Effect of microstructure, texture and deformation behavior on tensile properties of electrically assisted friction stir welded Ti-6Al-4 V joints

The effect of electric current on microstructure, texture, deformation behavior and tensile properties were investigated for the electrically assisted friction stir welding process of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy. The base material has strong prismatic texture {101¯0} < 112¯0 > linked to strong prismatic  slip system {101¯0} < 112¯0>. Texture of the stir zone is randomly distributed with the weak basal {0001} < 112¯0 > texture owing to {101¯2} < 101¯1 > twinning. The introduction of current into the welding process has resulted in the alleviation of the abrupt change of microstructure between the surface, center and bottom of the stir zone, the decrease in texture strength and more uniformly distributed strain. The improvement of tensile properties without loss of ductility for the electrically assisted joints was mainly attributed to microstructure and strain homogeneity, beta phase dissolution and random orientations.