Friction Stir Welding of 7075-T651 Aluminum Plates and Its Fatigue Crack Growth Property

Friction stir welding (FSW) method has extensively been used in manufacturing methods because of the several advantages over conventional welding methods, such as better mechanical properties, reduced occurrence of joining defects, high material saving, and low production time, etc. The aim of this paper is to review the optimal FSW conditions using the previous experimental results and is to investigate the fatigue crack growth rate in three different zones, WM, HAZ and BM for FSWed Al7075-T651 aluminum plates. As far as our experiments are concerned, the optimal conditions are obtained as rotation speed, 800rpm and travelling speed, 0.5mm/sec. The fatigue crack growth rate showed strong dependency on three different zones WM, HAZ and BM, and crack driving force.