Uniaxial and plane strain compression behaviour of magnesium alloy AZ31: A comparative study

Texture evolution and microstructure development of hot extruded magnesium alloy AZ31 deformed by PSC and uniaxial deformation at select temperatures and a constant strain rate of 104 s(-1) were investigated and compared using X-ray techniques, electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) and optical microscopy. At a deformation temperature of 200 degrees C both deformation routes resulted in a similar crystallographic texture and showed a heterogeneous microstructure consisting of highly deformed zones appearing as huge and/or elongated grains containing twins and shear bands embedded in a very fine-grained microstructure. High temperature deformation (400 degrees C) gave rise to completely different deformation textures for the two processes. Uniaxial deformation tended to randomize the initial extrusion texture, whereas in PSC a prism-texture {10-10}< 11-20 > prevailed. The flow stress was found to be strongly dependent on loading conditions and deformation modes.