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Effects of Rolling-Cryogenic Process on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Sheets

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Abstract

In order to improve the microstructure of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets and enhance their comprehensive mechanical properties, the effects of cryogenic treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties after hot-rolled AZ31 magnesium alloy were investigated in this paper by combining different rolling reduction with cryogenic treatment. The results show that fine dynamic recrystallization grains appear at the original grain boundaries, and the grain becomes fine and uniform after rolling and deformation. After cryogenic treatment of the hot-rolled sheets, the grains are further significantly refined, the size tends to be homogeneous, the second phase is precipitated along the grain boundaries, and a small amount of twins are produced. In addition, after 20-min cryogenic treatment, the plasticity of the rolled sheets with 30% reduction was greatly improved, and the elongation at break was up to 14.2%, which was 55% higher than that of the original sheet; its hardness and tensile strength were increased from 64.4 HV and 230 MPa of the original sheet to 76.6 HV and 286 MPa, respectively, which shows that the cryogenic treatment of the hot-rolled sheets could effectively improve mechanical properties. This study provides some theoretical guidance and technical support for the processing and manufacturing of high-performance AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets, which has important academic significance and engineering value.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 52174362 and 51975207) and Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 2020JJ5181).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, **angtan, 411201, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Jialong Zhang & Liwei Lu

  2. Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of High Efficiency and Precision Machining of Difficult-to-Cut Material, Hunan University of Science and Technology, **angtan, 411201, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Liwei Lu, Bo Che, Min Ma & Zhiqiang Wu

  3. College of Material Science and Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, 400054, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Zhou

  4. Institute for Advanced Studies in Precision Materials, Yantai University, Yantai, 264005, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Hua Zhang

  5. College of Materials Science and Engineering, **angtan University, **angtan, 411201, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Fugang Qi

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  1. Jialong Zhang
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Contributions

Jialong Zhang was involved in the methodology, investigation, experiments and writing original draft. Liwei Lu contributed to the investigation, supervision and experiments. Bo Che was involved in the review, collection of data and experiments. Min Ma contributed to the methodology, investigation and review. Zhiqiang Wu was involved in the supervision and formal analysis. Tao Zhou helped in the methodology and supervision. Hua Zhang was involved in the supervision and formal analysis. Fugang Qi contributed to the conceptualization and investigation.

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Correspondence to Liwei Lu.

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Zhang, J., Lu, L., Che, B. et al. Effects of Rolling-Cryogenic Process on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Sheets. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 32, 6448–6464 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-022-07559-w

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