Mechanical Evaluation of AZ80 Magnesium Alloy in Cast Wrought Form

Wrought magnesium alloy AZ80 with a thick section of 20 mm was prepared by squeeze casting (SC) and permanent steel mold casting (PSMC). The porosity measurements of the SC and PSMC depicted that SC AZ80 had a pore content of 0.52%, which was 77% lower than 2.21% of PSMC AZ80 counterpart. The YS, UTS, ef, E and strengthening rate of cast AZ80 were determined by mechanical pulling. The engineering stress versus strain bended lines showed that SC AZ80 had a YS of 84.7 MPa, a UTS of 168.2 MPa, 5.1% in ef, and 25.1 GPa in modulus. But, the YS, UTS and ef of the PSMC AZ80 specimen were only 71.6 MPa, 109.0 MPa, 1.9% and 21.9 GPa. The findings of the mechanical pulling evidently depicted that the YS, UTS, ef and E of SC AZ80 were 18%, 54%, 174% and 15% higher than PSMC counterpart. The computed resilience and toughness suggested that the SC AZ80 exhibited greater resistance to tensile loads during elastic deformation and possessed higher capacity to absorb energy during plastic deformation compared to the PSMC AZ80. At the beginning of permanent change, the strengthening rate of SC AZ80 was 10,341 MPa, which was 9% greater than 9489 MPa of PSMC AZ80. The high mechanical characteristics of SC AZ80 should be primarily attributed to its low porosity level. .

Hot deformation behavior of extruded AZ80 magnesium alloy

The hot deformation behavior of extruded AZ80 magnesium alloy was studied through hot compression tests performed at temperatures ranging from 250 to 450 ~C with strain rates varying from 0.001 to 10 s-1. The flow stress was corrected due to the deformation heating. The Zener-Hollomon parameter （Z parameter） and processing map were established to describe the hot deformation behavior. The results indicate that the applicable deformation should be conducted at the strain rate of 0.1 s-~ and the temperature range of 350-400 ~C. Besides, the relationship between the microstructure evolution and Z parameter was also discussed. High temperature and low strain rate result in a low Z parameter, which leads to full dynamic recrystallization （DRX） and large DRX grain size in the microstructure. Considering processing map and microstructure, the hot deformation should be carried out at the temperature of 400 ~C and the strain rate of 0.1 s 1.

As-cast structure and tensile properties of AZ80 magnesium alloy DC cast with low-voltage pulsed magnetic field

The effects of a low-voltage pulsed magnetic field on the solidified structure and mechanical properties of DC casting AZ80 magnesium alloy were investigated.The results showed that the solidified structure of the DC casting AZ80 magnesium alloy was refined obviously by the low-voltage pulsed magnetic field and significant grain refinement in the DC casting ingot of AZ80 magnesium alloy was achieved.Meanwhile,the morphology of the dentritic in the DC casting ingot was transformed from coarse dentritic to fine rosette with the application of low-voltage pulsed magnetic field.The ability of deformation of the ingot was enhanced and especially the plasticity of the ingot center after upsetting was improved greatly by more than 80%after deformation.

Effect of Nd addition on microstructures and mechanical properties of AZ80 magnesium alloys

The influence of Nd addition on the microstructures and mechanical properties of AZ80 magnesium alloys was investigated. The results show that the microstructure of as-cast AZS0 magnesium alloy is modified effectively with the addition of 1.0% Nd, the grain size is decreased from 448 to 125 ~tm, new rod-shaped A111Nd3 phase and block-shaped A12Nd phase are observed in the as-cast microstructure, and fl-Mgl7All2 phases are refined and become discontinuous. The addition of Nd suppresses the discontinuous precipitations at grain boundaries during aging, and the time of reaching the peak hardness is delayed. With the addition of 1.0% Nd, the combined properties reach an optimum, the yield strength, tensile strength and elongation are 103.7 MPa, 224.0 MPa and 8.4%, respectively. After T6 heat treatment, the yield strength and tensile strength of the AZ80-1.0%Nd alloy are increased to 141.1 and 231.1 MPa, respectively.

