The Behavior of Friction Stir Welded (FSW) Sheets of AA6061-T6 During in-plane Stretching Test

The present work investigates the effect of tool shoulder diameter, plunge depth, tool rotation speed and welding speed on the load- extension behaviour during in-plane stretching of FSW blanks made of Al 6061 alloy. In-plane stretching test was performed on Instron machine similar to tensile test. The data were taken from the machine and plotted the graphs for each parameter. It is found from the present work that the maximum load has increased with decrease in shoulder diameter, increase in welding speed and tool rotational speed. The load required is almost same for two different plunge depths. The extension has increased with increase in shoulder diameter, plunge depth, welding speed and tool rotational speed, while the base metal has maximum load and lesser extension. The failure pattern is same for un-welded and welded blanks, except the failure initiation.