Microstructure, Mechanical and Corrosion Behavior of Friction Stir Processed AA6082 with Cr₃C₂ Particles

Abstract:

Friction stir processing (FSP) is a novel method of metal surface modification during the process by the addition of strengthening particles. FSP produced refined microstructures with the development of added ceramic particles on surface metal. In this FSP, mechanical characteristics were enhanced by FSP parameters, tool spinning speed, traverse speed and the axial force of high carbon high chromium die steel (non-consumable tool). In this research, FSP technique was employed on the surface of the base metal AA6082 aluminium alloy to modify composites of metal surface utilizing Cr₃C₂ particles. Mechanical properties like tensile strength, processed surface hardness and microstructure were studied. This research mainly focused on the parametric optimization of FSP on AA6082 with multiple responses (tensile strength and processed surface hardness) based on Taguchi L9 orthogonal array and grey relational analysis (GRA). The significant FSP parameters were obtained by grey relational grade (GRG) with an analysis of variance tool. Axial force and traverse speed were the most significant FSP parameters, which the most influence of performance characteristic of friction stir processed specimens. The predicted values were validated by confirmation test at setting of optimum level exhibits better conformity with investigational values. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) was carried out to determine the presence of strengthening particles in the processed Aluminium alloy.

Key-words:
FSP; Cr₃C₂; GRA; FESEM