PSI - Issue 10

E. Dovletoglou et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 10 (2018) 73–78 E. Dovletoglou et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000 – 000

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Fig. 3. Yield stress comparison between the electron beam welded aluminum alloys 2024-T3 specimens for different exposure times to exfoliation corrosion solution.

Fig. 4. Ductility (elongation at fracture) comparison between the electron beam welded aluminum alloys 2024-T3 specimens for different exposure times to exfoliation corrosion solution reagent for 1 min at 25 ο C. Observations were carried out by Olympus BX 41 M optical microscope. The fracture mechanism seems to start from the root of the weld and continues within the fusion zone for the exposure times up to 12 h on the EXCO solution. For the extreme exposure times, (e.g. 24 & 48 h) the fracture location seems to change. It is observed that the mechanism is the interface between the fusion zone and the heat affected zone. The present work investigated the effect of electron beam welded joints of aluminum alloy 2024-T3 when exposed to exfoliation corrosion solution for different exposure times. The results can be summarized as:  electron beam welding of 2024-T3 is feasible, leading to joining efficiency of approximate 70%,  corrosion exposure plays a pivotal role on the tensile mechanical properties of the welded joints. For the case of conventional yield stress, high decrease rate was noticed for exposure times up to 8 h, while lower corrosion induced decrease rates was evident for higher exposure times till 48 h, 4. Conclusions