2060-T8 Al-Li alloy was friction stir butt welded under natural and water cooling conditions. Microstructures and mechanical properties of the welding joints were mainly compared and discussed. By spraying water on the top surface of stir zone, the grain size was reduced, attributing to the improvement of microhardness. The maximum tensile strength under the water cooling reached 461.1 MPa. The joint fractured at the stir zone due to the thickness reduction and the joint softening. The fracture surface consisted of many dimples with various sizes, indicating the typical ductile fracture. The strategy to apply the low heat input at the welding stage and high cooling rate at the cooling stage during FSW is necessary to obtain a high-quality FSW joint.

Refill friction stir spot welding (RFSSW) was used to weld the 2060 aluminum alloy with 2 mm thickness. Joint formation, defect characteristics and mechanical properties were investigated. Results show that stir zone (SZ) is clarified into dynamic recrystallization zone (DRZ) and heat extruded zone (HEZ) due to different microstructural features. The size of void near the hook tip decreases with the increase of the plunge depth. Different hook morphologies are obtained under different plunge depths. The tensile-shear load of joint with the void defect initially decreases and then increases with increasing plunge depth. The mean loads of joints under different plunge depths are in the range of 5.1-5.8 kN. The void separates the hook from lap interface, so the cracks initiating from the hook propagate along the sleeve retreating path. The hook has a larger influence on the tensile-shear load of joint than void. All the tensile specimens present a shear-plug fracture mode.

7075-T6 Al and AZ31B Mg dissimilar alloys were friction stir lap welded with or without a Zn filler, and the effect of heat input on the joint quality was systematically studied. The experimental and finite element simulation results displayed that the formation characteristics and microstructures of the joint with or without the Zn filler were significantly affected by the heat input. The tensile shear load of joint with or without the Zn filler increased first and then decreased with the decrease of the welding speed from 200 to 50 mm/min. Moreover, the peak temperature in the stir zone was significantly decreased by the Zn filler addition, and the high temperature zone narrowed along the plate thickness direction. These changes of heat input made that longer mixing region boundary length and larger effective lap width were attained as the Zn filler was used. In addition, due to the replacement of Al-Mg intermetallic compounds (IMCs) by Al-Mg-Zn and Mg-Zn IMCs which were less harmful to the joint, the tensile shear load of the joint with the Zn filler was obviously enhanced compared to that of the joint without the Zn filler at each welding speed. The maximum tensile shear load of 7.2 kN was obtained at the welding speed of 100 mm/min.

Ultrasonic assisted active-passive filling friction stir repairing (A-PFFSR) was proposed to repair volume defects in the metallic parts. Sound joints without interfacial defects could be achieved. Firstly, the ultrasonic was beneficial to improving material flow and atom diffusion, and then eliminated kissing bond defects compared to conventional A-PFFSR joints. Secondly, the equiaxed grains were refined by ultrasonic vibration. Lastly, the repairing passes were reduced due to the ultrasonic, which decreased softening degree of the repaired joints. The maximum tensile strength of 150 MPa was achieved. Therefore, this strategy to repair the volume defects is feasibility and potential in the remanufacturing fields of aerospace and transportation.