding method, GTAW, which is formerly known as TIG is very often used for welding aluminum, magnesium, titanium and their alloys. It is generally preferred because it produces very high quality welds. Furthermore, the control of distortion which is a major problem in welding of thin sections [4]. To achieve good and strong welds and avoid defects, considerations should be given to the selection of the welding process and the parameters affecting it. In general, the strength and the quality of the weldment are strongly affected by the process parameters which in TIG welding includes: welding current, polarity (DCSP/DCRP), arc voltage (arc length), travel speed, weld joint position, electrode diameter and shielding gas 902

composition and flow rate. The results of the research on the effect of these parameters indicated that they have profound effect on the strength and quality of the weld. Knowledge and control of these variables is essential to consistently produce sound welds of good quality and strength. It is worth mentioning that these variables are not completely independent and changing one requires changing one or more of the others to achieve the desired results [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Weld fusion zones typically exhibit coarse columnar structure due to the prevailing during the high temperature of the weld metal solidification, specially in the case of aluminum and its alloys. This normally results in inferior weld mechanical properties and poor resistance to hot cracking. Hence, it is highly desirable to control solidification structures in welds specially in the HAZ region, which is often very difficult to do so, because of the higher temperatures and the high thermal gradients in the fusion zone. This is unlike the case in casting process of these alloys. Different attempts have been tried for refining the structure in the weld fusion zone, e.g. inoculation with heterogeneous inoculants, microcooler, additions, surface nucleation induced by gas impingement and introduction of physical disturbance techniques such as torch vibrations [10, 11, 12]. It is worth noting that the use of inoculants for refining the weld fusion zones involves undesirable effects of inoculating elements which tends to adversely affect the mechanical properties of the weld in the HAZ (weld fusion zone), when the inoculants are added to the level which will cause grain refinement. Similarly, the surface nucleation and microcooler additions were also turned down because of the complicated welding setups required and procedures associated with their use. Recently, two techniques namely, magnetic arc oscillation and the current pulsing have gained popularity due to their promising results and the relative ease by which these techniques can be applied to practical and industrial application with only minor modifications to the existing welding setups. The advantages of the pulsed and magnetic arc oscillation welds is claimed to include grain refinement in the fusion zone with reduced width of HAZ which leads to less distortion, control of segregation, reduced cracking sensitivity and reduced residual stresses [13]. Optimization of the pulsed TIG welding process parameters using Taguchi method aiming for increasing the mechanical properties of the weld was investigated and reported [9].To the best of the author's knowledge the effect of addition of grain refiners on the weldability of Al has not been previously investigated. In this paper, the effect of addition of zirconium to aluminum grain refined by Ti+B on its weldability is investigated.

2. Materials, Equipment and Experimental Procedures

2.1 Materials 2.1.1 Base Metal Commercially pure aluminum 99.8% purity of the chemical composition shown in Table 1 was used throughout this work. Table 1: Chemical composition of commercially pure aluminum Si Cu Mg Ti V Zn Mn 0.05 0.005 0.004 0.004 0.008 0.005 0.001

Element Weight %

Fe 0.09

Na 0.005

Al Remain

The commercially available Al-Ti-B ternary master alloy was used for manufacturing the Al- 1 %Ti- 5%B and its microalloys. High purity aluminum powder was used for manufacturing the Al3%Ti binary master alloy. The crucible and stirring rods used in all the experiments were made of graphite. 2.1.2 Filler and Electrode Materials A separate filler made of aluminum with argon as an inert shielding gas, and unconsumable electrode 2.5 mm diameter made of tungsten having conical shape were used in the GTWA welding process. 2.2 Experimental Procedures 2.2.1 Preparation of the Al Base Metal The commercially pure bundles of the Al wires were pickled in HNO3 to remove the oxide layers and any other contamination, and then melted in a graphite crucible inside an electric furnace at about 800oC and then poured to solidify in hollow cylindrical brass rods of 10 mm inside diameter and 55 mm external diameter. Finally, the rods were rolled into sheets of 2 mm thickness, 10 mm width and 240 mm length. 2.2.2 Preparation of the Binary Master and the Microalloys The Al Ti binary master alloy was prepared by adding the calculated amount of Ti to the predetermined amount of molten aluminum in the graphite crucible at 850oC, stirred by the graphite rod for one minute and brought back to the furnace for 20 minutes brought out and stirred again for one minute and finally spread over a thick cast iron plate to solidify in pieces of thickness less than 5 mm. This master alloy was used for preparing the following microalloy, with the chemical composition (wt%) : Al - 0.15% Ti and the commercially available 903

ternary Al-Ti-B master alloywas used for preparing the Al 0.05% Ti 0.01% B . Finally, these prepared microalloys together with the commercially pure aluminum specimen were rolled into sheets of 2 mm thickness, 12 mm width and 240 mm length. 2.2.3 The Welding Process The tungsten inert gas welding, GTAW, process of the experimental set up shown in Figure1 was used for preparing the single lap joint, Figure 2, which was used in the welding process.

