Effect of Crystallographic Orientations on Bendability in a Strongly Textured Mg-9Al Extrusion Plate and Texture Evolution during Three-Point Bending.

The dependence of bendability on crystallographic orientations and texture evolution was investigated in a strongly textured Mg-9Al extrusion plate by bending along four directions. Results show that the bars have relatively small and reasonably close bendability when bent along the extrusion direction, transverse direction, and through-thickness direction. In contrast, the bendability of the 45° bar is much larger. Microstructure examination indicates that twins are prevalent in all bars. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of deformation mechanisms suggests that the initial texture transforms towards a basal texture during bending. Nevertheless, the texture transformation efficiency is drastically lower when basal slip-in contrast to tensile twinning-is the dominant deformation mechanism. The difference in texture evolution efficiency was used to rationalize the varied bendability along different directions. The findings of this provide insights into improving the bendability of magnesium alloys.

Influence of Long-Period Stacked Ordered Phases on Inductive Impedance of Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Zr-Ag Alloys.

In this paper, the influence of long-period stacked ordered (LPSO) phases on the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) of a Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Zr-Ag alloy in 0.9 wt.% NaCl was investigated. The Mg-6Gd-3Y-1Zn-0.5Zr-0.3Ag (wt.%) alloy samples with and without LPSO phases in the grain interior (HOMO and LPSO, respectively) were prepared using different heat treatments. The EIS results showed that both the HOMO and LPSO samples' Nyquist diagrams contained two inductive loops. However, in the Nyquist plots of the LPSO samples, the inductive loops at 1.71-0.67 Hz appeared in the first quadrant rather than the fourth quadrant. Analysis of the fitting parameters illustrated that the abnormal shape of the inductive loops is related to greater values of the surface film capacitance Cf and double layer capacitance Cdl in the LPSO samples. Further investigations through corrosion morphology observation indicated that the greater values of Cf and Cdl in the LPSO samples resulted from the existence of intragranular LPSO phases that created more film-free areas. The above results show that a better understanding of the relationship between the inductive impedance and corrosion morphology of a Mg-6Gd-3Y-1Zn-0.5Zr-0.3Ag alloy in 0.9 wt.% NaCl solution was attained.

Twinning-Induced Abnormal Strain Rate Sensitivity and Indentation Creep Behavior in Nanocrystalline Mg Alloy.

Nanocrystalline materials exhibit many unique physical and chemical properties with respect to their coarse-grained counterparts due to the high volume fraction of grain boundaries. Research interests on nanocrystalline materials around the world have been lasting over the past decades. In this study, we explored the room temperature strain rate sensitivity and creep behavior of the nanocrystalline Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloy by using a nanoindentation technique. Results showed that the hardness and creep displacements of the nanocrystalline Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloy decreased with increasing loading strain rate. That is, the nanocrystalline Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloy showed negative strain rate sensitivity and its creep behavior also exhibited negative rate dependence. It was revealed that the enhanced twinning activities at higher loading strain rates resulted in reduced hardness and creep displacements. The dominant creep mechanism of the nanocrystalline Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloy is discussed based on a work-of-indentation theory in this paper.

Enhanced Mechanical and Corrosion Performance by Forming Micro Shear Bands in Cold Forged Mg-Gd-Y-Zr Alloy.

Forging at room temperature was applied on the per-extruded Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloy to investigate the effect of cold forging on the microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of the alloy. Abundant micro shear bands with misorientations of 2-15° were generated in the as forged alloys. Tremendous enhancement in tensile yield strength was achieved after forging. With a quantitative investigation, micro band boundaries were considered to provide a great contribution to the reinforcement. The ultrafine structure resulting from the formation of micro shear bands led to increased corrosion resistance of the alloy.

Microstructural Study of a Mg-Zn-Zr Alloy Hot Compressed at a High Strain Rate.

Understanding the correlation of plasticity with deformation and dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behaviors, in magnesium (Mg) alloys deformed under high-strain-rate conditions, is increasingly important for wrought Mg processing. In the present study, a ZK30 (Mg-2.61%Zn-0.66%Zr by weight percent (wt.%)) alloy in the as-forged state was hot compressed to various strain levels at a temperature of 350 °C and a strain rate of 10 s-1. Heterogeneous deformation and dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behaviors of the complicated microstructures in the deformed samples were analyzed via a grain-partitioning approach based on intra-grain misorientation analysis from electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD). The ZK30 alloy showed excellent formability, remaining intact at a true strain of -1.11. Continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) and discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) via grain boundary corrugation/bulging are the dominant mechanisms for the relaxation of strain energy during hot compression. Initial Zr-rich coarse grains undertook a significant portion of the plastic strain as the compression progressed, reflected by the increased misorientations within their interior and marked change in their aspect ratios. The results indicate that the excellent plasticity of the as-forged ZK30 alloy can be attributed to the operative CDRX mechanisms and the reduced deformation anisotropy of Zr-rich coarse grains containing Zn-Zr nano-precipitates.

Effects of T5 Treatment on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties at Elevated Temperature of AZ80-Ag Alloy.

Effects of T5 treatment on microstructure and mechanical properties at elevated temperature of hot-ring-rolled (HRRed) AZ80-Ag magnesium alloy were systematically investigated. Results show that, after aging at 175 °C for 36 h, discontinuous and continuous precipitates form inside grains, with the former one taking up a volume fraction of ~64.9%. T5 treatment improves the tensile strength at ambient temperature of the alloy but weakens its tensile strength and creep resistance at elevated temperatures (120-175 °C), indicating opposite effects of T5 on mechanical properties at ambient and elevated temperatures. During creep at 120-175 °C and under 70-90 MPa, the dynamic precipitation process in HRRed specimen is accelerated with increasing temperature. At 150-175 °C massive nucleation and growth of dynamic discontinuous precipitates could result in an atypical primary creep stage, consisting of deceleration and acceleration creep stages, which is reported in wrought Mg-Al-based alloy for the first time. Such primary creep stage can be eliminated by T5 treatment. Besides, diffusion-controlled dislocation creep is the dominant creep mechanism for both HRRed and T5 specimens.