Frictional heat induced morphological responses at the interface in rotary friction welding of austenitic alloys: corona-bond and heat-pattern

Frictional heat induced morphological responses of austenitic alloys SUS304, A286, and Inconel 718 at the interface in rotary friction welding was focused in this study, addressing initiation, evolution of corona-bond and the formation of heat-pattern. Summative models that describe the location and width of corona-bond at initiation, the corona-bond evolution mode and the formation of heat-patterns were given. The results show that when the corona-bond initiates at 0.33 R ∼ R, it fills the interface to form a lens-shaped heat-pattern. Inside this morphology, recrystallized ultrafine grains are formed to provide a superior performance. When the corona-bond initiates at 0–0.33 R with a width >0.4 R, it spreads to periphery to form a straight-line-shaped heat-pattern. Inside this heat-pattern, deformed grains and sub-boundaries are formed. The tensile strength of straight-line heat-pattern is lower than that of lens-shaped heat-pattern. When the corona-bond initiates at 0–0.33 R with a width ≤0.4 R, it does not spread but concentrates itself at center to form a spindle-shaped heat-pattern consisted of a ‘spindle body’ at center and a ‘friction line’ at periphery. Spindle body corresponds to a region made up of equiaxed recrystallized ultrafine grains, whereas the friction line corresponds to recrystallized grains and substructured grains. The formation of the friction line makes neglectable effect on local the strength but it does lower the elongation, where the local elongation of the friction line decreases to 6%–9% compared to 18% of a spindle body.