Effects of Sm and Nd on Microstructure and Properties of AZ81 Magnesium Alloy

The effect of complex adding Nd and Sm elements (0.8~4wt %) on the microstructures and properties of AZ81 magnesium alloy were studied. The results show that the microstructure of the alloy was refined obviously after complex adding Sm and Nd elements. The grain sizes were declined from 98μm to 77μm, and β(Mg17Al12) phases which had a broken network distribution in alloy were decreased. At room temperature, when the addition of Sm and Nd increased to 1.5%, 0.9% respectively, the alloy had a tensile strength of 283MPa which was 10.55% higher than the base alloy. At the temperature150°Cand175°C, the tensile strength of the AZ81 alloy with 1.0% Sm and 0.6% Nd reached 208.8MPa and 176.5Mpa respectively which was 10.01% and 8.37% higher than the base alloy respectively.