Wen Jiang Ding

Superplasticity and grain boundary sliding in rolled AZ91 magnesium alloy at high strain rates

Abstract The superplastic deformation characteristics and microstructure evolution of the rolled AZ91 magnesium alloys at temperatures ranging from 623 to 698 K (0.67–0.76 Tm) and at the high strain rates ranging from 10−3 to 1 s−1 were investigated with the methods of OM, SEM and TEM. An excellent superplasticity with the maximum elongation to failure of 455% was obtained at 623 K and the strain rate of 10−3 s−1 in the rolled AZ91 magnesium alloys and its strain rate sensitivity m is high, up to 0.64. The dominant deformation mechanism in high strain rate superplasticity is still grain boundary sliding (GBS), which was studied systematically in this study. The dislocation creep controlled by grain boundary diffusion was considered the main accommodation mechanism, which was observed in this study.

Al Arc Spray Coating on AZ31 Mg Alloy and Its Corrosion Behavior

Aluminum arc spray process was employed to form an aluminum coating on AZ31 magnesium alloy substrate. Anti-corrosion property of the Al-coated specimens was evaluated by salt immersion tests and electrochemical tests. There was no apparent inter-layer diffusion or compound layer formation between the aluminum coating and the substrate under as-sprayed condition. To improve the density of the coating and the bonding strength between the coating and the substrate, a heat treatment process was conducted after spraying to form an interlayer by metallurgic diffusion. The interlayer consisted of large primary crystal Mg17Al12 phase and minute lamella structure that consisted of Mg17Al12 and α-Mg. The hardness of both the aluminum coating and the interlayer are higher than that of the substrate. In electrochemical experiments, the corrosion current density decreased from 2.4×10-1mA/cm2 of AZ31 to 7.1×10-3mA/cm2 of heat-treated specimen. It suggests that the corrosion resistance of AZ31 can be greatly improved by aluminum arc spray with a following heat treatment process.

Mechanical Properties and Creep Behavior of Mg–Al–Ca Alloys

This paper investigates the microstructure, mechanical properties and creep behavior of Mg–Al–Ca alloys with different Ca content. SEM and EDAX analyses show that the dominant second phase in the as-cast Mg–Al–Ca alloys is Al2Ca, which distributes at the grain boundaries and disperses in the grain interior as well. Both the elevated tensile strength and the creep resistance of Mg–Al–Ca alloys obviously increased with increasing Ca at high temperature. TEM analyses reveal that finer Al2Ca particles with an average size of 0.02 µm precipitated dynamically during the creep process. Selected area electron diffraction (SAD) patterns show that the dynamic Al2Ca precipitates have a coherent interface with matrix as (0110) Mg // (220) Al2Ca, [2110] Mg // [112] Al2Ca. The strengthening mechanism of Mg–Al–Ca alloys at elevated temperature was discussed.

A New Low GWP Protective Atmosphere Containing HFC-152a for Molten Magnesium against Ignition

Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) is widely used by the magnesium industry as a protective atmosphere. It has been demonstrated that SF6 prevents molten magnesium from further oxidation by reacting with magnesium to make the surface film on the magnesium melt denser. However, due to its high greenhouse effect (GWP=23900), the alternatives of SF6 must be sought. In this paper, 1,1-difluoroethane (commercially named HFC-152a), whose GWP value is only 140 and far lower than that of SF6, was tested to check its capacity of ignition-proof and further-oxidation-proof. Similar to SF6, the melt’s surface film formed in the protective atmosphere containing HFC-152a has a shiny metallic appearance. The surface film’s microstructure has been characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD’s results showed that the film contains only MgO and MgF2 phases while SEM showed their morphologies are uniform.

Influence of Thermal and Thermo-Mechanical Processing on the Creep Resistance of Mg-10Gd-3Y-0,4Zr Alloy

Alloy Mg-10Gd-3Y-0,4Zr in as-cast, as-extruded, cast-T6 (peak aged) and extruded-T5 (peak aged) state was tensile creep tested at 200, 250 and 300 °C and stress 50, 80 and 120 MPa. Comparison of minimal creep rate shows that alloy Mg-10Gd-3Y-0,4Zr in cast-T6 conditions is characterized by an excellent creep resistance, which is higher than that of commercially available Mg-alloys. Creep resistance of as-cast, as-extruded and extruded-T5 alloy Mg-10Gd-3Y-0,4Zr is lower. Cavity nucleation is heavily affected by the amount of secondary phases on the grain boundaries and also by the initial grain size of the microstructure. After extrusion and in the extruded-T5 conditions creep cavitation was not observed, whereas in the as-cast and cast-T6 conditions creep cavitation occurred on the high fraction of grain boundaries.

