Combined effect of inoculation and magnetic arc oscillation on microstructure and tensile behaviour of type 2090 Al–Li alloy weld fusion zones

In the development of Al–Li alloys for aerospace structures, their behaviour during welding plays an important role. One way of improving weldability is to refine weld solidification structures, which can be achieved by a variety of means. In this work, a type 2090 Al–Li alloy was gas tungsten arc welded with two different filler materials corresponding to types 2319 (Al–6.3Cu) and 4043 (Al–5.2Si). Inoculation with titanium together with arc oscillation through an imposed alternating magnetic field was used to refine the weld fusion zone microstructures. Post-weld aging and tensile testing were employed to assess possible improvements in performance. It was found that the combined treatment of inoculation and magnetic oscillation resulted in fully equiaxed, fine grained structures and that this led to a noticeable increase in aging response and tensile properties, especially ductility.