2. Hardness tests and grain size analysis as a function of
repeated welding
cycle
An air conditioner consists of an indoor unit responsible for
controlling the indoor air conditions and an outdoor unit that rejects
heat to the external environment. The two units are connected using
aluminum tubes. Welding of the aluminum tubes is performed during the
installation of an air conditioner, and welding is repeated for the
purpose of re-installation and repairs. This may cause structural
changes in the material of the tubes, and such changes can be observed
in the grain size. The material quality should be maintained by
maintaining the grain size at a certain level because a larger grain
size lowers the yield strength, hardness, and fatigue life of the tubes.
In this study, the correlation between the grain size and hardness in
relation to the number of re-weldings of the aluminum tubes was
analyzed.
2.1 Aluminum tube specimens
Aluminum tubes (Al3003-O) used in this study, created via processes such
as extruding and drawing. They are widely used in heat exchangers of air
conditioners, as they are excellent formability and corrosion resistance
(Table 1).
2.2 Specimen preparation for hardness tests and grain size
analysis
Specimens were prepared for the measurement of the grain size and
hardness in relation to the number of re-weldings of the aluminum tubes.
Welding was defined as heating the surface of the aluminum tubes with a
torch for 10 s, followed by air cooling for 1 h. Two pairs of the
specimens were prepared, and each pair was welded 0, 1, and 5 times,
respectively, in order to obtain a total of 12 specimens. Considering
the actual installation environment, the test conditions were set such
that welding could be repeated up to a maximum of 5 times. To measure
the grain size and hardness, the torched area was cut, and epoxy molded
specimens were prepared a molding solution containing an epoxy and a
hardener at a ratio of 12.5 to 2. Because bubbles tend to form when
diluting the epoxy and the hardener, the epoxy molding specimens were
placed in a vacuum chamber for 120 s to eliminate the bubbles. The
specimens were sandpapered from #400 to #2400 sandpapers and polished
with 1 μm abrasives on a soft abrasive cloth. The polished side was
placed in a solution of 200 ml distilled H2O, and 5 ml HBF4 for 180 s
and then washed under running water to completely remove the etching
solution. After neutralizing the specimens in an alkaline aqueous
solution, they were sufficiently dried and readied for the grain size
and hardness measurements (Fig. 1).
2.3 Hardness tests, grain size analysis, and the
results
The grain size on the etched surface of the specimens was observed using
a metallurgical microscope (Nikon, MA200, Japan); images were captured
at a magnification of 100x. The grain size (\(D_{m}\)) was calculated
using the linear intercept method specified in ASTM E11219; grain size was
calculated by counting the number of grains (\(n\)) from 5 parallel
lines of length L(mm) in the metallurgical microscope image
(Fig. 3), and the average grain size was obtained by rounding up from
the hundredths place in the following equation (1).
\(D_{m}=\frac{L\times P}{n\times M}\) (1)
where \(P\) is the number of parallel lines and \(M\) is the
magnification. A micro-Vickers hardness tester (HM-200, Mitutoyo, Japan)
was used to measure the hardness of the aluminum tubes in relation to
the number of re-weldings. The micro hardness at 20 points or 10 points,
each on the upper and lower thickness areas, was measured while
maintaining the load at 100 gf for 10 s (Fig. 2).
From the measurement of the structure of the heat-affected zone in
relation to the number of re-weldings of the aluminum tubes, the grain
size was found to be 99.82±9.72 (n=16∶4 test specimens ×4 positions) for
the unheated specimens, 122.87±7.33 (n=16∶4 test specimens×4 positions)
when the specimens were heated once, 174.32±36.45 (n=16∶4 test
specimens×4 positions) when the specimens were heated five times (Fig.
3, Table 2). Thus, the grain size increased with the number of
re-weldings. Hardness measurements were taken to examine the changes in
the mechanical properties. The hardness was 40.72±0.45Hv(n=80∶4 test specimens ×20 points) for the unheated specimens,
36.61±0.41Hv (n=80∶4 test specimens×20 points) when the
specimens were heated once, 34.49±0.40Hv (n=80∶4 test
specimens×20 points) when the specimens were heated five times. A
one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) was performed to
investigate the effect of re-welding on the hardness with a significance
level of 0.05 using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft, USA).Statistically
significant differences in the hardness values were observed in all
cases (p<0.05 ). This result indicates that the hardness
decreases as the number of re-welding increases (Fig. 3, Table 2).
Based on the above observations, the correlation between the hardness
(\(H_{v}\)) and the grain size (\(d\)) was given by the following
equation
(Fig.
4(a), \(R^{2}=0.999\)),
\(H_{v}=232.87\times\exp\left(-\frac{d}{28.12}\right)+34.02\)(2)
The unheated specimens had a hardness of 40.72Hv for a grain
size of 122.87, while those heated once had a much smaller hardness of
36.61Hv for a grain size of 174.32. With re-weldings, the
decrease in the hardness was less prominent than the decrease in the
grain size and gradually converged over time.
We have also tried to relate the hardness (\(H_{v}\)) and the grain size
(\(d\)) by the well-known Hall-Petch equation (Fig. 4(b),\(R^{2}=0.866\)),20
\(H_{v}=15.72+243.40\times d^{-0.5}\) (3)