Figure 1: the GTAW welding setup

Figure 2: The lap joint The welding process started by adjusting the AC current on the welding machine to 30 A which was fixed in welding the different plates. All the specimens were welded using a fixed rate of the shielding gas, constant welding speed, which was calibrated with respect to the motor speed, 0.6 cm/sec, and the current was 30 Ampere AC. The aluminum welding electrode tip is held perpendicular to the welding surface at 5 mm from the workpiece surface. The torch was held perpendicular to the surface of the workpiece and started to heat the starting point of the weld by moving the torch in a circular motion. Once the pool of the molten metal has become bright the torch is ready to be moved along the required weld line. 2.2.4 Hardness Testing The Vicker's microhardness survey were carried out by taking the average of ten values along the HAZ and away from it along the base metal regions, using the digital microhardness tester model HWBM-3 at 100 gm force.

904

2.2.5 Microstructural Examination One specimen of the Al base metal and of each of its microalloys were cut, hot mounted in bakelite ground by different grit size and polished with 1 micron diamond paste. Finally were etched using an etchant of the composition: 1.5% HCl acid, 2.5% HNO3, 0.5% HF acid and 95.5% H2O ready for grain size and microstructural examination. The photomicrographs were taken on the HAZ region and on the base metal, away from the HAZ regions as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Specimen observed region

3. Results and Discussion

In this section the results are discussed with reference to the effect of addition of either Ti or Ti+B on the weldability of aluminum in comparison to the welding of Al with Al without addition of any grain refiner. The results and discussion will be dealt with, for welding of Al with each of its microalloys namely Al-Ti and Al-TiB under three headings: First effect on the grain size and second on the hardness and third on the soundness of the weld in the HAZ and the base metal regions. Also the effect of these grain refiners on the weldability of the aluminum microalloys together; Al-Ti with Al-Ti and Al-Ti-B with Al-Ti-B as compared to the welding of Al with Al under the above mentioned headings in HAZ and base metal regions. 3.1 Effect of Adding Ti or Ti+B to Al on its Weldability 3.1.1 Effect on Grain Size in the HAZ and Base Regions In this section the effect of addition either Ti or Ti+B on the grain size in the HAZ and base region of welding Al with Al-Ti and Al with Al-Ti-B and compared with those of welding Al with Al. It can be seen from the histograms of Figures 4 and 5 that addition of Ti or Ti+B to Al resulted in decrease of the grain size both in HAZ and base regions,being slightly more in case of grain refining by Ti+B, for example a reduction of 84.61% and 18.46% occurred in HAZ and base in case of Ti compared to 83.1% and 15.38 in case of Ti+B respective. The finer grain size in the HAZ region as compared to the grain size in the base region in all combinations is attributed to the high temperatures in this region. However, the higher decrease in grain size in welding Al with its microalloys or in welding the microalloys together compared to welding Al with Al is due to the finer grain size in the microalloys caused by the Ti or Ti+B addition prior to the welding process.
70
Average Grain diameter (micrometer)

65 53

HAZ AWAY FROM HAZ

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Al&Al 16 10

11

11

Al & Al-Ti Al & Al- Microalloys

Al-Ti & Al-Ti

Figure 4: Effect of Ti addition on the grain size in the HAZ and base regions 905

HAZ 70
Average Grain diameter (micrometer)

