Effects of precipitate on the slip activity and plastic heterogeneity of Mg-11Y-5Gd-2Zn-0.5Zr (wt. %) during room temperature compression

Abstract To understand the effects of precipitates on the deformation mechanisms and plastic heterogeneity of the cast Mg-11Y-5Gd-2Zn-0.5Zr (wt.%) alloy, quantitative comparison studies were performed on the solid solution (T4) and peak-aged (T6) samples during room temperature compression based on slip trace analysis and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. At 10% plastic strain, no twins were observed in both T4 and T6 samples; the dominant slip mode transitioned from 2nd order pyramidal slip (34.1%) to basal slip (50.5%) after the T6 treatment, which indicated that the precipitate-hardening effect for pyramidal slip was stronger than that for basal slip. Substantial active slip systems (up to 40%) exhibited low normalized Schmid factors (