Microstructure and superplasticity of Mg–2Gd–xZn alloys processed by equal channel angular pressing

Abstract

Abstract Microstructure, mechanical properties and superplastic behavior of Mg–2Gd–xZn (x = 0, 1, 2 and 3 wt%) alloys were investigated after extrusion and equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). After only 2 passes of ECAP, a homogenous fine-grained microstructure with a grain size of 2.33 μm and a high fraction of high-angle grain boundaries of 84% were formed in the Mg–2Gd–3Zn (GZ23) alloy, while 4 ECAP passes were necessary to create such a structure in the other alloys. This was attributed to the higher solute drag effect in the other alloys, retarding dynamic recrystallization (DRX). Although DRX occurred more easily in the GZ23 alloy, the final DRX grain size was slightly coarser compared to the other alloys. Shear punch testing (SPT) showed that grain refinement during ECAP leads to a slight increase in the shear yield strength of all studied materials after 2 ECAP passes, which was mostly balanced by texture softening caused by the shear texture component and grain growth after 4 ECAP passes. Contrary to the other alloys, the GZ23 alloy exhibited superplastic behavior after a lower number of ECAP passes. In addition, the superplastic temperature for GZ23 was 648 K, which was lower than the 673 K observed for the other alloys. The m-values of ~0.45–0.5 and activation energies of 98–114 kJ/mol suggested grain boundary sliding (GBS) controlled by grain boundary diffusion as the dominant deformation mechanism in the superplastic regime. This was confirmed by microstructural observations.