Solidification of GTA aluminum weld metal: Part 1 - Grain morphology dependent upon alloy composition and grain refiner content

The solidification conditions during welding strongly influence the weld metal microstructure and mechanical properties of a weld. In the first part of this study, the grain morphology of gas tungsten arc (GTA) bead-on-plate welds was investigated for the aluminum Alloys 1050A (Al 99.5), 6082 (Al Si1MgMn), and 5083 (Al Mg4,5Mn0.7). The experiments revealed that increasing welding speed and alloy content allow the growth of small, equiaxed grains, particularly in the weld center. Furthermore, increasing grain refiner additions led to a strong reduction of the weld metal mean grain size and hence facilitated the columnar to equiaxed transition (CET). In addition, wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed in the weld metal TiB2 particles that were surrounded by Al3Ti. This suggests the duplex nucleation theory for nucleation of aluminum grains in GTA weld metal.