Effects of Ca and Nd addition on plastic instability in extruded Mg-Mn alloy deformed under various conditions

Plastic instability, called Portevin-Le-Chatelier(PLC) effect, manifests itself as an unstable plastic flow during tensile tests of structural materials. This phenomenon has a strong influence on diverse properties, leading to unexpected vulnerabilities in the service environment.Among various magnesium-based alloys, PLC phenomenon is most prominently observed in the Mg-Mn-Nd alloy under elevated temperature and low strain rate conditions. An important aim of the study is to clarify and compare the significance of the RE and Ca addition, which are known to cause a formation of a largely weakened non-basal type texture, in the occurrence of plastic instability. Due to the PLC phenomenon, there is a risk of weakening texture and formability improvement by the addition of RE and Ca elements in Mg alloys. Based on the understanding of the role of Nd to the PLC phenomenon in Mg-Mn alloy identified in previous studies, the PLC characteristics according to alloying elements and deformation conditions were compared and analyzed. To identify the micromechanical mechanisms of the PLC phenomenon, varies in the microstructure and mechanical properties during deformation of Mg-Mn binary and Ca or Nd-containing Mg-Mn-based ternary alloys in various conditions were systemically analyzed. The addition of Ca did not show a marked PLC effect due to the formation of low number density Mn-Ca and Ca-Ca solute clusters and an unbalanced Mn:Ca ratio. In contrast, the addition of Nd leads to the formation of a higher number density of Nd-Nd and Mn-Nd solute clusters than that of Ca-Ca and Mn-Ca solute clusters of the Mg-Mn-Ca alloy, resulting in a stable solute-dislocation interaction atmosphere under specific ranges of deformation temperature and strain rate. The deformation in the regime of PLC phenomenon, results in a decrease in ductility and an increase in strength, despite deformation at elevated temperatures with maintaining the weakened texture.

Plastic instability and texture modification in extruded Mg-Mn-Nd alloy

Even though Mg alloys containing Mn and rare earth elements lead to higher ductility and lower yield asymmetry due to the weak texture after extrusion, plastic instability, commonly known as the Portevin–Le Chatelier(PLC) effect, causes unexpected fragility in the service environment. In the present study, the PLC phenomenon and texture development during the deformation of Mg-Mn and Mg-Mn-Nd extruded alloys were investigated under various temperatures and strain rates. The addition of Nd causes not only texture weakening but also severe PLC phenomenon. The PLC phenomenon was significantly affected by the temperatures and the strain rates, which causes a difference in mechanical properties and development of texture. In the conditions of high temperature and low strain rate, the strength increased while the elongation decreased significantly, and obvious PLC phenomenon with severe serration and negative strain rate sensitivity. The initial texture was maintained even after deformation only under severe PLC conditions, and this is due to the restriction of basal slip and suppression of lattice rotation in PLC conditions. The series of results indicate that the PLC phenomenon causes a reduction of formability even at high temperature.

On a plastic instability criterion for ultra-large radial-axial ring rolling process with four guide rolls

A dynamic mechanical model is proposed to describe the complexing actions of all the rolls on the ring during the ultra-large radial-axial ring rolling(RARR)process with four guide rolls.Based on the model,the calculation models for bending moment and normal stress at any section of the ring are deduced by force method.If the maximum section bending normal stress exceeds the yield stress of the ring materials,the ring will be distorted thus leading to the instability of the RARR process.According to this,a plastic instability criterion for the ultra-large RARR process with four guide rolls is developed,based on which a mathematical model to calculate the critical guide force for avoiding plastic instability of ring is obtained.The influence rule of the position of guide roll on the dangerous ring section of plastic instability is revealed,from which it is found the dangerous ring section mainly appears at the radial and axial deformation regions and the contact positions of the guide rolls and ring.The optimized layout of guide roll around the ring in favor of stability is determined to be about a1=61°and a2=119°.The plastic instability criterion is proven to be reliable from the aspects of the critical guide force,the section bending moment and normal stress and the dangerous ring section of plastic instability.Intelligent simulation case studies for the RARR process of ultra-large aluminum alloy ring indicate that the stable forming of the process can be effectively realized by regulating the guide force based on the plastic instability criterion.This work could provide a valuable guidance for the control of guide rolls and the optimization of the ultra-large RARR process with four guide rolls.

