Evolution of the bulk microstructure in 1100 aluminum builds fabricated by ultrasonic metal welding

The annealed 1100 aluminum foils were welded at room temperature with an ultrasonic metal welding (UMW) method. Effects of two key parameters (the oscillation amplitude and the deformation reduction of the welded foils) on the microstructural evolution were investigated. With the increase of oscillation amplitude, the deformation and the grain refinement of the foils in the welded specimen were homogeneous, but the grain size was not less than 25 μm. With the increase of deformation reduction, the microstructures were inhomogenously changed from the initial coarse grains (45 μm) into the dynamically recrystallized fine grains (2 μm) in the upper foil, but they changed little in the lower foil. For both cases, the microstructural evolutions attributed to the grains and/or sub-grains rotation. The dynamic recovery and the followed continuous dynamic recrystallization were the active deformation mechanism during UMW according to the observation of the thermal and the deformation textures. The effects of both ultrasonic amplitude and deformation reduction on the hardness of the builds were measured.