Microstructure, Texture and Mechanical Properties of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Fabricated by High Strain Rate Biaxial Forging

High strain rate biaxial forging (HSRBF) was performed on AZ31 magnesium alloy to an accumulated strain of ΣΔε = 1.32, the related microstructure, texture and mechanical properties were investigated. It was found that the microstructure evolution can be divided into two steps during HSRBF. In the early forging processes, the refinement of the grain is obvious, the size of ~10 μm can be achieved; this can be attributed to the unique mechanisms including the formation of high density twins ({1012} extension twin and {1011}-{1012} secondary twin) and subsequently twining induced DRX (dynamic recrystallization). The thermal activated temperature increases with the increase of accumulated strain and results in the grain growth. Rolling texture is the main texture in the high strain rate biaxial forged (HSRBFed) alloys, the intensity of which decreases with the accumulated strain. Moreover, the basal pole rotates towards the direction of forging direction (FD) after each forging pass, and a basal texture with basal pole inclining at 15–20° from the rolling direction (RD) is formed in the full recrystallized HSRBFed alloys. The grain refinement and tiled texture are attributed to the excellent strength and ductility of HSRMBFed alloys with full recrystallized structure. As the accumulated strain is ΣΔε = 0.88, the HSRMBFed alloy displays an outstanding combination of mechanical properties, the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is 331.2 MPa and the elongation is 25.1%.