Papers by Author: Pasquale Cavaliere

Abstract: Al-Li alloys are characterized by a strong anisotropy in mechanical properties and microstructure with respect to the rolling direction. Plates of 2198 Al-Li alloy were friction stir welded by employing maximum rotation speed: 1000 rev/min and welding speed of 80 mm/min, both in parallel and orthogonal directions with respect to the rolling one. The joints mechanical properties were evaluated by means of tensile tests at room temperature. In addition, fatigue tests performed with a resonant electro-mechanical testing machine under constant amplitude control up to 250 Hz loading, were conducted in axial control mode with R(σmin/σmax)=0.33, for all the welding and rotating speed conditions. The fatigue crack propagation experiments were performed by employing single edge notched specimens.With the aim to characterize the weld performances, both the microstructure evolution at jointed cross sections, related to the welding variables, and the fractured surfaces were respectively analyzed by means of optical and scanning electron microscopy.

Abstract: The fatigue behavior of metals is strongly governed by the grain size variation. As the tensile strength, the fatigue limit increases with decreasing grain size in the microcrystalline regime. A different trend in mechanical properties has been demonstrated in many papers for metals with ultrafine (< 1 m) and nanocrystalline (< 100 nm) grain size in particular in the yield stress and fatigue crack initiation and growth. The fatigue behavior of electrodeposited nanocrystalline Ni (20 and 40 nm mean grain size) and nanocrystalline Co (20 nm) has been analyzed in the present paper by means of stress controlled tests. The monothonic mechanical properties of the materials were obtained from tensile tests by employing an Instron 5800 machine by measuring the strain with an extensometer up to 2.5% maximum strain. The strain gage specimen dimensions measured 20 mm length and 5 mm width, all the specimens were produced by electro-discharge machining. The low cycle fatigue tests were performed with specimens of the same geometry of the tensile ones in tension-tension with load ratio R=0.25. The fatigue crack propagation experiments were carried out by employing single edge notched specimens measuring 39 mm in length, 9.9 mm in width and with an electro-discharge machined edge-notch of 1 mm. All the endurance fatigue and crack propagation tests were performed at 10 Hz.

Abstract: Thermolastic Stress Analysis (TSA) has been recently developed as a direct investigating method for the study of the stress field around the crack tip of a cyclically loaded structure. The advantage of using measurement techniques based on the thermoelastic effect lays in the fact that stress intensity factors may be determined based on the effective stress distribution around the crack tip rather than calculated from the crack length and amplitude of cyclic loads. This paper reports results related to fatigue tests on Friction Stir Welded alluminium alloys sheets. Fatigue crack propagation experiments were performed by employing single-edge notched specimens, in tensiontension condition with R=0.1, up to failure. The application of TSA allowed the monitoring of crack formation and growth in real time, providing the actual stress distribution around the crack tip for the different technological parameters used in the welding process. Stress intensity factors were determined based on the TSA data and compared to those calculated using an ABAQUS FE model.

Abstract: The effect of processing parameters on mechanical and microstructural properties of dissimilar AA6082-AA2024 joints produced by Friction Stir Welding was analysed in the present study. Different samples were produced by employing a fixed rotating speeds of 1600 RPM and by using the advancing speeds of the tool of 80 and 115 mm/min. All the welds were produced in direction perpendicular to the rolling one for both the alloys and by changing, for all the processing conditions, the alloy positioned on the advancing side of the tool. The mechanical properties of the joints were evaluated by room temperature tensile tests. Fatigue tests on the welds were carried out by using a resonant electro-mechanical testing machine under constant loading control up to 250 Hz sine wave loading. The fatigue tests were conducted in the axial total stress-amplitude control mode with R=smin/smax=0.1. The microstructural evolution of the material was analysed by optical observations of the welds cross sections and SEM observations of the fracture surfaces.