65 55

AWAY FROM HAZ

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Al&Al 16 11

11

Al& Al-Ti-B Al & Al-Microalloys

Al-Ti-B & Al-Ti-B

Figure 5: Effect of Ti+B addition on the grain size in the HAZ and base regions 3.1.2 Effect on Vickers Microhardness in the HAZ and Base Regions It can be seen from the histogram of Figures 6 and 7 that addition of Ti to Al resulted in increase of 57.2% in the hardness away from the HAZ region (base region) whereas it resulted in very slight decrease (1.75%) both in the HAZ and base regions in case of welding Al with Al-Ti and slightly more decrease in hardness when welding Al-Ti with Al-Ti being 7% and 12.28% in the HAZ and the base regions respectively. On the otherhand, the histogram of Figure7 reveals that addition of Ti+B to Al resulted in increase of its hardness both in the HAZ and base regions in welding Al with Al-Ti-B or Al-Ti-B being 36.84%, 29.82% in the HAZ and 5.26, 24.56% in the base respectively. The difference in the microhardness of the different welding combinations in both the HAZ and base regions may be due to the existence of the intermetallic compounds (Alumides and borides) within the Al matrix.
HAZ 50 45 40
Micro hardness (Hv)

44.8

AWAY FROM HAZ

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Al&Al Al & Al-Ti Al & Al-Microalloys Al-Ti & Al-Ti 28.5 28 28 26 25

Figure 6: Effect of Ti addition on the Vickers microhardness in the HAZ and Base regions

906

HAZ 50 45 40
Micro hardness Hv

44.8 39 30 37

AWAY FROM HAZ

35.5

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Al & Al 28.5

Al & Al-Ti-B Al & Al-Microalloys

Al-Ti-B & Al-Ti-B

Figure 7: Effect of Ti+B addition on the Vickers microhardness in the HAZ and Base regions 3.2 Effect Of Ti Or Ti+B Addition On The Quality Of The Weld The photomicrographs of Figures 8 and 9 show the effect of addition of Ti or Ti+B to Al on its weldability both in the HAZ and base region. The metallurgical examination revealed that addition of Ti or Ti+B resulted in sound weldment without cracks and with little or no porosity. Furthermore, the quality is better in the HAZ region than the base which may be attributed to the finer grain size in this region as explained in the previous section.

(a) (b) (c) Figure 8: (a), (b), and (c) are Photomicrographs of welding Al with Al, Al-Ti with Al-Ti and Al-Ti-B with Al-Ti-B in the HAZ region, X200

(a) (b) (c) Figure 9: (a), (b), and (c) are Photomicrographs of welding Al with Al, Al-Ti with Al-Ti and Al-Ti-B with Al-Ti-B in the base region, X200 3.3 Comparison between Ti and Ti+B Addition to Al on its Weldability It can be seen from the histograms of figures 10 and 11 that addition of Ti+B to Al produced finer grain size than Ti addition both in the HAZ and base regions when welding the Al-Ti with Al-Ti and Al-Ti-B with Al-TiB microalloys, whereas Ti produced finer grains in both regions when welding Al with its microalloys.

907

Average Grain Diameter (micrometer)

Average Diameter of Grain (micrometer)

HAZ

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 16

65 53

AWAY FROM HAZ

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 16

65

HAZ AWAY FROM HAZ

55

10

11

11 11

11 9

Al & Al

Al & Al-Ti Al & Al Micro Alloys

Al & Al-Ti-B

Al & Al

Al-Ti & Al-Ti Al & Al Micro Alloys

Al-Ti-B & Al-Ti-B

Figure 10: Effect of welding of Al with Al and with its microalloys on the grain size in the HAZ and base regions

Figure 11: Effect of welding Al with Al, Al-Ti with Al-Ti and Al-Ti-B With Al-Ti-B on the grain size in the HAZ and base regions

Regarding the effect of addition of Ti and Ti+B to Al on the hardness in the HAZ and base regions, it can be seen from the histograms of figures 12 and 13 that addition of Ti resulted in decrease of the hardness both in the HAZ and base regions for welding both Al with Al-Ti and Al-Ti with Al-Ti whereas, addition of Ti+B resulted in increase of the hardness both in the HAZ and base region which may be attributed to the better grain refinement efficiency of Ti-B as compared to Ti [1-3]. Summary of the obtained results on grain size and microhardness in the HAZ and base regions for all the combinations of welding is presented in Table 2 in appendix 1.
50 45
Micro hardness Hv

44.8 39 28.5 30

HAZ AWAY FROM HAZ

Micro hardness Hv

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Al & Al Al & Al-Ti 28 28

Al & Al-Ti-B

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

HAZ
44.8 37 28.5

AWAY FROM HAZ

35.5

26

25

Al & Al

Al-Ti & Al-Ti Al & Al Micro Alloys

Al-Ti-B & Al-Ti-B

Al & Al Micro Alloys

Figure 12: Effect of welding of Al with Al and with its microalloys on the microhardness in the HAZ and base regions

