Availabe online at www sclencedirect.com “es” ScienceDirect Trans, Nonferrous Met, Soc. China 26(2016) 684-696 Society of China J Science ELSEVIER Press Corrosion evaluation of friction stir welded lap joints of AA6061-T6 aluminum alloy Farhad GHARAVI', Khamirul A. MATORI', Robiah YUNUS', Norinsan K. OTHMAN?, Firouz FADAEIFARD! | Materials Synthesis and Characterization Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; 2, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; 3. Schools of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 443600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, Received 24 February 2015; accepted 11 January 2016 Abstract: Corrosion behavior of fiction str lap welded AA6O61-T6 aluminum alloy was investigated by immersion tess in sodium thlorde + hydrogen peroxide solution. Elecuochemical measurement by eyclie potentiodynamic polatzation, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed to characterize corrosion morphology and to realize corosion mechanism of weld rogions as opposed to the parent alloy. The microstructure and shear stength of welded joint were fully ‘nverigated. The results indicate tha, compared with the parent alloy, the weld regions are susceptible to intergranular and pitting attacks in the est solution during inmersion time, The abtsned results of lap shear testing disclose tha emi shear stength of the Welds is 128 MPa which is more than 60% ofthe strength of parent alloy in lap shear testing. Electrochemical results show thatthe praection potentials ofthe WNZ and HAZ regions are more negatve than the pitting potential This means that the WNZ. and HAZ. tegions do not show more tendencies to ping cortosion, Corrosion resistance of parent ally i higher than that fr the weldments, tnd the lowest eorosion resisance is related to the hee! aflected zane. The pling lacks originate frm the edge of intermetallic pariles as the eathods compared withthe Al matix due to their high selconosion pote cis supposed that by increasing Intermetallic particle disributed throughout the matrix of weld regions, the galvanic corrosion couples are increased, and hence decrease tho corrosion resistance of weld regions. Key words: fetion ste welding; lap joints; AA6Q6I alloy; iting corosion; welding proces; inermetallie pariles which combines frictional heating and stirring motion to 1 Introduction As an emerging green solid state joining process, fiction str welding (FSW) is used to join Al alloys ofall compositions such az alloys essentially unweldable [1]. In this process, joining metsl plates are done based on a thermo-mechanical action used by a non-consumable welding tool onfo metal plates {1]. Most AAGxxx alloys are generally considered to have good corrosion resistance compared with other series of aluminum alloys. However, some treaiments or processes such as thermomechanical treatment or alloying have an. effect on the localized corrosion alloys. Accordingly, the treatments or processes can lead to create a pitting corrosion and intergranular corrosion (IGC) in the alloys (2). In fact, FSW is a thermomechanical treatment, considered soften and mix the interface between two metal plates to produce fully consolidated welds (3). Although the heat input in the FSW process is relatively low and the time at process temperature is short compared with fusion welding, various grain structures and grains recrystallizaion phenomena dynamically occurring, uring the FSW process, in 6xxx series ofstir welded AL alloy, have different corrosion susceptibilities in each area of the jointed zone, In FSW process, generally, in the weld nugget zone (WNZ), and heat affected zone (HAZ), the time at peak temperature is short, and cooling is relatively rapid. In this case, a corresponding ‘microstructural gradient can be developed from the WNZ. into the patent alloy (PA) with the precipitation istribution at and around grain boundaries as a result of temperature excursions [3]. When exposed to a corrosive Gerresponding wars Khai A. MATORI; Te 1603-94466, Est Khaniniupmada ny OL 1016161005 652615}459-5Fathad GHARAVI, ot alTrans, Nonfarous Met. Soe, China 26(2016) 684-696 oss environment, some of these microstructures exhibit a selective grain boundary attack, and the pitting potential is decreased as opposed to the parent alloy. AS a matter of fat, the response ofthe microstructure to the welding. is intense, and intergranular corrosion (IGC) is mainly placed along the interfuce of the WNZ and HAZ. In this respect, the IGC attack increases as a result of cot of the grain boundary precipitates (4), The IGC initiation is generally believed to begin along the precipitate regions. Accordingly, the created pits and intergranular attack connect together and grow as microstructural pit, ‘which result in selective corrosion of grains (4). There is limited relationship between microstructure and corrosion characteristics of fiction stir lap welded Al alloy. The purpose ofthe present work isto evaluate how the changes in mierostrueture in the weld