TP 2421

Transactions of The Indian Institute of Metals

Vol. 63, Issue 5, October 2010, pp. 807 - 811

Friction stir welding of magnesium alloy ZM21

K.L. Harikrishna1, J.J.S. Dilip2, K. Ramaswamy Choudary3, V.V. Subba Rao4, S.R. Koteswara Rao5,
G.D. Janaki Ram2, N. Sridhar6 and G. Madhusudhan Reddy3
1
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, India
2
Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Eng., IIT Madras, Chennai, India
3
Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, India
4
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, JNTU, Kakinada, India
5
Tagore Engineering College, Chennai, India
6
Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad, India

Email: jram@iitm.ac.in

Received 11 August 2010

Revised 18 August 2010
Accepted 20 August 2010
Keywords:
Online at www.springerlink.com magnesium alloys; ZM21; friction stir welding
© 2010 TIIM, India

Abstract
Friction stir butt welding of Mg-Zn-Mn alloy ZM21 hot rolled plates (in three thicknesses – 5 mm, 10 mm and 25 mm) was investigated.
Defect-free, full-penetration welds were produced after careful process parameter optimization. Microstructural studies, hardness tests, tensile
tests, and bend tests were carried out. Welds produced in 5 mm thick (5-mm-welds) and 10 mm thick plates (10-mm-welds) showed relatively
finer grains in the weld nugget and in the heat-affected zone compared to the welds produced in 25 mm thick plates (25-mm-welds). When
compared to the base material, 25-mm-welds showed coarser grains both in the weld nugget and in the heat-affected zone. No significant
hardness differences were observed between the welds and the base material. Tensile tests on 5-mm and 10-mm-welds yielded a joint efficiency
of more than 75%. Bend performance of the welds was found to be satisfactory, falling only slightly behind the base material. Overall, the
results show that friction stir welding can be successfully utilized for joining magnesium alloy ZM21 in various thicknesses.

1. Introduction process is yet to penetrate into other established engineering

Magnesium alloys are emerging as important
engineering materials, especially in aerospace and automobile
sectors, because of their low density, high strength-to-weight
ratio, high damping capacity, and recyclability. While, at
present, magnesium alloys are mainly used as castings, their
use in wrought form is expected to rapidly increase in the
coming years. With this, joining of magnesium alloys will
become a more frequent necessity.
Magnesium alloys are not readily fusion weldable because
of their certain inherent characteristics – high thermal
conductivity, high coefficient of thermal expansion, low
melting and boiling temperatures, strong tendency to oxidize,
wide solidification temperature range, high solidification
shrinkage, tendency to form low melting-point constituents,
low viscosity, low surface tension, high solubility for
hydrogen in the liquid state, etc. [1]. Consequently, a variety
of problems can arise during fusion welding of magnesium
alloys, including [2]: poor controllability, excessive spatter,
undercutting, burn-though, weld-pool sag, porosity, oxide
inclusions, loss of alloying elements, liquation and
solidification cracking. In essence, fusion welding of
magnesium alloys is unreliable. This is one the principal
impediments to the wide-spread use of magnesium alloys in
structural applications.
Friction stir welding (FSW), being a solid-state process,
can potentially overcome many of the problems associated
with fusion welding of magnesium alloys. FSW is now a
matured welding process for aluminium alloys. However, the
materials such as steels, nickel-base alloys, and titanium
alloys [3]. Unlike these high strength materials, which place
unrealistically high demands on friction stir tooling and
machinery, magnesium alloys, given their low strength and
melting point, are as amicable for FSW as aluminium alloys.
Therefore, FSW can, in principle, be as successful for
magnesium alloys as it is for aluminium alloys.
In view of the above, there is growing interest in FSW
of magnesium alloys. To date, work on FSW has been
reported in several different commercial magnesium alloys
such as AZ31 [4-6], AE42 [7], ZK60 [8], Mg-Zn-Y-Zr [9], and
Al-Zn-Mn alloy MB3 [10], demonstrating the superiority of
the process over conventional fusion welding processes.
However, available information on FSW of wrought
magnesium alloys is meagre. Further, many of the published
works on FSW of magnesium alloys deal with relatively
thinner sections, while magnesium alloys in structural
applications are like to be used in relatively thicker sections,
given their low density and strength levels. Therefore, more
work is needed on FSW of diverse magnesium alloys,
focussing on thicker sections and weld mechanical
properties, so that FSW can be utilized for joining magnesium
alloys with the same level of confidence and ease with which
aluminium alloys are friction stir welded at present.
The motivation for this work comes from the above. This
paper reports our initial results on FSW of a solid-solution
strengthened, wrought magnesium alloy ZM21, known for its
excellent formability and widely considered for use in
aerospace and automobile industries.
808 Harikrishna et al. : Trans. IIM Vol. 63, Issue 5, October 2010

Table 1 : Friction stir welding process parameters.

