Review on ultrafined/nanostructured magnesium alloys produced through severe plastic deformation: microstructures

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran

2 School of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

A review on the microstructural evolution in magnesium alloys during severe plastic deformation was
presented. The challenges deserved to achieve ultrafine/ nanostructured magnesium were discussed.
The characteristics of the processed materials are influenced by three main factors, including i)
difficult processing at low temperatures, ii) high temperature processing and the occurrence of
dynamic recrystallization and grain growth processes, and iii) a combined effect of grain refinement
and crystallographic texture changes. Reviewing the published results indicate that there are two
potential difficulties with severe deformation of magnesium alloys. First, it is very hard to achieve
homogeneous ultrafined microstructure with initial coarse grains. The second is the dependency of
microstructure development on the initial grain size and on the imposed strain level. It was clarified
that different grain refining mechanisms may be contributed along the course of multi-pass severe
deformation. It was clarified that discontinuous recrystallization takes places during the first stages of
deformation, whereas continuous refinement of the recrystallized grain may be realized at consecutive
passes. Shear band formation as well as twinning were demonstrated to play a significant role in grain
refinement of magnesium alloy. Also, the higher the processing temperature employed the more
homogeneous microstructure may be achieved with higher share of low angle grain boundaries.

Keywords


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