Increasing demand of lightweight structures with exceptional properties elicits materials processing and manufacturing technologies to tailor blanks in order to achieve or enhance those pre...

Recent Development in Friction Stir Processing as a Solid-State Grain Refinement Technique: Microstructural Evolution and Property Enhancement

Aluminium based in-situ composite fabrication through friction stir processing: A review

Friction stir processing (FSP) is a novel technique for refining the microstructure. In this study, the effect of FSP process parameters such as tool rotation, traverse speed and tool tilt on resulting grain size, microstructure and superplastic behavior of high-strength thick Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy is reported. The microstructure examination of the stir zone (SZ) was performed by optical as well as scanning electron microscope. Microstructure variation attributed to different process parameters is reflected in the SZ. It is observed that grain size increases with increasing tool rotation speed, and decreases with increasing traverse speed. However, tool tilt has no significant effect on grain size. Moreover, at higher tool tilt distorted grains were observed in microscopic images. The highest average value of hardness in the SZ is obtained for low heat input value corresponding to higher tool rotation and traverse speed. In this study, hardness has shown no dependency on the grain size of the SZ due to the st...

B.R.K. Rao

Papers

Microstructural refinement of a cast hypereutectic Al–30Si alloy by friction stir processing