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.

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.