zone affect corrosion behavior. ening research on the 2 Experimental 2.1 Materials and welding parameters By applying automatic CNC machine, feietion stir welding technique was used to produce lap welds. The materials used were AAGO6I-T6 aluminum plates with the thickness of 5 mm, The nominal composition is displayed in Table 1. The lap joint configuration was prepared to produce the joints. The direction of welding, ‘was normal fo the rolling direction of aluminum plates. A non-consumable welding tool made of high carbon steel (1113) was applied to fabricating the joints. The welding, conditions used to produce the joints inthis investigation, are listed in Table 2, The schematic representation of welding process and joint design are shown in Fig. 1 2.2 Lap shear test 1m order to investigate the mechanical property of ‘Table 1 Chomieal composition of AI6061 parent alloy used in welding process (mass fraction, %) Cu Ma Mg GZ AL 1.66 030 027 003 1,00 018 002 0.05 Bal Table 2 Welding conditions and process parameters used inthis work Rotation speedi(-n) 000 Welding speedenm min") 60 Tool shoulder diametexm 20 Pin diameter 5 Pin lengtivmm 5 ‘Tihtangle) 3 CConiformed and eft hand Pin profile thread of | mi piteh Tae Fg. 1 Schematic of fition stir lap welding process and joint 9 10? 10? 10 asem Fig. 12 CPP curves of parent allay and weld regions established that the size of the pitting loop is a rough indication of pitting tendency [1416], s0, the loop. cteated in eyelie polarization plots shows the smallest tendency to pitting corrosion, Narrower hysteresis and, consequently, more negative Qe: than Qaq, ate obtained for welded lap joints. Indeed, potential step in the reverse scan, the so-called pit transition potential ( ig detected for lap welded joints. Additionally, Opp ‘occurrence with different sbruptnesses at the. step (change of slope) is obtained for welded lap joints (10,12,13}. This indicates that the hysteresis features of cyelie polarization depend on the nature of the parent alloy and welding parameters under the present experimental conditions. In this respect, it is elear that the change of slope is sharper in all joins. This behavior shows that the tendeney of al joints to repassivation is high. The remarkable features ofthe reverse scan among, the welded joints allow the qualitative discrimination of the loctlized corrosion behavior. Analyses of the hysteresis loop and the corresponding shift in Qn indicate that the amount of pit propagation with, ‘consequent difficulty to complete surface repassivation is increased to near the corrosion potential. Thus, the welded joint shows higher susceptibility to pitting corrosion, According to these resulls, the significance of pst i8 almost misleading, not allowing discrimination between pitting corrosion and other possible forms of localized corrosion with more restricted conditions such, as intergranular corrosion (IGC), Figures 13-15 report a magnification ofthe surfaces of the parent alloy, the WNZ and IIAZ after the eyelic polarization test, A careful observation of these pictures reveals that lap welded joints showing marked intergranular attacks (pointed as 1G) exhibit & Opp transition in the cyclic polarization plot of Fig. 12. Several authors reported that pitting and intergranular corrosions were often encountered together in aluminam alloys [17-19]. The intergranular corrosion nucleates onFarhad GHARAVI, ct aVTrans, Nonferous Mot Soc. China 26(2016) 684-696 63 0 2 4 6 8 10 nergykeV Fig. 13 SEM images of parent alloy (PA) surface (2, b) and associated EDX analysis taken at indicated locaton aRer pitingseans () pit walls and spreads from them. When the pitting is cstablished in a relatively continuous network along, grain boundaries, the intergranular corrosion develops, ‘The variation in pit shape mainly depends on the ricrostructure of parent alloy composition and welding conditions. It has to be noted that the SEM. images of the corroded surfaces ofthe parent alloy and welded lap o 2 4 6 & Wo EnergykeV Fig. 14 SEM images of WNZ surfaces (a, ) and astociated [EDX analysis taken at indicated location afta iting seas (@) joints after eyelic polarization experiments strongly support the electrochemical measurements feeture. In this case, these micrographs clearly show that the damages caused by these types of corrosion are accentuated in near-natural solution, suggesting that the corrosion resistance of the welded joints in each region was lower than the parent alloy. It is to be noted that pitting attacks were observed on the WNZ and HAZ64 Farhad GHARAVI, ct aVTrans, Nonferous Mot Soc. China 26(2016) 684-696 em Oa cu Fe Me, n ckigsi ce Cu 0 2 4 6 0 Enoruy/keV Fig. 15 SEM images of HAZ surfaces (a, b) and associated EDX analysis taken at indicated location ator piting seans (e) (Figs. 14 and 15) It ean be seen that the density and size of pits in the WNZ are lower in comparison to those in the HAZ region, Hence, the HAZ region showed poor resistance to corrosion. According to Fig. 13, it is observed