Mechanical properties of AZ31B magnesium alloy processed by I-ECAP

Incremental equal channel angular pressing (I-ECAP) is a severe plastic deformation process used to refine grain size of metals, which allows processing very long billets. In this work, AZ31B magnesium alloy was processed by routes A, B<SUB>C</SUB> and C of I-ECAP. Texture and grain size effects on mechanical properties and tension-compression anisotropy were investigated. Strong influence of processing route on yield and fracture behaviour of material was established. SEM technique was used to obtain microstructure images of I-ECAPed samples subjected to tension and compression. Different deformation mechanisms were activated during tension in samples with coarse and fine grained microstructures. In coarse grained samples large amount of twins was reported while fined grained microstructure exhibited slip dominated deformation. Influence of different deformation mechanisms on mechanical properties was discussed. It was concluded that material properties of AZ31B can be tailored for various applications by using different routes of I-ECAP.