The Effect of Reversed Loading Conditions on the Mechanical Behaviour of Extruded Magnesium Alloy AZ31

An indirectly extruded round bar of magnesium alloy AZ31 has been subjected to a cyclic test consisting of preloading in compression to different values of maximum stress followed by a single tensile test segment. Concurrent acoustic emission measurements were used to determine the active deformation mechanisms during plastic flow and work hardening. Electron backscattering diffraction was applied to obtain local orientation images in order to reveal twins and twinned fractions of the microstructure. Twins form preferentially in larger grains during the compression test segment and only with increasing stress do smaller grains show twinning. Some grains are completely re-oriented as a result of twinning. During the tensile test segment, untwinning is the most significant deformation mechanism although in some re-oriented grains new twins also nucleate. The acoustic emission count rates confirm that this is only the case after compression to higher stress levels.