Weldability of Non-Ferrous Metal Alloys Group

Research work within this group has concentrated on examining weldability issues for three different non-ferrous alloy systems: aluminum, magnesium, and titanium. In particular,

• aluminum weldability has been examined for Alloy 6060, examining solidification cracking susceptibility as a function of the amount of 4043 filler dilution,
• magnesium weldability has been examined in terms of corrosion susceptibility of Alloy AZ31 weldments, made with variable weld metal aluminum content,
• titanium weldability has been examined in terms of hydrogen contamination effects on mechanical properties of alpha, alpha-beta, and beta alloy weldments.

Highlights from the above work can be found by clicking on the alloy system of interest.

Summary of recent work (2005-2007)

• Effect of restraint on aluminium weldability has been characterized.
• Solidification of aluminum 6060/4043 system has been studied using thermal analysis.
• A new weldability test (CTW test) has been developed to determine critical strain rate.
• Hydrogen effects on aluminum weldability have been examined and modeled.
• Galvanic corrosion in AZ31 magnesium weldments has been studied.
• Effect of variable Al content in magnesium weld metal has been studied.
• Corrosion-fatigue behavior of AZ31 magnesium weldments has been characterized.
• Activation energies for hydrogen trap sites in Ti weld metal have been determined.
• Effect of hydrogen on ductility of titanium alloy weldments has been characterized.

Future and on-going work (2008)

• Study cooling rate effect on aluminum weld metal phase formation
• Study effect of grain refinement on improving weldability of aerospace Al alloys
• Develop CTW test procedure for evaluating laser weldability of stainless steel
• Examine hydrogen effect on aluminum weldability using CTW test
• Develop model for solidification crack growth (with Prof. Surey, France)
• Examine SCC and hydrogen effects in magnesium weldments
• Study laser weldability of titanium alloys and effect of hydrogen

Publications and Presentations

• Selected publications of the working group

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