Relationship between formability and microstructure of Al alloy sheet locally modified by friction stir processing

The effect of friction stir processing (FSP) without the stirring pin on the formability and microstructure of Al5052-H32 sheets was investigated. The FSP produced a microstructural modification in local regions of the thin sheets and resulted in the improvement of their formability. Both electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy observations were carried out to evaluate the relationship between the microstructure and the mechanical properties. The pattern quality, which is one of the representative EBSD results, was used to estimate the amount of work hardening in the FSPed region.