Effect of temperature on creep aging behavior of the nugget zone of AA2195 Al–Li alloy produced by friction stir welding

This paper aims to study the effect of temperatures on the creep aging behaviors of the nugget zone (NZ) of Al–Li alloy by friction stir welding (FSW). The results suggest that the creep strain of the NZ experiences a significant increase as the temperature rises, surpassing that of the base material (BM) at equivalent temperatures. In the case of NZ, the elevation of temperature from 160 to 190 °C induces a pronounced increase in both the size and volume fraction of the T₁ phase, which results in a substantial enhancement in the strength. In contrast, the peak-aged strengths of the BM exhibit minimal variation in this temperature range. As the temperature increases, the time required for the BM to reach its peak aging state significantly decreases, whereas the changes in the NZ are less pronounced. For the NZ, the time required to reach the peak aging state is obviously longer than that for the BM. Although the average length of the T₁ phase in the NZ is markedly greater than that in the BM, its volume fraction and number density in the NZ are considerably lower than those in the BM, resulting in inferior strength reinforcement in the NZ compared to the BM after creep aging.