Fatigue strength characteristics of A6061 aluminum alloy and S35C carbon steel friction welded joints

In this paper, in order to clarify the fatigue strength characteristics of dissimilar material friction welded joints of A6061 aluminum alloy to S35C carbon steel, the friction welded joints were produced under the three welding conditions involving a good welding condition and the fatigue strength characteristics of the welded joints was evaluated using a cantilever type rotary bending fatigue testing machine. The tested data were analyzed by Weibull distribution. The results indicated that increasing the upset pressure P(2) causes a decrease in the fatigue limit and tends to failure in the softened A6061 base material, moreover, under same stress level, the dispersion of fatigue life distribution of the welded joints is large compared with that of the base material.