Optimization of AZ80 magnesium alloy squeeze cast process parameters using morphological matrix

The squeeze cast process parameters of AZ80 magnesium alloy were optimized by morphological matrix. Experiments were conducted by varying squeeze pressure, die pre-heat temperature and pressure duration using L9（33） orthogonal array of Taguchi method. In Taguchi method, a 3-level orthogonal array was used to determine the signal/noise ratio. Analysis of variance was used to determine the most significant process parameters affecting the mechanical properties. Mechanical properties such as ultimate tensile strength, elongation and hardness of the components were ascertained using multi variable linear regression analysis. Optimal squeeze cast process parameters were obtained.

Effect of Bi addition on microstructures and mechanical properties of AZ80 magnesium alloy

The effects of Bi addition on the microstructures and mechanical properties of as-cast AZ80 alloy were investigated. The results show that with the addition of Bi, the coarse eutectic phases are refined and become discontinuous; some flaky and granular Mg 3 Bi 2 phases with a hexagonal structure of D5 2 are observed along the grain boundaries and between dendrites. The tensile strength and elongation increase first, and then decrease with increasing Bi content. AZ80-0.5%Bi alloy has optimum combination mechanical properties. When the content of Bi is above 1.0% （mass fraction）, the amount of flaky Mg 3 Bi 2 phase increases markedly, which splits the matrix and deteriorates the tensile strength and elongation.

High temperature tensile deformation behavior of AZ80 magnesium alloy

Tensile behaviors of an AZS0 alloy were investigated by elongation-to-failure tensile tests at 300, 350, 400 and 450 ℃, and strain rates of 10-2 and 10-3 s 1. Strain-rate-change tests from 5×10-5 s-1 to 2x10-2 s-1 were applied to study deformation mechanisms. The experimental data show that the material exhibits enhanced tensile ductilities of over 100% at 400 and 450 ℃ with stress exponent of 4.29 and activation energy of 149.60 kJ/mol, and initial fine grains preserve in evenly deformed gauge based on microstructure studies. The enhanced tensile ductilities are rate controlled by a competitive mechanism of grain boundary sliding and dislocation climb creep, based on which a model can successfully simulate the deformation behavior.

Effect of aging time on corrosion behavior of as-forged AZ80 magnesium alloy

The corrosion behaviors of an as-forged AZ80 magnesium alloy after aging treatment for various durations at 170 °C were investigated by immersion test, H2 evolution test, SEM and potentiodynamic polarization curve measurement. The results show that the corrosion rate of the alloy decreases dramatically with the increase of aging time during the initial aging stage, but increases slowly with the aging time longer than 20 h. The volume fraction of β-Mg17Al12 increases with aging time within the first 20 h, leading to the decrease of corrosion rate. After aging for longer than 39 h, the growth of β phase is accompanied by the consumption of aluminum in the matrix, resulting in an increase in the corrosion rate. When the volume fraction of ？ phase is low, specimens suffer from severe local corrosion, which results in a porous surface. On the contrary, when the volume fraction of ？ phase is high, specimens suffer uniform corrosion attack.

Polycrystal modeling of hot extrusion texture of AZ80 magnesium alloy

The visco-plastic self-consistent (VPSC) model is extended to take the dynamical recrystallization (DRX) into account so that the hot extrusion texture of AZ80 magnesium alloy can be properly modeled. The effects of extrusion temperatures and imposed boundary conditions on the resulting textures were investigated, and good agreement can be found between the simulated and the measured extrusion textures. The simulated results show that the DRX grains are responsible for the formation of the {2110} fiber component since the {1010} poles of the DRX grains are tilted away from those of the unrecrystallized grains during the formation of their high angle boundaries (HABs). Furthermore, the basal poles of the grains are favorably oriented to the transversal direction (TD) where the imposed deformation is larger due to lower slip resistance of the basal slip. The elevated temperature enhances the activity of pyramidal ?c+a? slip modes and gives rise to a larger recrystallized volume fraction, resulting in a weakened extrusion texture.

