The Effect of Base Metal Conditions on the Final Microstructure and Hardness of 2024 Aluminum Alloy Friction-Stir Welds

Aircraft aluminum alloys, such as 2024, generally present low weldability by traditional fusion welding processes. The development of friction-stir welding (FSW) has provided an improved alternative way to produce satisfactory aluminum joints in a faster and more reliable method. It has been demonstrated that the FSW process involves dynamic recrystallization, which leads to ultrafine and equiaxed grain structures due to the high temperatures and strains occurring during the process. In this study, the 2024 Al-alloy with annealed (O) and artificial aged (T6) conditions were friction-stir welded. Grain size distribution, hardness, and temperature profiles in the welded zones were determined to obtain the relationship between the base metal’s initial and final microstructures in these regions. The results showed that in both samples, the average grain sizes in the weld nugget were almost identical. The hardness of nugget zones in both samples was nearly the same due to their similar microstructures. According to the obtained results, the initial microstructure showed no considerable effect on the final microstructure and hardness of the weld nuggets. This may be attributed to the continuous dynamic recrystallization phenomenon that occurs during the FSW of aluminum alloys.