1. Introduction
Friction stir welding (FSW) a novel solid
state joining technique largely applied in
manufacturing of metallic components in
ship building, automobile and aerospace
applications. The relatively advantageous
factors associated with the friction stir
welding method than other solid state
joining technique made it to receive large
attention from the manufacturers of these
industries. The metallic joints assembled by
friction stir welding process have superior
properties in terms of strength and micro
structural characteristics than parent
material. However, real issue in the process
lies with the poor corrosion behavior of the
friction stir welded joints. There is a limited
information is available in the open
literature about the aftermath corrosion
characteristics of the friction stir welds. So,
the present review is focused on
investigating the influence of friction stir
welding process parameters on the
corrosion resistance of the produced joints.
2. Background of Friction Stir Welding
2.1 Friction Stir Welding Process
Dr. Wayne Thomas of TWI, UK was
known to be inventor of FSW, a recently
fabled advanced welding methodology
initiated in December 1991. In the
beginning, the FSW principle was used for
joining non-wieldable Al alloys and later
successfully extended to Cu, Mg and
refractory alloys of Ni, Ti and Mg also.
Owing its potential characteristics to
overcome the difficulties encountered
during traditional welding processes, FSW
has become the most dependable alternative
solid state joining technique to weld high-
strength alloys. In friction stir welding, a
rotating tool is inserted into the butt of the
welding plates. With the rotation of the
welding tool, the material near the tool-
plate interface becomes thermo-plastic.
Then a permanent tight joint can be formed
due to the continuous longitudinal
movement and the rotation of the welding
tool [1].
The joints in a friction stir welding process
can be made with a dedicated FSW tool or
on a standard milling machine redesigned
for this process. The experimental setup of
the friction stir welding equipment is as
shown in Fig. 1. Friction stir butt welding
utilizes a non-consumable rotating tool with
a specially designed shoulder and profiled
probe that is plunged into the interface
between two plates to be joined and
traversed along the line of joint. But, during
FSW localized frictional heat is generated
between the tool shoulder and work piece
top surface. Plastic deformation heat is also
generated due to mechanical stirring of the
probe. Frictional heating by tool shoulder
and stirring action of the probe produce
highly plastically deformed weld nugget
zone [2–4].
Fig. 1 Schematic Layout of the Friction
Stir Welding Process
2.2 Features of Friction Stir Welding
The major asset of the FSW process which
made it most sought after solid state
welding technique is that the softening of
work pieces in FSW takes place below the
melting temperature of metals to be welded.
This leads to the peculiar features affiliated
with the friction stir welding technology
over fusion welding which majorly includes
partially melting zones, absence of porosity
and splattering of molten metal,
solidification and liquefaction cracking,
little or negligible distortion of weldmate
no scope for forming partially melting
zones. It also holds multitude of benefits
like versatility in welding positions, no
need of consumables and shielding gases,
highly efficient and less baleful to nature
and has the capability to fabricate all joint
types. FSW process is highly recommended
in the following cases: combining
dissimilar, high strength and reactive
metals and fabrication of joints with
minimal variations in terms of mechanical
and microstructural properties than parent
metals. Further, FSW process has the
accessibility to carryout along with other
methods like adhesive bonding, milling,
ultrasonic welding etc. to form a so called
hybrid joining process.
2.3 Microstructure of FSW Joints
A prolific research works published about
friction stir welded technology discloses the
fact that the microstructure of resulted
joints greatly impacts their rate of
corrosion. So, it is essential here to discuss
about the metallic structure of friction stir
welded joints. The structure of these joints
was divided into four distinct zones whose
chemical, metallurgical and mechanical
characteristics varies from each other and
these variations helpful in differentiating
these zones. As depicted in Fig. 2, the Base
Metal (BM) zone is the least heat
experienced region of the weld joint and it
lies very distant from the weld center. The
BM zone displays mostly similar properties
as that of the parent material. The portion
which experiences modifications in grain
structure due to the heat interaction is
referred as Heat Affected Zone (HAZ). It is
the HAZ which greatly affects the
mechanical behavior of joint. However, it
doesn’t shows any signs of plastic c – Thermo-Mechanical Affected Zone
deformation. Adjacent to the HAZ towards (TMAZ)

the weld center, their lies a portion called d – Stir Zone (SZ)

Thermo-Mechanical Affected Zone

(TMAZ). Usually, the relatively higher
temperature encountered by TMAZ than
HAZ and BM results in elongation,
recrystallization and movement of grains in
this portion. Last in the category is Stirred
Zone (SZ) or Dynamically Recrystallized
Zone (DXZ), whose dimension is
equivalent to tool pin diameter. The nugget
or SZ with a frequent onion shape
substructure corresponds to the material
which is directly deformed by the tool pin.
It is the zone for which the peak
temperature is the highest. The SZ
generally contains equiaxed recrystallized
grains [5]. The increased tensile strength of
stir welds is ascribed to the enhanced micro
structure resulted because of frictional
heating and grain movement.

Fig 2. Micro Structure of FSW Joints:

a – Base Metal (BM)
b – Heat Affected Zone (HAZ)