that a film, which is generated by corrosion products (dark area in Fig, 13(4)), shows eracks that are not compact and are almost heterogeneous. These cracks could be related to the intergranular corrosion in the parent alloy after the corrosion test. As for the friction stir lap welds, the weld regions, especially the ITAZ, sufler more severe pitting ‘compared with the parent alloy, It isto be noted that the galvanic corrosion exists between the weld regions and the constituent particles, which have differences in chemical composition and microstructure. In this ease, it is supposed that the cathodic process at the constituent particles eauses a local inerease in pH that in tum leads to the dissolution of Al matrix and also may be the surface film resulting in the porous surface layer Corrosion potential of an intermetallic particle is not the same as the Al matrix phase. This variation in potential creates the formation of a galvanic cell (20), The potential difference between intermetallic particles and ‘Al matrix causes the formation of corrosion cells, It can bbe noticed that higher amounts of intermetallic particles lead to more cathodic reactions, In this respect, increase in constituent particles increases the sites for galvanic coupling, and hence, decreases the corrosion resistance [21], Localized galvanic corrosion between constituent particles and the Al matrix increases. The enhanced hydrogen evolution also exists in the cathodie constituent particles in the weld regions (20). This study suggests that increase in pitting and intergranular attack in the weld regions can be attributed to the increased constituent particles forthe friction str lap welds Figure 16 displays three-dimensional images of the parent alloy sample surface as well as those for the WNZ. and the HAZ after the corrosion test. This figure presents good amount of quantitative data related to the corrosion attacks occurring on the sample surfaces. Compared with the parent alloy, the amount of corrosion, attacks inereased significantly fom the WNZ tothe IIAZ. for FSLW, and the intensity of corrosion attacks on the surfaces of the FSLW samples is greater than that of the parent alloy samples. As seen in Fig. 16, the surface roughness of the WNZ. and the HAZ for FSLW is greater than that for parent alley. The increase in surface roughness for the FSLW samples can be attributed to the severe chemical dissolution of the intermetallic particles and the Al matrix. As a result, the susceptibility to corrosion attacks in the HAZ for FSLW is higher than that in the WNZ as apposed to the parent allo. 4 Conclusions ‘The strength of welded joint obtained at least 60% ‘of the shear strength of parent alloy. However, the size of particles after FSLW process was decreased as opposed to the parent alloy and particles size in the WNZ was, smaller than that in the HAZ, The HAZ in all welded samples were the most susceptible to intergranular comosion after 48 h of immersion as opposed to that aterFarhad GHARAVI, ct aVTrans, Nonferous Mot Soc. China 26(2016) 684-696 os 167 nm] 281 nm co) Sum so [494 nm $49 nm © Sum 100 Sum 0 (443 nm] 479 nm — 00 350 00 250 200 50 [169 nm) 181 nm 140 120 100 Sum Fig, 16 Thrco-dimensional AFM images of weld regions surface afer piting sans: a) PA; (0) WNZ; (ed) HAZ. 24h of immersion in both welding conditions. After 24.8 ‘of immersion, parent alloy was susceptible to pitting corrosion and intergranular allack, but aller 48h. immersion, it showed transgranular attack and pitting corrosion, SEM images showed the corrosion chimney ‘over the corrosion pits in the weld nugget zone afer 48 h immersion. The corrosion pits revealed linked to IGC since the pit electrolyte could preferentially corrode the grain boundaries. The increased intermetallic constituent particles during welding process increased the galvanic corrosion coupling, and hence decreased the corrosion, resistance of weld regions. Finally, these results proved by the corrosion attack morphology in the SEM and AFM images, suggest that the corrosion resistance in different weld regions for the FSLW samples is poorer than that for the parent alloy. Acknowledgments ‘The authors wish to express sincere special thanks to Dr. Mohé Khairol Anuar Mohd Ariffin, Head of Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) for their technical supports. 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Deparment of Physics, Feulty of Seiencs, Universiti Puta Malays, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malays, 3. Schools of Applied Physies, Faculty of Science and Technology, University Kebangsaan Malays, 48600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Be RAR AMAL CERN AABEAR IE AA 61TH fe CHE AH ET I. RAL OMY RS tn FRR AN EEE A ADC A ARAL. WET OH fs eR UN RR. AC], akc HE, EARL 2 HGRA. ATL DRL, FADER LOA Pn Ey aR MPa, AD IRTA iy 60m. LRA IER, Pe AURAL LL A, OAFLA ARR ASR. AR A TA ek, PRUE EMS. SRNR TAL PNA, LSA, BOTA 8 TRF YP, N,N RIMM ROLIR: ACIEMARNT, HHARIRIe, AAOOOI fee NM ARITA LA ated by Yuin EY