Characteristics of periodic ultrasonic assisted TIG welding for 2219 aluminum alloys

Tungsten inert gas (TIG) arc welding of 2219 aluminum alloy was assisted with a trailing periodic ultrasonic vibration, which was output from a trailing roller behind the welding torch. It was found that the weld appearance was periodically convex due to the periodic input of ultrasonic vibration. With the addition of ultrasonic vibration, the columnar grains in the weld zone transformed to equiaxed grains, so along the longitudinal direction, the equiaxed grains and the columnar grains were alternately distributed due to the periodic ultrasonic vibration. The effects of different ultrasonic powers were investigated. The penetration depth and the amount of the melting metal both increased as the ultrasonic power increased. The coarse precipitated phases in the weld zone tended to disperse uniformly under ultrasonic vibration. Compared with conventional TIG welded joints, the hardness of the weld zone of the ultrasonic assisted TIG welding increased by 8.43%, and the tensile strength increased by 29.02%. The ultrasonic cavitation could decrease the nucleation radius and break the dendrites, which led to the grains' refinement and the final mechanical properties' improvement.