Authors: K Sampath
Publish Date: 2009/02/23
Volume: 18, Issue: 9, Pages: 1218-
Abstract
AA2195 an AlCuLi alloy in the T8P4 agehardened condition is a candidate aluminum armor for future combat vehicles as this material offers higher static strength and ballistic protection than current aluminum armor alloys However certification of AA2195 alloy for armor applications requires initial qualification based on the ballistic performance of welded panels in the aswelded condition Currently combat vehicle manufacturers primarily use gas metal arc welding GMAW process to meet their fabrication needs Unfortunately a matching GMAW consumable electrode is currently not commercially available to allow effective joining of AA2195 alloy This initial effort focused on an innovative lowcost lowrisk approach to identify an alloy composition suitable for effective joining of AA2195 alloy and evaluated transverseweld tensile properties of groove butt joints produced using the identified alloy Selected commercial offtheshelf COTS aluminum alloy filler wires were twisted to form candidate twisted filler rods Representative test weldments were produced using AA2195 alloy candidate twisted filler rods and gas tungsten arc welding GTAW process Selected GTA weldments produced using Al4wtCu2wtSi alloy as filler metal consistently provided transverseweld tensile properties in excess of 275 MPa 40 ksi UTS and 8 El over 25 mm gage length thereby showing potential for acceptable ballistic performance of aswelded panels Further developmental work is required to evaluate in detail GMAW consumable wire electrodes based on the AlCuSi system containing 4250 wt Cu and 1620 wt SiGas tungsten arc weld produced using AA2195 as base metal and a new Al4Cu2Si alloy as filler metal provides acceptable transverseweld tensile properties in the aswelded condition showing potential for exceeding the minimum ballistic performance requirements for welded aluminum armorThe author is pleased to acknowledge Bruce Williams Gregory Brandon Gregory Vidakovich and Christopher Forcellini of Concurrent Technologies Corp Johnstown PA for their technical support and Tony Anderson of ESAB Welding and Cutting Products Florence SC for the use of Fig 1
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