Carbon Fiber Breakage Mechanism in Aluminum(Al)/Carbon Fibers(CFs) Composite Sheet during Accumulative Roll Bonding(ARB) Process

We put forward a method of fabricating Aluminum(Al)/carbon fibers(CFs) composite sheets by the accumulative roll bonding(ARB) method. The finished Al/CFs composite sheet has CFs and pure Al sheets as sandwich and surface layers. After cross-section observation of the Al/CFs composite sheet, we found that the CFs discretely distributed within the sandwich layer. Besides, the tensile test showed that the contribution of the sandwich CFs layer to tensile strength was less than 11% compared with annealed pure Al sheet. With ex-situ observation of the CFs breakage evolution with-16%,-32%, and-45% rolling reduction during the ARB process, the plastic instability of the Al layer was found to bring shear damages to the CFs. At last, the bridging strengthening mechanism introduced by CFs was sacrificed. We provide new insight into and instruction on Al/CFs composite sheet preparation method and processing parameters.

Experimental and numerical analyses of magnesium alloy hot workability

Due to their hexagonal crystal structure,magnesium alloys have relatively low workability at room temperature.In this study,the hot workability behavior of cast-extruded AZ31B magnesium alloy is studied through hot compression testing,numerical modeling and microstructural analyses.Hot deformation tests are performed at temperatures of 250℃ to 400℃ under strain rates of 0.01 to 1.0 s^(−1).Transmission electron microscopy is used to reveal the presence of dynamic recrystallization(DRX),dynamic recovery(DRY),cracks and shear bands.To predict plastic instabilities during hot compression tests of AZ31B magnesium alloy,the authors use Johnson–Cook damage model in a 3D finite element simulation.The optimal hot workability of magnesium alloy is found at a temperature(T)of 400℃ and strain rate(ε)of 0.01 s^(−1).Stability is found at a lower strain rate,and instability is found at a higher strain rate.

Temperature dependence of Lüders strain and its correlation with martensitic transformation in a medium Mn transformation-induced plasticity steel

The Luders deformation behavior in a medium Mn transformation induced plasticity （TRIP） steel is investigated at different temperatures ranging from 25 to 300 ℃. It demonstrates that the Ltiders band appears at all testing temperatures but with varied Luders strains which do not change monoton ically with temperature. The martensitic transformation is simultaneously observed within the Ltiders band in varying degrees depending on the testing temperature. It is well verified that the martensitic transformation is not responsible for the formation of Luders band, and a reasonable explanation is given for the non-monotonic variation of Luders strain with increasing temperature.

Prediction of Forming Limit Diagrams for Materials with HCP Structure

The forming limit diagram（FLD） is an important tool to be used when characterizing the formability of metallic sheets used in metal forming processes. Experimental measurement and determination of the FLD is timeconsuming and therefore the analytical prediction based on theory of plasticity and instability criteria allows a direct and efficient methodology to obtain critical values at different loading paths, thus carrying significant practical importance.However, the accuracy of the plastic instability prediction is strongly dependent on the choice of the material constitutive model [1–3]. Particularly for materials with hexagonal close packed（HCP） crystallographic structure, they have a very limited number of active slip systems at room temperature and demonstrate a strong asymmetry between yielding in tension and compression [4, 5]. Not only the magnitude of the yield locus changes, but also the shape of the yield surface is evolving during the plastic deformation [4]. Conventional phenomenological constitutive models of plasticity fail to capture this unconventional mechanical behavior [4, 6]. Cazacu and Plunkett [6] have proposed generic yield criteria, by using the transformed principal stress, to account for the initial plastic anisotropy and strength differential（SD） effect simultaneously. In this contribution, a generic FLD MATLAB script was developed based on Marciniak–Kuczynski analytical theory and applied to predict the localized necking. The influence of asymmetrical effect on the FLD was evaluated. Several yield functions such as von Mises, Hill, Barlat89, and Cazacu06 were incorporated into analysis. The paper also presents and discusses the influence of different hardening laws on the formability of materials with HCP crystal structures. The findings indicate that the plastic instability theory coupled with Cazacu model can adequately predict the onset of localized necking for HCP materials under different strain paths.