Study on the Microstructure and Mechanical Property of High Strength Mg-Nd-Zn-Zr Alloy

The microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-3wt％Nd-0.2wt％Zn-0.4wt％Zr alloy in as-cast, solution-treated and solution-treated + peak-aged were investigated. The alloy had a cast structure with large intergranular Mg12Nd phase between the α-Mg matrix. After solution-treated, the intergranular Mg12Nd phase disappeared and lots of small Zr-containing particles distributed inside the grains. Small plate-like phases precipitated inside the grains strengthened the alloy to a high level after peak-aged at 200°C for 16 hours: the ultimate strength of the alloy up to 305 MPa, with considerable elongation rate 11%, and yield strength 140 MPa. The peak-aged samples also had good creep resistance, with strain rate less than 0.2% after 120 hours creep test under the condition of 110 MPa at 200°C. The minimum creep rate was about 4.64×10-9. The alloy had different fracture pattern in different states: as-cast state, intergranular fracture was the key pattern to failure; after solution-treated, the fracture pattern turned to cleavage transgranular fracture; after peak-aged, the alloy had a mixed fracture pattern of transgranular and intergranular, in which transgranular was the main style.

Effects of Er on microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Zn-Er-Zr magnesium alloys

Microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Zn-Er-Zr alloys were characterized in detail. The grain size of as-cast Mg-Zn-Er-Zr alloy was greatly decreased by the Mg-Zn-Er phases formed at grain boundaries. The addition of Er can increase the yield strength (YS) but decrease the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation of as-cast Mg-Zn-Zr alloy. The thermally stable Mg-Zn-Er phases were just partially dissolved into the matrix during solution treatment. And the addition of Er can prolong the precipitation process of Mg-Zn-Zr alloy. Solution-plus-ageing treatment can increase the strength of both the Mg-Zn-Zr and Mg-Zn-Er-Zr alloys, but the strengthening effect of Mg-Zn-Er-Zr alloy was greatly weakened, for the incompletely solution of Mg-Zn-Er phases. Er can greatly enhance the high temperature elongation of Mg-Zn-Zr alloy, but the increase of high temperature tensile strength was just a little.

Microstructure, Mechanical Properties, Creep and Corrosion Resistance of Mg-Gd-Y-Zr(-Ca) Alloys

The microstructure, mechanical properties, creep and corrosion resistance of Mg-Gd-Y-Zr(-Ca) alloys were studied. Small additions of 0.4-0.6 wt% Ca to Mg-(9-10)Gd-3Y-0.4Zr(wt.%) alloys led to a slight improvement in creep resistance and a remarkable increase in corrosion resistance, but an obvious decrease in elongation to fracture. UTS and TYS of the Mg-Gd-Y-Zr(-Ca) alloys are obviously higher than those of WE54, especially in the temperature range from room temperature to 200 oC. TEM images and corresponding energy dispersive x-ray spectra showed that the Ca element primarily segregated to the grain boundaries and existed in the cuboid-shaped particles with a trace concentration, and the small addition of Ca had no obvious effect on the orientation, morphology, and distribution of β′ phase, which is responsible for the peak hardness in Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloys.

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Extruded Mg-Zn-Gd-Based Alloy Reinforced by Quasicrystals and Laves Phase

The microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg95.9Zn3.5Gd0.6 and Mg94.4Zn3.5Gd0.6Cu1.5 alloys reinforced by icosahedral quasicrystalline phase (I-phase) and Laves phase has been studied after extrusion at 573K. Extrusion can significantly refined the I-phase and Laves phase, and the strengthening effect of I-phase and Laves phase has been analyzed. Large volume of icosahedral phase in Mg95.9Zn3.5Gd0.6 has important role in its high UTS and elongation due to strong bonding effect at the I-phase/matrix interface for low interface energy. The Laves phase with cubic topological and close-packed structure in Mg94.4Zn3.5Gd0.6Cu1.5 alloy result in the higher heat resistance at elevated temperatures.

Effects of Variable La/Ce Ratio on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Mg-5Al-0.3Mn-1RE Alloys

Effects of variable La/Ce ratio on microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-5Al-0.3Mn-1RE alloys were investigated. The results indicated that pure La or pure Ce can improve ultimate strength and yield strength of AM50 effectively without obvious decrease of elongation, and the effect of La is better than that of Ce. However, addition of La and Ce together deteriorates the mechanical properties of AM50, and the valley of mechanical properties mostly appears on La:Ce= 1:1. The existence of coarse skeleton-like phase and less amount of Mg17Al12 phase is responsible for this.