Abstract
Weldability of Friction Stir Welded(FSW) AZ31B-H24 Mg alloy sheet with 4m thick was evaluated by changing welding speed. The sound welding conditions mainly depended on the suffiicient welding heat input during the process. The insufficient heat input resulted in the void like defect in the weld zone. Higher welding speed caused a larger inner void or lack of bonding. The defects were distributed at the stir zone or the transition region between stir zone and thermo-mechanical affected zone (UE). The size of defects slightly increased with increasing welding speed. These defects had a great effect on the joint strength of weld zone. The weld zone was composed of stir zone, TMAZ and heat affected zone. The stir zone was cosisted of fine recrystallized structure with $5-8\mu\textrm{m}$ in the mean grain size. The hardness of weld zone was near the 60HV, which was slightly lower than that of base metal. The maximum joint strength was about 219MPa that was 75% of that of base metal and the yield strength was also lower than that of base metal partly due to the existance of defects.