Nomenclature 5 mm thick plates 10 mm thick plates 25 mm thick plates
Tool details H13 tool steel H13 tool steel H13 tool steel
Threaded pin (left hand Tapered pin Threaded pin (left hand
metric threads, 1 mm pitch) Pin diameter: 9.3 mm metric threads, 2 mm pitch)
Pin diameter: 5 mm (shoulder end) and Pin diameter: 15.5 mm
Pin length: 4.5 mm 8.3 mm (tip end) Pin length: 21.5 mm
Shoulder diameter: 15 mm Pin length: 8.7 mm Shoulder diameter: 37.5 mm
Flat shoulder Shoulder diameter: 23 mm Flat shoulder
Flat shoulder
Tool rotational 600 rpm 600 rpm 450 rpm
speed
Welding speed 45 mm/minute 30 mm/minute 20 mm/minute
Plunge depth 0.1 mm excess 0.2 mm in excess 0.2 mm in excess
of pin length of pin length of pin length
Tool tilt 2o 2o 2o

2. Expertimental work
The base material used in this study was a 25 mm thick
hot rolled plate of magnesium alloy ZM21 (nominal
composition (wt.%): Mg-2Zn-1Mn). Some of the plates were
sliced to 5 mm and 10 mm thickness. Friction stir butt welds
were produced in 5 mm, 10 mm and 25 mm thick plates using
a commercially available friction stir welder (make: Eta
Technologies, Bangalore) at Defence Metallurgical Research
Laboratory, Hyderabad. The process parameters used for
friction stir welding are listed in Table 1. These process
parameters were arrived at after extensive trials aiming at
defect-free, full-penetration welds.
Transverse sections cut from weld coupons and were
prepared for metallographic examination following standard Fig. 1 : Microstructure of ZM21 base material.
metallographic practices. The weld nugget, especially in
thicker plates, showed poor etching response. Among the
various recommended etchants for magnesium alloys, 4%
nital produced relatively better results. Microstructural
examination was carried out using a Leica DMLM light
microscope. Microhardness measurements in various regions
of the weldment were conducted using a Shimadzu Vickers
microhardness tester at a load of 100 g, applied for 15 s.
Transverse tensile tests were conducted on welds produced
in 5 mm thick (5-mm-welds) and 10 mm thick plates (10-mm-
welds) as well as on the base material (10 mm thick) as per
ASTM E8. Tensile tests on welds produced in 25 mm thick
plates (25-mm-welds) could not be conducted due to material
constraints. Transverse face bend tests were conducted on
both 10-mm-welds and 25-mm-welds as per AWS B4
(specimen dimensions: length: 150 mm, width: 38 mm,
thickness: 9.5 mm). Bend tests were also conducted on 10
mm thick base plates for comparison.

3. Results and discussion

3.1 Microstructures

The base material showed a typical single phase

microstructure, consisting of a mixture of coarser and finer
grains, with an average grain size of approximately 40 Pm
(Fig.1). All the welds were found to be defect-free. Fig.2
shows the microstructures of 5-mm-welds. The nugget region
showed very fine grains (average grain size ~ 10 Pm) (Fig.2a). Fig. 2 : Microstructures of 5-mm-welds: (a) weld nugget,
In the thermo-mechanically-affected zone (TMAZ), severely (b) TMAZ.
 Harikrishna et al. : Trans. IIM Vol. 63, Issue 5, October 2010 809

Fig. 3 : Microstructures of 10-mm-welds: (a) weld nugget,

(b) weld nugget/HAZ interface (advancing side).

