Microstructure and Properties of Aluminum/Iron Joints Laser Welded with Nonuniform Heat Input

Honglin Mu; Shuncun Luo; Jiale Xu; Xiaming Chen; Nagaumi Hiromi; Zhenxing Li; Xiaonan Wang; Zengrong Hu

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.023

Engineering ›› :202605023 DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.023

research-article

Microstructure and Properties of Aluminum/Iron Joints Laser Welded with Nonuniform Heat Input

Honglin Mu ^a^,^c
, Shuncun Luo ^b^,^c
, Jiale Xu ^d
, Xiaming Chen ^b^,^c
, Nagaumi Hiromi ^b^,^c
, Zhenxing Li ^e
, Xiaonan Wang ^b^,^c^,^*
, Zengrong Hu ^a^,^c^,^*

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Abstract

In this study, a novel laser welding process scheme for dissimilar steel/aluminum materials, namely, a welding process scheme with nonuniform heat input, is proposed. Al–Si-coated 22MnB5 steel and 6061-T6 aluminum alloy were lap-welded using a welding process scheme with nonuniform heat input, and the result was compared with that of a traditional welding process scheme. As the laser power increased, the mechanical performance of the welded joint initially increased but subsequently decreased. The experimental results indicated that under identical heat input conditions, the novel welding process resulted in high-quality welded joints, and the samples exhibited excellent performance in mechanical tests, with their mechanical properties surpassing those of the joints produced using the traditional uniform heat input welding process by 64% and the average elongation increased by approximately 113%. Owing to the significant differences in the morphology of the weld seams under the two different welding processes, the nail-shaped weld seam altered the fracture path of the welded joint during the tensile test. The fracture mode transitioned from brittle fracture to a combination of crispy and ductile fractures. Finite element modeling simulations were conducted to analyze the reason for the improvement in the mechanical performance of the weld seam. The results revealed that the nail-shaped weld seam shifted the region of stress concentration in mechanical tests.

Keywords

Laser welding / Dissimilar materials / Welding process

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Honglin Mu, Shuncun Luo, Jiale Xu, Xiaming Chen, Nagaumi Hiromi, Zhenxing Li, Xiaonan Wang, Zengrong Hu. Microstructure and Properties of Aluminum/Iron Joints Laser Welded with Nonuniform Heat Input. Engineering 202605023 DOI:10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.023

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