Title: Identifying the minimum corrosion conditions for friction stir welded dissimilar joints of aluminium-magnesium alloys

Authors: R. Kamal Jayaraj; S. Malarvizhi; V. Balasubramanian

Addresses: Centre for Materials Joining and Research (CEMAJOR), Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar – 608-002, Tamil Nadu, India ' Centre for Materials Joining and Research (CEMAJOR), Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar – 608-002, Tamil Nadu, India ' Centre for Materials Joining and Research (CEMAJOR), Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar – 608-002, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Joining of dissimilar metals is very much need of the hour in the fields of automobile manufacturing and industrial construction, where the characteristic features of the different metals are optimised for the desired application to result in weight reduction and cost effectiveness. Due to continuous efforts of researchers, sound friction stir welded joints of 6061-T6 aluminium alloy to AZ31B magnesium alloy were obtained. However, the presence of intermetallics (Al₁₂Mg₁₇ and Al₃Mg₂) in the nugget zone and formation of intercalated microstructure lead to severe corrosion attack. Chloride ion concentration, pH value and immersion time are reported to be the more influencing parameters on corrosion attack. The present work aims to identify the minimum corrosion conditions for friction stir welded joints of Al/Mg alloys by statistical tools such as design of experiments, analysis of variance and response surface methodology. From the results, it is found that the pH value has greater influence on corrosion rate than other two parameters.

Keywords: friction stir welding; dissimilar joint; aluminium alloy; magnesium alloy; response surface methodology; corrosion rate.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCMSSE.2017.088739

International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, 2017 Vol.7 No.1, pp.62 - 77

Accepted: 07 Sep 2017
Published online: 15 Dec 2017 *

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