Chemical and mechanical properties of stainless, environment-friendly, and nonflammable Mg alloys (SEN alloys): A review

This review article provides overall understanding of stainless,environment-friendly,and nonflammable Mg alloys(SEN alloys)recently developed at the Korea Institute of Materials Science.SEN alloys are produced by adding small amounts of Ca and Y(each<1 wt%)into commercial Mg–Al based alloys,resulting in exceptional ignition and corrosion resistances and impressive mechanical properties.Their main advantages of SEN alloys are as follows.(1)A dense multi-oxide layer of SEN alloys comprising MgO,CaO,and Y_(2)O_(3) impedes the outward dispersion of Mg vapor and the inward penetration of O_(2) during oxidation,thereby enhancing the oxidation and ignition resistances.(2)The presence of Ca-and Y-based second-phase particles in SEN alloys can enhance their corrosion resistance because Ca-containing particles prevent the spread of corrosion,and the replacement of Al-containing particles with less noble ones containing Y(e.g.,Al–Mn–Y or Al–Y particles)retards corrosion.(3)The addition of minor amounts of Ca and Y renders excellent mechanical properties due to improved strengthening effects.These enhanced properties are attributed to more pronounced dynamic recrystallization and grain refining behaviors caused by the second-phase particles during extrusion.(4)Despite the presence of various types of second-phase particles,the fatigue properties of SEN9 alloys are similar to those of commercial AZ91 alloys.(5)Simultaneous introduction of Ca and Y suppresses the formation of Mg17Al12 discontinuous precipitates during aging,leading to the enhanced elongation of aged SEN alloys.(6)Adding mischmetal into the SEN9 alloy leads to a six-fold enhancement in extrudability.Consequently,the studies conducted on SEN alloys demonstrate their excellent ignition and corrosion resistances and mechanical properties,which broaden the industrial applications of Mg alloys by addressing their inherent weaknesses.

Microstructural characteristics and low-cycle fatigue properties of AZ91 and AZ91-Ca-Y alloys extruded at different temperatures

The commercial AZ91 alloy and nonflammable SEN9(AZ91-0.3Ca-0.2Y,wt%)alloy are extruded at 300°C and 400°C.Their microstructure,tensile and compressive properties,and low-cycle fatigue(LCF)properties are investigated,with particular focus on the influence of the extrusion temperature.In the AZ91 and SEN9 materials extruded at 300°C(300-materials),numerous fine Mg_(17)Al_(12)particles are inhomogeneously distributed owing to localized dynamic precipitation during extrusion,unlike those extruded at 400°C(400-materials).These fine particles suppress the coarsening of recrystallized grains,decreasing the average grain size of 300-materials.Although the four extruded materials have considerably different microstructures,the difference in their tensile yield strengths is insignificant because strong grain-boundary hardening and precipitation hardening effects in 300-materials are offset almost completely by a strong texture hardening effect in 400-materials.However,owing to their finer grains and weaker texture,300-materials have higher compressive yield strengths than400-materials.During the LCF tests,{10-12}twinning is activated at lower stresses in 400-materials than in 300-materials.Because the fatigue damage accumulated per cycle is smaller in 400-materials,they have longer fatigue lives than those of 300-materials.A fatigue life prediction model for the investigated materials is established on the basis of the relationship between the total strain energy density(ΔW_(t))and the number of cycles to fatigue failure(N_(f)),and it is expressed through a simple equation(ΔW_(t)=10·N_(f)-0.59).This model enables fatigue life prediction of both the investigated alloys regardless of the extrusion temperature and strain amplitude.

Comparative study of extrudability, microstructure, and mechanical properties of AZ80 and BA53 alloys

The extrudability,microstructural characteristics,and tensile properties of the Mg–5Bi–3Al(BA53)alloy are investigated herein by comparing them with those of a commercial Mg–8Al–0.5 Zn(AZ80)alloy.When AZ80 is extruded at 400℃,severe hot cracking occurs at exit speeds of 4.5 m/min or more.In contrast,BA53 is successfully extruded without any surface cracking at 400℃ and at high exit speeds of 21–40 m/min.When extruded at 3 m/min(AZ80–3)and 40 m/min(BA53–40),both AZ80 and BA53 exhibited completely recrystallized microstructures with a<10–10>basal texture.However,BA53–40 has a coarser grain structure owing to grain growth promoted by the high temperature in the deformation zone.AZ80–3 contains a continuous network of Mg_(17)Al_(12) particles along the grain boundaries,which form via static precipitation during natural air-cooling after the material exits the extrusion die.BA53–40 contains coarse Mg_(3)Bi_(2) particles aligned parallel to the extrusion direction along with numerous uniformly distributed fine Mg_(3)Bi_(2) particles.AZ80–3 has higher tensile strength than BA53–40 because the relatively finer grains and larger number of solute atoms in AZ80–3 result in stronger grain-boundary and solid-solution hardening effects,respectively.Although BA53 is extruded at a high temperature and extrusion speed of 400℃ and 40 m/min,respectively,the extruded material has a high tensile yield strength of 188 MPa.This can be primarily attributed to the large particle hardening effect resulting from the numerous fine Mg_(3)Bi_(2) particles.

