Surface roughness and friction coefficient in peened friction stir welded 2195 aluminum alloy

The tribological properties of friction stir welded 2195 aluminum alloy joints were investigated for several laser- and shot-peened specimens. The first portion of this study assessed the surface roughness changes at different regions of the weld resulting from the various peening processes and included an atomic force microscopy (AFM) study to reveal fine structures. The second portion investigated the friction characteristics for various conditions when slid against a 440C ball slider. Shot peening resulted in significant surface roughness when compared to the unpeened and laser-peened samples. The initial friction for all types of specimens was highly variable. However, long-term friction was shown to be lowest for samples with no peening treatment. Laser peening caused the friction to increase slightly. The shot peening process on the other hand resulted in an increase of the long-term friction effects on both sides of the weld.