Modeling of microstructure evolution of AZ80 magnesium alloy during hot working process using a unified internal state variable method

In this paper, a unified internal state variable(ISV) model for predicting microstructure evolution during hot working process of AZ80 magnesium alloy was developed. A novel aspect of the proposed model is that the interactive effects of material hardening, recovery and dynamic recrystallization(DRX) on the characteristic deformation behavior were considered by incorporating the evolution laws of viscoplastic flow, dislocation activities, DRX nucleation and boundary migration in a coupled manner. The model parameters were calibrated based on the experimental data analysis and genetic algorithm(GA) based objective optimization. The predicted flow stress, DRX fraction and average grain size match well with experimental results. The proposed model was embedded in the finite element(FE) software DEFORM-3 D via user defined subroutine to simulate the hot compression and equal channel angular extrusion(ECAE) processes. The heterogeneous microstructure distributions at different deformation zones and the dislocation density evolution with competitive deformation mechanisms were captured.This study can provide a theoretical solution for the hot working problems of magnesium alloy.

Effects of temperature and strain rate on critical damage value of AZ80 magnesium alloy

A series of AZ80 billets were compressed with 60%height reduction on hot process simulator at 250,300,350,400℃ under strain rates of 0.01,0.1,1 and 10 s- 1.In order to predict the occurrence of surface fracture,the values of the Cockcroft-Latham equation were calculated by the corresponding finite element numerical algorithm developed.A concept about damage incremental ratio in plastic deformation was defined as the ratio of damage increment at one step to the accumulated value.A method of finding the intersection of incremental ratio varying curve and simulation step axis was brought forward to make the fracture step certain. Then,the effects of temperature and strain rate on critical damage value were achieved.The results show that the critical damage value is not a constant but changes in a range of 0.021 8-0.378 0.It decreases significantly with the increase of strain rate at a certain temperature.While under a certain strain rate,the critical damage value has little change with the increase of temperature.

High-temperature mechanical properties of as-extruded AZ80 magnesium alloy at different strain rates

The mechanical properties of as-extruded AZ80 magnesium alloy at temperatures of 450-525℃ and strain rates of 3.0 s^(−1)and 0.15 s^(−1)were investigated by tensile tests.Zero ductility of alloy appeared at 500℃ with a strain rate of 0.15 s^(−1),while the zero strength and zero ductility of the alloy were obtained nearly simultaneously at 525℃ with a strain rate of 3.0 s^(−1).The results indicated that the lower strain rate accelerated the arrival of zero ductility.As the temperature increased,the failure mode of the alloy developed from trans-granular fracture to cleavage fracture and then to inter-granular fracture with the feature of sugar-like grains and fusion traces.The existence of the low-melting composite ofβ-Mg_(17)Al_(12) and Al_(8)Mn_(5) particles segregated near the Mg_(17)Al_(12) phase along grain boundaries were demonstrated to be the reason for the brittle fracturing of the AZ80 alloy at high temperatures.Furthermore,microstructural evolution at temperatures approaching the solidus temperature was discussed to clarify magnesium alloy’s high temperature deformation mechanism.

Preparation and thixoforging of semisolid billet of AZ80 magnesium alloy

Semisolid billet of AZ80 magnesium alloy was prepared by new strain induced melt activated (new SIMA) process and thixoforging experiment was performed.The results show that after as-cast AZ80 magnesium alloy is processed by equal channel angular extrusion, microstructure is refined well due to heavy dynamic recrystallization occurring in severe plastic deformation.Compared with semisolid isothermal treatment and conventional SIMA, semisolid billet with fine and spheroidal grains are achieved in new SIMA.Thixoforging process of semisolid billet prepared by new SIMA has many advantages such as good surface quality of final component, high ability to fill cavity and net-shape.The fine and spheroidal grains and high mechanical properties such as tensile strength of 298 MPa and elongation of 28% can be developed in final part thixoforged.

