Influence of silver interlayer in dissimilar 6061-T6 aluminum MMC and AISI 304 stainless steel friction welds

Aluminum MMCs are finding greater utility in automobile
and aerospace industries. To boost up the application
of aluminumMMCs in real-time applications, it is essential to
weld these specimens to other engineering materials. There
are several research works reporting the lacuna in arc welding
of dissimilar aluminum/steel joints, viz., preferential melting
of the aluminum alloy and formation of brittle iron-aluminum
intermetallics. However, friction welding process illustrates
positive sign for its employment to join dissimilar aluminum/
steel. Conversely, intermetallic formation is still of concern.
Consequently, to overcome this prevailing problem, interlayers
are introduced in this study. At first, dissimilar Aluminum
MMCs and AISI 304 stainless steel friction welds are
experimented with and without the presence of silver interlayer
for conceptual understanding and to clarify and confirm the
phenomenal terminologies based on literature. Based on this
experience, a few trials of dissimilar Aluminum MMCs and
AISI 304 stainless steel friction welds with silver interlayer are
experimented on trial and error basis to find optimized friction
welding parameter values and these values are used in
ANOVA software to plot and analyze the parameters inter
dependencies. Then, upper and lower limits of friction
welding parameters are fixed to achieve good-quality welds.
These limits are fed into ANOVA to obtain full factorial trials
based on design of experiment (DoE). The weldments are also
evaluated using destructive and non-destructive tests. The
metallurgical characterizations of weldments are analyzed.
Further, a preliminary attempt is made to develop a finite
element model to investigate temperature governing phenomenon
such as deformation, stress and strain.