Influence of pre-hardening on microstructure evolution and mechanical behavior of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet.

The mechanical responses of AZ31 Mg alloy sheet processed by pre-hardened at different directions tilting 45° and 90° to the extrusion direction (ED) were compared and evaluated in correlation with the concurrent microstructure and texture evolution. The amount of deformation twinning was sensitive to crystal orientation with respect to the direction of pre-hardening. The tensile twinning could promote the nucleation rate in the following static recrystallization. In addition, the reorientation of the c -axis caused by the {1 0 −1 2} twins had a great influence on work hardening. Twinning could effectively coordinate the deformation texture, and the basal texture intensity was reduced to half after pre-hardening 7% along the transverse direction (TD) after annealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]