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Microhardness, microstructure and tensile behavior of an AZ31 magnesium alloy processed by high-pressure torsion

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Abstract

An AZ31 magnesium alloy was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature under an imposed pressure of 6.0 GPa. Microstructural analysis showed that the HPT processing introduced significant grain refinement with a reduction in grain size from ~35 μm in the initial annealed condition to ~110 nm after ten turns of HPT. Microhardness measurements showed that a reasonable level of hardness homogeneity was achieved across the disk processed through ten turns. The results from tensile testing demonstrated that the ultrafine-grained (UFG) AZ31 alloy processed by HPT exhibits high ductility with a maximum elongation of ~400 % at the relatively low testing temperature of 423 K. The results confirm that the UFG AZ31 magnesium alloy processed by HPT through ten turns has a strong potential for use in micro-forming applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 51105102 and 51375111, the National Science Foundation of the United States under Grant No. DMR-1160966, and the European Research Council under ERC Grant Agreement No. 267464-SPDMETALS. Partial support was also provided by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant No. 2012CB934100.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Micro-systems and Micro-structures Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, Heilongjiang, China

    Jie Xu, Xinwei Wang, Guangnan Xing, Debin Shan & Bin Guo

  2. Academy of Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Jie Xu & Bin Guo

  3. Departments of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-1453, USA

    Mahmood Shirooyeh & Terence G. Langdon

  4. Materials Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Terence G. Langdon

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  1. Jie Xu
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  2. Xinwei Wang
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  3. Mahmood Shirooyeh
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  4. Guangnan Xing
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Xu, J., Wang, X., Shirooyeh, M. et al. Microhardness, microstructure and tensile behavior of an AZ31 magnesium alloy processed by high-pressure torsion. J Mater Sci 50, 7424–7436 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9300-x

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