Fatigue properties of friction stir welds of treated Al to carbon fibre-reinforced plastic

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to establish the welding technology for dissimilar materials of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic. Therefore, this study focused on friction stir spot welding, which can be simply substituted for spot welding which is widely used for welding of automobile body. In this study, friction stir spot welding was used to weld joints of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic and aluminium alloy, and the effect of aluminium alloy surface treatments on the fatigue properties and the fracture mechanism of dissimilar material joints were investigated experimentally and statistically. As a result, it is possible to create welding joints with high fatigue durability by using the surface treatments on the aluminium alloy.

KEYWORDS:

• Multi-materials
• aluminium alloy
• carbon fibre-reinforced plastic
• friction stir spot welding
• surface treatment
• fatigue
• fracture
• failure analysis

Acknowledgment

The materials used in this study have been supplied by UACJ Corporation. We are grateful for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was part of a study commissioned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.