Influence of Extrusion Methods on Microstructure of Mg-Al-Zn Alloy

The correlation between the deformation behavior and the microstructure of AZ31 magnesium alloy processed by as-extruded and ECAP is investigated in this paper. The grain size of as-extruded AZ31 magnesium alloy is about 30μm which dues to basal and twinning. Twinning is the main deformation behavior for as-extruded AZ31 magnesium alloy. The deformation of as-extruded is mainly caused by basal slip and twinning. The grains of ECAP are further refined to 6μm. With little amount of twins, the refinement of AZ31 magnesium alloy is caused by non-basal sliding. For ECAP precessed sample, grain boundary sliding happens and the proportion of high-angle grains are improved, which makes grain boundary sliding easier. The main deformation mechanism of ECAP is non-basal slip and grains boundary sliding.