An investigation of the microstructures and properties of metal inert gas and friction stir welds in aluminum alloy 5083

Two different types of welds, Metal Inert Gas (MIG) and Friction Stir Welding (FSW), have been used to weld aluminum alloy 5083. The microstructure of the welds, including the nugget zone and heat affected zone, has been compared in these two methods using optical microscopy. The mechanical properties of the weld have been also investigated using the hardness and tensile tests. The results show that both the methods could successfully be used to weld such alloy. The strength of the joints is comparable to the strength of the base metal in both cases. However, FSWed samples have shown higher strength in comparison to the MIG samples. The results also show that the extension of the heat affected zone is higher in the MIG method in comparison to the FSW method. The weld metal microstructure of MIG welded specimen contains equiaxed dendrites as a result of solidification process during MIG welding while FSWed samples have wrought microstructures.