Anisotropy of mechanical and thermal properties of AZ31 sheets prepared using the ARB technique

Abstract

In the accumulative roll bonding (ARB) technique, repeated stacking of material followed by conventional roll-bonding is carried out. For this process the surfaces are cleaned with ethanol and then joined together by rolling. The rolled material is then cut into two halves, again surface treated and roll-bonded. This process may be repeated several times. For the magnesium alloy AZ31 (Mg-3Al-1Zn) rolling at an elevated temperature of 400 °C is necessary for ARB because of the low plasticity of hexagonal magnesium alloys at lower temperatures. Samples for this study were prepared using 1 to 3 ARB passes through the rolling mill. It was found that the ARB substantially refined the grain size of sheets to the micrometer scale. The microstructure and texture of the deformed samples were studied by light and electron microscopy. The mechanical properties of the ARB samples were explored using tensile test-pieces cut from the sheets with the tensile axis taken either parallel or perpendicular to the rolling direction, where a significant anisotropy in both mechanical properties and Young’s modulus was found. Anisotropy is explained on the basis of the specific microstructure and texture formed during the ARB process.