Publisher's Synopsis
In this, book the effect of Friction Stir Welding and the Tungsten Inert Gas Welding on the fatigue behavior of AA6061 Aluminium alloy has been studied. To reveal the influence of the welding parameters, different travel speeds of the welding tool have been used to provide weld seams with varying microstructural features. Crack initiation, as well as crack propagation behavior under fatigue loading, has been investigated with respect to the local microstructure at the crack initiation sites and along the crack path. Fatigue cracks were mostly initiated around the stir zone and the adjacent thermal- mechanical affected zone independent from hardness distributions in the weld seams. In some specimens, a defect-like feature was observed at the crack origins, which shortened the fatigue lives. It has been found that while the effect of the tool travel speed on the fatigue lifetime seems to be little, the varying and complex local microstructure in the weld seam basically affects both the crack initiation sites and the crack propagation paths.
