Formation of nanocrystalline AZ31B Mg alloys via cryogenic rotary swaging

Abstract

A bulk nanocrystalline AZ31B Mg alloy with extraordinarily high strength was prepared via cryogenic rotary swaging in this study. The obtained alloy shows finer grains, higher strength, and a negligible tension-compression yield asymmetry, compared with that prepared via room-temperature rotary swaging. Transmission electron microscopy investigations showed that at the initial stage, multiple twins, mostly tension twins, were activated and intersected with each other, thereby refining the coarse grains into a fine lamellar structure. Then, two types of nanoscale subgrains were generated with increasing swaging strain. The first type of nanoscale subgrain contained twin boundaries and low-angle grain boundaries. This type of subgrain appeared at the twin-twin intersections and was mainly driven by high local stress. The second type of nanoscale subgrain was formed within the twin lamellae. The boundaries of this type of subgrain did not contain twin boundaries and were transformed from massive dislocation arrays. Finally, randomly oriented nanograins were obtained via dynamic recrystallization, under the combined function of deformation heat and increased stored energy. Compared with room-temperature rotary swaging, cryogenic rotary swaging exhibits a slower grain refinement process but a remarkably enhanced grain refinement effect after the same five-pass swaging.