Fabrication of high-quality Ti joint with ultrafine grains using submerged friction stirring technology and its microstructural evolution mechanism

It is rather challenging to obtain high-quality Ti joints by conventional friction stir welding because of the problem of over-heating. The welding process and final microstructures and properties of the joints are controlled by both plastic deformation and recrystallization. However, for a long time, studies have only focused on recrystallization mechanisms but ignored deformation modes. In this study, a defect-free ultrafine-grained Ti joint with a joint efficiency of 100% was for the first time produced by submerged friction stirring (SFS) technology. We utilized transmission electron microscopy with a two-beam diffraction technique and electron backscatter diffraction to systematically investigate the deformation mode versus the grain refinement mechanism. The finite element method was utilized to simulate the temperature field throughout the joint for the microstructural explanation. During the whole SFS, prismatic slip occurred, and the other dominant deformation mechanisms changed from {101¯2} twinning and basal slip to pyramidal slip. The variation of slip modes was largely dependent on the twinning and temperature rise. The ultrafine-grained microstructure was attributed to the successive refinement effect of the twin-dislocation interaction, dislocation absorption, dynamic grain boundary migration and texture-induced grain convergence. The effect of the temperature, strain and strain rate on the microstructural evolution mechanisms was discussed. Based on our work, we expect the wide application of SFS in producing ultrafine-grained bulk Ti materials and high-quality joints.