Investigation on friction stir lap welding of aluminium to aluminium clad steel sheets

In this work, the feasibility of friction stir lap welding an aluminium alloy (Al-5083) to the aluminium clad steel sheet was studied. The welded joints were characterised by various methods including shear-tensile test and optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that sound and defect free joints were obtained. The fracture loads of the samples reached up to 94% compared with that of the steel base metal. Moreover, the joint strength linearly increased with the decrease in thickness of the aluminium layer roll bonded on the steel sheet. It was also shown that welding rotation and travel speed variation did not considerably impact the fracture loads in the studied range.