3mm alu bend/bfh test

[smashweld]

where would you expect a weld to fail?

with steel it would be the on the metal but any 'destructive' test I've tried with alu it breaks pretty much through the middle of the weld, 6082 T6 and 5356 filler

 

[Richard.]

Depends on the consumable and parent with alu. But your absolutely right quite often they split down the face during a bend test.

 

[smashweld]

I gotta admit my testing had pretty much no control whatsoever

was just bending a fillet weld back on itself...on some 50x50x3 box butted up to the face of another piece of the same, or welding it all the way round and hitting it in the vice until it cracked, then hit the other way to seperate it.

I like the article tho... mentions about the weld/haz being weaker than what it would be on steel which makes sense with the actual weld breaking

The other major difference between welds in aluminum alloys and those in steels is that a weld in steels normally is about the same strength as the surrounding material, while in aluminum alloys, the weld and the adjacent heat-affected zone (HAZ) usually are much weaker than the surrounding material.