Morphological, metallographic and structural analyses of aluminium-copper dissimilar welds produced under different friction stir welding conditions were conducted in order to analyse the mechanisms of intermetallic phases formation, its relation with welding conditions and its consequences in the weld structure and morphology. Under lower heat input conditions, only a thin intermetallic layer distributed along the aluminium/copper interface was depicted inside the nugget. Increasing the heat input promoted material mixing and formation of increasing amounts of intermetallic rich structures. The intermetallic phase content and the homogeneity of the mixed area increased with increasing heat input, evolving from structures containing Al, Cu, CuAl 2 and Cu 9 Al 4 to structures predominantly composed of Cu 9 Al 4 and Cu(Al). In order to explain these results, the mechanisms of intermetallic phases formation are discussed, taking into account the process parameters and material flow mechanisms in friction stir welding. Important relations between intermetallic formation and weld surface morphology were also found.

The aim of this investigation was to study the influence of tool geometry on material flow during heterogeneous friction stir welding in 1 mm thick plates of AA 5182-H111 and AA 6016-T4 aluminium alloys. Two types of tool shoulders were used: a shoulder with a conical cavity and a scrolled shoulder. Pin-driven flow was predominant in welds produced with the conical cavity shoulder, which are characterized by an onion ring structure. The interaction between pin-driven and shoulder-driven flow is restricted to the crown of the weld, at the trailing side of the tool, and extends throughout the weld thickness, at the leading side. Although no onion ring structure was formed in welds done with the scrolled shoulder, extensive mixing of the base materials occurred in a plasticized layer flowing through the thickness around the rotating pin. Shoulder-driven flow is intense and continuous around the tool.

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A Heat-treatable (AA 6082) and a non-heat treatable (AA 5083) aluminium alloys were friction stir lap welded to copper using the same welding parameters. Macro and microscopic analysis of the welds enabled to detect important differences in welding results, according to the aluminium alloy type. Whereas important internal defects, resulting from ineffective materials mixing, were detected for the AA 5083/copper welds, a relatively uniform material mixing was detected in the AA 6082/copper welds. Micro-hardness testing and XRD analysis also showed important differences in microstructural evolution for both types of welds. TEM and EBSD-based study of the AA 5083/copper welds revealed the formation of submicron-sized microstructures in the stirred aluminium region, for which untypically high hardness values were registered.

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