A novel severe plastic deformation method and its effect on microstructure, texture and mechanical properties of Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Zr alloy

Abstract

In this paper, cyclic expansion extrusion with an asymmetrical extrusion cavity (CEE-AEC) was proposed as a novel severe plastic deformation process for fabricating bulk ultrafine-grained (UFG) metals. Increasing the size of the processed sample and introducing the shear strain by attaching an asymmetrical extrusion cavity are the core advantages of this technology. The CEE-AEC process was applied to Mg-13Gd-4Y–2Zn-0.4Zr alloys for four passes deformation with the decreasing temperature, and then the microstructure evolution, texture analysis, and mechanical properties were investigated. Microstructure results show that a dramatical grain refinement is achieved from initial value of 24 ± 0.3 μm to 1.4 ± 0.3 μm which is mainly led by continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) and discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) as well as the particle-stimulated nucleation (PSN) induced by interdendritic long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) phases. With increasing CEE-AEC passes, the intensities of basal texture are gradually weakened, and the basal plane tends to incline to transverse and normal directions with different degrees of different passes, leading to a remarkable increase in Schmid factor for the activation of basal slip system. Tensile tests at room temperature (RT) indicate that the samples after three-passes of CEE-AEC exhibit the best comprehensive mechanical properties with tensile yield strength (TYS) of 302 MPa, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 330 MPa, and fracture elongation of 6.1%, which are mainly ascribed to the grain refinement, broken of interdendritic block-shaped LPSO phases, and texture modification.