Grain boundary co-segregation in magnesium alloys with multiple substitutional elements

Abstract

Alloying additions in magnesium can modify common basal textures during recrystallization based on their solid solubility and precipitation behavior. With a variety of tenable theories in the literature, a far greater understanding is required of how restricted growth due to drag effects and annealing texture formation are linked. In the current work, a complex magnesium alloy Mg-3Al-1Zn-0.3Ca (wt.%) with multiple substitutional elements was subjected to a combination of deformation and annealing treatments in order to examine how a variation of bulk solute concentrations would influence its segregation and precipitation behavior. The work focuses in particular on solute segregation to grain boundaries and demonstrates that the type and level of segregation play a key role in controlling the growth behavior in such a way that restricts preferential growth of grains with a basal texture. Deeper knowledge in this area can be expected to advance current alloy design strategies by tweaking the solute concentration in the solid solution through targeted heat treatments to result in the required amounts of second phase precipitation and grain boundary segregation.