Effects of Al addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of extruded Mg-3Bi alloy

Effects of Al addition to a Mg±Bi binary alloy on its microstructural characteristics and tensile properties after extrusion are investigated via extrusion of Mg-3Bi±x Al(x=0,1,and 2 wt%)billets and analysis of the extruded materials.The Al addition negligibly affects the second-phase particles of the extruded alloy;however,an increase in the Al content causes significant decreases in the average grain size and maximum texture intensity of the extruded material owing to an increase in the area fraction of dynamically recrystallized(DRXed)grains.The Al addition improves the strength of the extruded alloy;this improvement is attributed to the enhanced grain-boundary hardening and solid-solution hardening effects induced by grain refinement and Al solute atoms,respectively.As the Al content increases from 0 wt%to 1 wt%and 2 wt%,the tensile elongation increases substantially from 2.8%to 9.4%and 16.9%,respectively.The reduction in the number and size of un DRXed grains with increasing Al content suppresses the formation and coalescence of cracks in the un DRXed grains during tension,which results in a significant improvement in the tensile ductility of the extruded material.During tensile deformation,large undesirable twins that act as crack initiation sites are locally formed in the un DRXed grains of the Mg-3Bi alloy,whereas relatively smaller twins are uniformly formed in both the DRXed and the un DRXed grains of the Mg-3Bi-2Al alloy.Consequently,the extruded Mg-3Bi-2Al alloy has a substantially higher tensile yield strength±elongation product(2924 MPa%)than the extruded Al-free B3 alloy(381 MPa%).

Quantitative analysis of mechanical properties associated with aging treatment and microstructure in Mg-Al-Zn alloys through machine learning

The present study proposes a methodology for predicting the mechanical properties of AZ61 and AZ91alloys associated with microstructure,texture and aging parameters and estimating predictor importance.For this,we investigate quantitative correlations between microstructure,texture and mechanical properties of aged AZ61 and AZ91 rods through machine learning.This regression analysis focuses on the precipitation behavior of Mg17Al12as the main second phase of Mg-Al-Zn alloys with respect to aging conditions.To simplify data generation,only SEM images were used to quantify the features of discontinuous and continuous precipitates.To overcome the lack of data and make the most of the measured data,we devised a method to extend the existing dataset by a factor of 9 using the mean and standard deviation of the measured data.Artificial neural networks predicted tensile and compressive yield strengths and resultant yield asymmetry with a high accuracy of over 98%using 11 predictors for a total of 288datasets.Decision tree learning quantitatively assessed the importance of predictors in determining the mechanical properties of aged AZ61 and AZ91 rods.

Accelerated precipitation behavior of cast Mg-Al-Zn alloy by grain refinement

This study demonstrates that the precipitation behavior of 13-Mg17Al12 phase during aging and the resultant variation in hardness and mechanical properties of cast Mg-Al-Zn alloy are strongly dependent on initial grain size. Grain size reduction accelerates discontinuous precipitation at the early stage of aging treatment by increasing the area fraction of grain boundaries that can act as nucleation sites for discontinuous precipitates （DP）, but it does not influence DP growth rate. Grain refinement also prematurely terminates continuous precipitation because the formation of a large number of DP reduces the amount of AI dissolved in the matrix, which is required for the formation of continuous precipitates （CP）. This promotion of DP formation and early termination of CP formation significantly decrease the peak-aging time to one-third. The enhanced precipitation behavior also leads to an additional hardness improvement in the aged alloy, along with an increase in hardness owing to grain boundary strengthening by grain refinement. The amount of increase in hardness changes with aging time, which is determined by the variation of three variables with aging time： DP fraction difference between refined and nonrefined alloys, hardness difference between DP and matrix, and matrix hardness difference between the two alloys. Grain refinement improves both tensile strength and ductility of the homogenized alloy owing to grain boundary strengthening and suppression of twinning activation, respectively. However, the loss of ductility after peak-aging treatment is greater in the refined alloy because of the larger amount of DP acting as a crack source in this alloy.