Additive Friction Stir-Enabled Solid-State Additive Manufacturing for the Repair of 7075 Aluminum Alloy

TR Number
Date
2019-08-23
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI
Abstract

The repair of high strength, high performance 7075 aluminum alloy is essential for a broad range of aerospace and defense applications. However, it is challenging to implement it using traditional fusion welding-based approaches, owing to hot cracking and void formation during solidification. Here, the use of an emerging solid-state additive manufacturing technology, additive friction stir deposition, is explored for the repair of volume damages such as through -holes and grooves in 7075 aluminum alloy. Three repair experiments have been conducted: double through-hole filling, single through-hole filling, and long, wide-groove filling. In all experiments, additive friction stir deposition proves to be effective at filling the entire volume. Additionally, sufficient mixing between the deposited material and the side wall of the feature is always observed in the upper portions of the repair. Poor mixing and inadequate repair quality have been observed in deeper portions of the filling in some scenarios. Based on these observations, the advantages and disadvantages of using additive friction stir deposition for repairing volume damages are discussed. High quality and highly flexible repairs are expected with systematic optimization work on process control and repair strategy development in the future.

Description
Keywords
solid-state additive manufacturing, repair, high-strength Al alloys, friction stir, severe plastic deformation, interface
Citation
Griffiths, R.J.; Petersen, D.T.; Garcia, D.; Yu, H.Z. Additive Friction Stir-Enabled Solid-State Additive Manufacturing for the Repair of 7075 Aluminum Alloy. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 3486.