Special grain boundaries in the nugget zone of friction stir welded AA6061-T6 under various welding parameters

The age hardenable AA6061-T6 plate was butt welded by friction stir welding. The total heat input, generated by friction between the tool and work piece and plastic deformation, results in a consumption of meta-stable phases in the nugget zone. Precipitation phenomena were closely related to the diffusion of the solute atoms. The existence of special grain boundaries like Σ1a and Σ3 will increase the difficulty in diffusion, which will improve the hardness in the nugget zone. Furthermore, the formation of Σ3 grain boundaries can result from an impingement of re-crystallized grains coming from texture components in twin relationship already. An appropriate strain level may benefit the development of the twin components with a similar intensity. The welding parameters have an effect on heat source mode and the strain level. Then, the type of dynamic re-crystallization and distribution of the special grain boundaries was altered by changing the parameters.