Effect of hot forging on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Zn-Y alloy

The use of hot forging as an alternative thermo-mechanical treatment to refine a quasicrystalline reinforced Mg-Zn-Y cast alloy has been explored. Hot forging refines the grain size of the cast Mg-Zn-Y alloy and induces a strong texture with the basal planes perpendicular. to the forging direction. However, forging is not effective to distribute the I-phase homogeneously through the magnesium matrix. At low temperature, grain refinement is the main strengthening mechanism and contributes to increasing the mechanical strength of the forged-Mg-Zn-Y alloy. Furthermore, the basal texture affords an additional strengthening contribution whose magnitude depends only on the texture intensity. (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.