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Influence of Torsion on Precipitation and Hardening Effects during Aging of an Extruded AZ91 Alloy

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Abstract

The effect of torsional deformation by various routes prior to artificial aging treatment on the microstructure of extruded AZ91 rods was investigated. The tension and compression properties along the extruded direction were tested to evaluate the hardening effect. The results showed that torsional deformation can largely enhance the subsequent age-hardening effect. A detailed microstructural characterization revealed that torsional deformation produced a high density of dislocations and {10-12} twins, which can promote continuous precipitation and increase the number density of the Mg17Al12 phase. In addition, part of dislocations and the {10-12} twins were retained after aging treatment. The combination of the increased precipitation hardening by Mg17Al12, dislocation strengthening and refinement strengthening contributed to the high hardening effect. Moreover, the hardening effect can be further increased by tailoring the torsion route. The torsion route exhibited little influence on the age-hardening effect, while it remarkably affected the texture of the twisted AZ91 rods. Reciprocating torsion had little influence on the texture. In contrast, unidirectional torsion caused the c-axis of the texture to rotate toward the extrusion direction, resulting in a texture softening effect. Therefore, combining reciprocating torsion and aging caused a higher hardening effect than combining unidirectional torsion and aging. The detailed strengthening mechanism was analyzed and is discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This project was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51601154), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Project No. XDJK2019B003) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 51571045, 51501158) and the China Scholarship Council (Project No. 201706995009). The authors would like to thank Mr. X. Shu from Chongqing University for the measurements of mechanical properties and EBSD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Bo Song, Tingting Liu & Ning Guo

  2. MagIC-Magnesium Innovation Centre, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, 21502, Geesthacht, Germany

    Bo Song, Hong Yang, Yuanding Huang & Norbert Hort

  3. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Renlong Xin

  4. College of Materials and Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, China

    Linjiang Chai

  5. Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L3N6, Canada

    Ning Guo & Linjiang Chai

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  1. Bo Song
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Song, B., Liu, T., Xin, R. et al. Influence of Torsion on Precipitation and Hardening Effects during Aging of an Extruded AZ91 Alloy. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 28, 4403–4414 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-019-04152-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-019-04152-6

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