Influence of aluminum content on twinning and texture development of cast Mg–Al–Zn alloy during compression

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of aluminum content on the twinning and texture evolution of cast magnesium alloys during compression. As-cast AZ31, AZ61, and AZ91D magnesium alloys exhibited basically a random orientation. Compressive deformation resulted in the formation of {1¯21¯0}〈0001〉 and {011¯0}〈0001〉 texture components, indicating that the c-axes of hcp unit cells in most grains were rotated toward the anti-compression direction due to the occurrence of extension twinning. The intensity of the texture components increased with increasing compressive strain. The presence of a higher amount of β-Mg17Al12 precipitates arising from more Al content in alloy AZ91D hindered the formation and growth of twins which led to the weakening of deformation texture of the high Al-containing magnesium alloy at higher compressive strains.