Figure 13: Effect of welding Al with Al, Al-Ti with Al-Ti and Al-Ti-B with Al-Ti-B on the microhardness in the HAZ and base regions

4. Conclusions
Addition of either Ti or T+B to Al resulted in the grain size both in the HAZ and base region in the following combinations Al with Al-Ti and Al-Ti-B, Al-Ti with Al-Ti and Al-Ti-B with Al-Ti-B as compared to welding Al with Al. The decrease is being much higher in the HAZ than the base region at all combinations. Addition of Ti to Al resulted in decrease of its Vicker's microhardness, HV, both in the HAZ and base regions, being higher in case of welding Al-Ti with Al-Ti. However, addition of Ti+B to Al resulted in increase of its Vicker's microhardness both in the HAZ and base regions. The increase is higher in the HAZ and in welding Al with AlTi-B as compared to welding Al-Ti-B with Al-Ti-B. The metallurgical examination revealed that the weldments is sound, free from cracks and voids in all the combinations namely Al with Al-Ti, Al with Al-Ti-B, Al-Ti with Al-Ti and A-Ti-B with Al-Ti-B. Further more the HAZ width is small compared to the welding of Al with Al. Comparing addition of Ti or Ti+B to Al on the weldment the Ti+B produced better results and quality.

908

Appendix
Table 2: Summary of the changes of the grain size and vickers microhardness of welding Al with Al, Al with its microalloys and Al microalloys together Difference in grain size Difference in Vickers microhardness HV Combination Zone % % Al+Al HAZ -75.38 +57.2 Al+Al-Ti HAZ -84.61 -1.75 Al+Al-Ti-B HAZ -83.1 +36.84 Al+Al Al+Al-Ti Al+Al-Ti-B Al+Al Al-Ti + Al-Ti Al-Ti-B+ Al-Ti-B Al+Al Al-Ti + Al-Ti Al-Ti-B+ Al-Ti-B BASE BASE BASE HAZ HAZ HAZ BASE BASE BASE _____ -18.46 -15.38 -75.38 -83.1 -83.1 _____ -83.1 -86.15 ____ -1.75 +5.26 +57.2 -7 +29.82 _____ -12.28 +24.56

References
1. 2. Zaid, A.I.O., Review of the Grain Refinement of Aluminum and its Alloys Proc. of the International Symposium on Advanced Materials, ISAM, Islamabad, Pakistan, 2001. Zaid, A.I.O., and Abdel-Hamid, A.A., Poisoning Of Grain Refinement Of Some Aluminum Alloys, Current Advances in Mechanical Design and Production, Proc. 7th International Conference on Machine Design and Production, MDPR-7, Cairo, Egypt, 2000. Abdel-Hamid, A.A., Effect of Other Elements on the Grain Refinement of Al by Ti or Ti+B Metal Kunde J. 1989. Tony, A., The American Welder: Understanding Aluminum Alloys, Weld Journal, Vol. 64 (4), pp. 77-80, 2002. Simpson, R.P, Weld Journal, Vol. 56 (3), pp. 67-72, 1977. Gerland, J.G., Metal Construction, Vol. 6(4), pp. 121-128, 1974. Davis, J.R. ASM Specialty Handbook: Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys, Ohio: ASM International Materials Park. 1994. Kumar A, and Sundarrajan S., Selection Of Welding Process Parameters For The Optimum Butt Joint Strength Of An Aluminum Alloy, Mater. Manufacturing Process, Vol. 21(8), pp. 789-793. 2006. Kumar A, and Sundarrajan S., Optimization Of Pulsed TIG Welding Process Parameters On Mechanical Properties Of AA5456 Aluminum Alloy Weldments, Materials and Design, Vol. 30, pp. 1288-1297. 2009. Prasad R.S., Proceedings of National Advances in Materials Processing, Annamalai Nagar, India, pp. 176-196. 2001. Kou S., Welding Metallurgy, (2nd ed.), John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2003, Madusudhan, R.G., Reddy G., Gokhale A.A., and Prasad R.K., Weld Microstructure Refinement in a 144 Grade Al-Lithium Alloy, Vol. 32 pp. 4117-4121, 2000. Tseng C.F., and Savage W.F., The Effect of Arc Oscillation in Either in the Transverse or Longitudinal Has Beneficial Effect on the Fusion Zone Microstructure and Tends to Reduce Sensitivity to not Cracking, Weld J, Vol. 50 (11), pp. 777-785. 1971,

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

10. 11. 12. 13.

909