Effect of grain refinement on material properties of Mg-8%Al-0.5%Zn alloy after the combined processes of multi-direction forging and equal channel angular pressing

Abstract

Establishing the novel microstructure is an effective method to accelerate the applications of magnesium and its alloys. In this work, an Mg-8%Al-0.5%Zn alloy (AZ80 Mg) with ultra-fine-grain (UFG) size of similar to 1.29 mu m was achieved by the combined processes of multi-directional forging (MDF) and equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The achieved ultra-fine grain structure made the Mg alloy, owing to inclusive performance as the structural material. The AZ80 Mg alloy with MDF 6 pass followed by two pass ECAP has superior mechanical properties such as ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 352 MPa and elongation of 11% when compared to as-received Mg alloy. Also, an unprocessed Mg alloy showed the corrosion rate of a 13.28 mm y(-1), the corrosion rate of processed Mg alloy could be further decelerated through a change of microstructure obtained from combined processes of MDF and ECAP. This study outstandingly obtained a 94% reduction of corrosion rate after MDF-3P followed by an ECAP-2P (0.77 mm y(-1)) process compared to as-received Mg alloy.