Material flow during friction stir welding of Ti-6Al-4V

6 mm thick Ti-6Al-4V butt joints were produced with a tracer material embedded in the joint under a variety of process conditions, namely rotational speed and traversing speed, in an attempt to relate the welding process parameters to the material flow behavior via post weld radiographic and metallographic evaluations. It was found that by embedding refractory alloy powder into the joint line, welding through it, and subsequently X-raying the joint, the material flow patterns could be examined. The tracer material was distributed over a wider area in the weld zone relative to its starting position, implying a fair amount of mixing occurred even though little vertical movement of the tracer material was observed. There was minimal effect of material flow patterns as a function of welding parameters observed using the tracer material and radiographic examination, but defect formation in the root, where there was no tracer material, examined by cross sectional metallographic evaluations were found to be dependent on the rotational speed and traversing speed conditions. Lack of penetration defects were generally associated with relatively “cold” welding conditions (low rotational speed/high traversing speeds) and voids with “hot” conditions (high rotational speed/low traversing speeds).