Dissimilar friction stir welding of aluminum alloys reinforced with carbon nanotubes

This chapter is devoted to studying the possibility of incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as reinforcing fillers in dissimilar metal matrices joints produced by friction stir welding (FSW), as well as the impact of this incorporation on the microstructural and mechanical properties of these joints. Carbon nanotubes are extensively used as a reinforcing material in nanocomposites, due to their high stiffness and strength. FSW is a solidstate welding process of joining aluminum and other metallic alloys and has been employed in the aerospace, rail, automotive, and marine industries. Recently, friction stir processing (FSP), a derivative method of FSW, has been employed as an alternative for the production of metal matrix composites (MMCs). In this work, the process parameters were optimized in order to achieve nondefective welds, with and without the addition of CNTs. Two main cases were studied: (1) FSP was optimized by changing the tool rotational and travel speed as well as the number and direction of FSW passes, and (2) a Taguchi design scheme was adopted to further investigate the FSP in relevance to three factors (number, direction of passes, and tool rotational speed). Mechanical behavior was studied, and the local mechanical properties of the produced MMCs were compared with their bulk counterparts and parent materials. More specifically, the measured mechanical properties in the micro- and nanoscale (namely hardness and elastic modulus) are correlated with the microstructure and the presence of fillers.