Ultrasonic Impact Treatment to Improve Stress Corrosion Cracking Resistance of Welded Joints of Aluminum Alloy

Stress corrosion cracking is one of the major issues for welded joints of 6005A-T6 aluminum alloy in high-speed trains. High residual stress in the welded joints under corrosion results in stress corrosion cracking. Ultrasonic impact treatment was used to control the residual stress of the welded joints of 6005A-T6 aluminum alloy. Experimental tests show that ultrasonic impact treatment can induce compressive longitudinal and transverse residual stress in the welded joint, harden the surface, and increase the tensile strength of welded joints. Salt-fog corrosion tests were conducted for both an as-welded sample and an ultrasonic impact-treated sample. The surface of the treated sample had far fewer corrosion pits than that of the untreated sample. The treated sample has higher strength and lower tensile residual stress than the untreated sample during corrosion. Therefore, ultrasonic impact treatment is an effective technique to improve the stress corrosion cracking resistance of the welded joints of 6005A-T6 aluminum alloy.