Effects of Ce addition on microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of as-cast AZ80 magnesium alloy

In this study, Ce was introduced into the AZ80 alloy and the effects of Ce addition on the microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of the as-cast AZ80 magnesium alloy were investigated. The results show that the addition of Ce into the AZ80 alloy can not only refine the microstructure, but also result in the formation of the needle-like Al4Ce phase. These tiny Al4Ce phases are homogeneously distributed at grain boundaries and within grains. An appropriate Ce addition can also change the β-Mg17Al12 phase at the grain boundaries from continuous network to small island-like. At the same time, with the increase of Ce content from 0 to 2.0wt.%, the macro-hardness of the as-cast alloy is enhanced linearly, while impact toughness, tensile strength and elongation all firstly increase and then decrease. The AZ80 alloy containing 1.0wt.% Ce exhibits the optimal properties. Its macro-hardness, impact toughness, tensile strength and elongation are 61.90 HB, 15.50 J·cm-2, 171.80 MPa and 3.35%, increase by 9.95%, 63%, 13.3% and 36.7%, respectively compared with the base alloy. In addition, Ce can enhance the corrosion resistance of the AZ80 magnesium alloy.

Corrosion properties of plastically deformed AZ80 magnesium alloy

AZ80 magnesium alloys were deformed at 200,250,300,350 and 400℃ with different deformation degree of 50%,75%, 83%,87%and 90%,respectively.The corrosion properties of different deformed AZ80 samples were studied by galvanic test in 3.5%NaCl solution.The results show that plastic deformation could improve the corrosion resistance of AZ80 alloy;and the corrosion rate of AZ80 deformed at 250℃ with the deformation degree of 83%was the lowest,which was 33%of the as-cast AZ80 alloy.Further studies of the microstructure show that the refined grain size and continuously distribution ofβphase around the grain boundary did have a positive effect on the improvement of corrosion resistance of AZ80 alloys.For AZ80 alloys,the smaller the grain size is,the more homogeneous the structure is,and the better the corrosion resistance is.

Influence of aging on microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ80 and ZK60 magnesium alloys

The effect of aging on the microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ80 and ZK60 wrought magnesium alloys was studied with optical microscope and mechanical testers. The results demonstrate that both the tensile strength and elongation of AZ80 alloy increase firstly and then decrease as the aging temperature rises, the peak values appear when the aging temperature is 170 ℃ The hardness of ZK60 alloy increases firstly and then decreases as the aging temperature rises, and the hardness reaches its peak value at 170 ℃. However, the toughness of the alloy is just the opposite. Moreover, ZK60 alloy has good performances in both impact toughness and other mechanical properties at the aging temperature from 140 ℃ to 200 ℃.

Dynamic and Static Aging Precipitation of β-Mg_(17)Al_(12) in the AZ80 Magnesium Alloy During Multi-directional Forging and Subsequent Aging

Dynamic and static aging precipitation of Mg17Al12 phases in AZ80 magnesium alloy was studied by multidirectional forging（MDF） with decreasing temperatures from 410 to 300 ℃ and subsequent aging process. The results show that the morphology of the β-Mg17Al12 phases during forging process dynamically precipitates and aging process（statically precipitation） exhibited granular and laminar shapes, respectively. During the MDF, the inhomogeneous dynamic precipitation of the β-Mg17Al12 phases results in the uniformity on grain size, which is fine in the area with many granular Mg17Al12 phases but the grain is still coarse where there is no Mg17Al12 phases. During the aging process, the morphology of newly formed β-Mg17Al12 phases depends on the structural character of the forged sample. The newly precipitated β-Mg17Al12 phases are coarse laminar and needle-like shape in area with coarse grain. While, the fine newly precipitated β-Mg17Al12 phases are fine granular and needle-like in the area with fine grain.

Effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ80M magnesium alloy fabricated by wire arc additive manufacturing

To maximize the benefits of wire arc additive manufacturing(WAAM)processes,the effect of post-deposition heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of WAAM AZ80M magnesium(Mg)alloy was investigated.Three different heat treatment procedures(T4,T5 and T6)were performed.According to the results,after T4 heat treatment,the microsegregation of alloying elements was improved with the eutectic structure dissolved.Samples after T5 heat treatment inherited the net-like distribution of secondary phases similar to the as-deposited sample,where the eutectic structure covering the interdendritic regions and theβ-phase precipitated around the eutectic structure.After T6 heat treatment,the tinyβ-phases re-precipitated from the matrix and distributed in inner and outer of the grains.The hardness distribution of the samples went through T4 and T6 heat treatment was more uniform in comparison to that of T5 heat treated samples.The tensile test showed that the T6 heat treatment improved the strength and ductility,and the anisotropy between horizontal and vertical can be eliminated.Moreover,T4 treated samples exhibited highest ductility.

The effects of deformation parameters and cooling rates on the aging behavior of AZ80+0.4%Ce

The extruded AZ80+0.4%Ce magnesium alloy was twisted in the temperature range of 300-380℃by using a Gleeble 3500 thermal simulation test machine with a torsion unit.The deformed cylindrical specimens were cooled at a cooling rate of 10℃/s or 0.1℃/s,respectively,and aged at 170℃.The microstructure analysis results showed that the grain size decreased with increasing specimen radial position from center(SRPC),and that the strong initial basal texture of the extruded magnesium alloy was weakened.Both continuous and discontinuous dynamic recrystallization mechanisms were involved in contributing to the grain refinement for all specimens investigated.And a novel extension twinning induced dynamic recrystallization mechanism was proposed for specimen deformed at 300℃.For the specimens deformed at 300℃and 340℃followed by a slow cooling rate(0.1℃/s),precipitates of various shapes(β-Mg_(17)Al_(12)),with the dominant precipitates being on the grains boundaries,appeared on the surface section.For specimen deformed at 380℃,lamellar precipitates(LPS)in the interiors of the grains were predominant.After aging,the LPS still dominated for specimens twisted at 380℃;however,the LPS gradually decreased with decreasing deformation temperatures from 380℃to 300℃.Dynamically precipitatedβ,especially those decorating the grain boundaries,changed the competition pictures for the LPS and precipitates of other shapes after aging.Interestingly,LPS dominated the areas for the center section of the specimens after aging regardless of deformation temperatures.Low temperature deformation with high SRPC followed by rapid cooling rate increased the micro hardness of the alloy after aging due to refined grain,reduced precipitates size,decreased lamellar spacing as well as strain hardening.

The evolution of microstructure and texture of AZ80 Mg alloy cup-shaped pieces processed by rotating backward extrusion

This study proposed an effective plastic deformation technique,rotating backward extrusion(RBE),for producing high performance AZ80 magnesium alloy cup-shaped pieces.The RBE process was carried on the Gleeble-3500 test machine at 653 K,and the conventional backward extrusion(CBE)was also conducted for comparison.A detailed microstructure analysis was performed using the optical microscopy(OM)and electron back-scatter diffraction(EBSD).The results shown that the equivalent strain and deformation uniformity of the cup pieces could be substantially increased by the RBE process compared with the CBE process.Furthermore,the RBE process could significantly improve the grain refining capacity and the proportion of dynamic recrystallization(DRX),of which the maximum reduction of grain size was 88.60%,and the maximum increase of DRX proportion was 55.30%in the cup bottom.The main deformation mechanism of the RBE process was the discontinuous DRX(DDRX),while the continuous DRX(CDRX)was also occurred in the cup transition.Compared with the CBE sample,the texture of the cup bottom was weakened for the RBE sample.The microhardness value of the RBE sample was higher than that of the CBE sample,which can be attributed to the grain refinement strengthening.