Comparative examinations on the activity and variant selection of twinning during tension and compression of magnesium alloys

Abstract

In the present study, an Mg weld with β-type fiber texture was produced by friction stir welding (FSW) and then was subjected to tension and compression along the transverse direction (TD). The deformed microstructure by 5% strain was examined in various regions of the Mg weld by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique. It was found that profuse twinning was activated in stir zone (SZ) -side after tension and in SZ-center and crown zone (CZ) -center after compression due to the presence of relatively large Schmid factor (SF). However, a few twins (2–3%) were also observed in SZ-center after tension and in SZ-side after compression. In this case, the twins have very small and even negative SF. For the twins with large SF, they were likely connected at grain boundaries forming twin pairs, while for those with small or negative SF, they were mostly confined within grains. For connected twins, most of the active variants have favorable SF and geometric compatibility factor (m′). However, the distributions of SF and m′ are different between the twins formed in compression and tension. For isolated twins, the adjacent grains connected with the twins were generally in favorable orientation for basal slip, and the selection of twin variants was likely affected by m′ between the most favorable basal slip and the twins.