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Friction Stir Processing of Aluminum Alloy A206: Part I—Microstructure Evolution

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Abstract

Friction stir processing (FSP) was applied to plates of cast aluminum A206 alloy. The focus of the work was on the evolution of microstructure during processing, which yielded dramatic decrease in the local grain size of the processed material. Reduction in pore morphology features, as well as intermetallic particle size, was also observed. Friction-stir-processed metal is characterized by a high ratio of high-angle grain boundaries to low-angle boundaries compared to what is observed in the as-cast alloy. Consistent with findings of other investigators, FSP generates a product nugget which has a portion of its structure having an onion skin-type structure that is characterized by a preferred crystallographic texture within individual bands in the nugget.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the member companies of the Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC) for their support of this work, and for their continued support of research focused on the science and technology of metal casting at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metal Processing Institute, Advanced Casting Research Center, WPI, Worcester, MA, USA

    Ning Sun & Diran Apelian

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  1. Ning Sun
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  2. Diran Apelian
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Correspondence to Ning Sun.

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Sun, N., Apelian, D. Friction Stir Processing of Aluminum Alloy A206: Part I—Microstructure Evolution. Inter Metalcast 13, 234–243 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40962-018-0263-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40962-018-0263-y

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