deformed grains with numerous shear bands were noticed

(Fig.2b). The heat-affected zone showed only slight grain
coarsening. Fig.3 shows the microstructures of 10-mm-welds.
The weld nugget and the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of 10-
mm-welds showed relatively coarser grains (average grain
size ~ 30 Pm) compared to 5-mm-welds. However, compared
to the base material, grain size in 10-mm-welds was
considerably finer. In contrast, 25-mm-welds showed
significantly coarser grains (average grain size ~ 70 Pm) in
the weld nugget (Fig.4a) and in the HAZ (Fig.4b) compared
to 5-mm and 10-mm-welds as well as the unaffected base
material. A vague onion-ring pattern was observed on the
bottom side of 25-mm-welds, where the grain size is finer Fig. 4 : Microstructures of 25-mm-welds: (a) coarse-grained
(Fig.4c). Both 10-mm and 25-mm-welds did not show a well- region of weld nugget, (b) HAZ, (c) fine-grained region
defined TMAZ as in the case of 5-mm-welds. Based on these of weld nugget.
observations, the nugget grain size in friction stir welds of
magnesium alloys seems to depend on the base material
thickness. Thicker plates necessitate slower welding speeds Table 2 : Results of microhardness testing (average of ten
and/or higher heat inputs. Consequently, thermal cycles tend measurements).
to be more severe in thicker base materials, leading to coarser Weld/Region Hardness (HV)
grains in the weld nugget and in the HAZ.
Base material 46
3.2 Mechanical properties 5-mm-weld, nugget 54
5-mm-weld, HAZ 50
The results of microhardness measurements are listed in
Table 2. As can be seen, hardness in the weld nugget and 10-mm-weld, nugget 44
in the HAZ of all the three welds in both weld nugget and
10-mm-weld, HAZ 47
HAZ regions was very similar to that of the unaffected base
material. Among the three welds, despite the observed 25-mm-weld, nugget 48
differences in grain size, there were no major hardness 25-mm-weld, HAZ 45
variations.
810 Harikrishna et al. : Trans. IIM Vol. 63, Issue 5, October 2010
Table 3 : Results of transverse tensile testing (average of three tests).
Specimen 0.2% Proof Stress
(MPa)
Base material 120
5-mm-welds 106
10-mm-weld 102
Fig. 5 : Failed tensile specimens: (a) 5-mm-weld (arrow shows
failure location), (b) 10-mm-welds.
The results of tensile testing are listed in Table 3. All the
weld specimens were found to fail in 45o shear mode at the
advancing-side nugget/HAZ boundary (Fig.5). The weld
specimens showed lower yield and tensile strengths as well
as lower % elongations compared to the base material. A
joint efficiency (based on ultimate tensile strength) of more
than 75% was measured in both 5-mm and 10-mm-welds. 25-
mm-welds can be expected to show a similar joint efficiency.
However, this needs to be verified.
Tensile failures at the advancing-side nugget/HAZ
interface seem to be a common feature in magnesium alloy
friction stir welds, as the same was reported in several
different magnesium alloys by various investigators [6,11].
Being a HCP metal, magnesium is anisotropic and its
properties are strongly texture-dependent. Woo et al. [12]
conducted a detailed study on textures in FSW of magnesium
alloy AZ31B. According to them, FSW results in an
undesirable texture in the TMAZ region with a large number
of grains oriented such that their basal plane (0 0 0 1) normal
lies parallel to the loading direction during transverse tensile
testing. As a result, fractures tend to occur at the nugget/
HAZ interface during transverse tensile testing of magnesium
friction stir welds.
Ultimate Tensile Elongation %
Strength (MPa) (50 mm gauge length)
227 10
173 5
198 5
Fig. 6 : Failed bend test specimens. Arrows show failure location.
In transverse face bend tests conducted as per AWS B4,
10-mm- and 25-mm-welds were found to develop cracks at a
bend angle of 60o to 65o. In comparison, the base material
was slightly better (with cracking occurring at a bend angle
of 75o to 80o). All the weld specimens were observed to fail
at the advancing side nugget/HAZ interface (Fig.6).
Summary
Friction stir welding of Mg-Zn-Mn alloy ZM21 was
investigated in three different plate thicknesses (5 mm, 10
mm, and 25 mm). After careful process parameter optimization,
defect-free, full penetration welds were successfully
produced. Grain size in the weld nugget and in the heat-
affected zone was found to increase with the base material
thickness. No significant hardness variations were observed
between the welds and the base material. Welds produced in
5 mm and 10 mm thick plates showed a decent joint efficiency
of more than 75 % (based on ultimate tensile strength). Bend
performance of the welds was found to be satisfactory, falling
only slightly behind the base material. In both tensile and
bend tests, failures were observed to occur on the advancing
side at the weld nugget/HAZ interface. Overall, the current
study shows that friction stir welding can be successfully
utilized for joining magnesium alloy ZM21 in various
thicknesses up to 25 mm.
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