Enhancement of Material Properties of AZ80 Mg Alloy Processed by Combined Severe Plastic Deformation

The process of bringing about a novel microstructure can be a good way of improving on the uses of magnesium and its alloys. This study examines the AZ80 Mg with an ultra-fine grain (UFG) that has an average grain size of less than 1 µm by the use of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), rolling, and multi-direction forged (MDF) processes in combination. The present UFG structure offers better performance characteristic as structural material for Mg alloy. From the as-received state, the AZ80 Mg alloy has better mechanical properties with UTS of 367 MPa and elongation of 16% after the three MDF passes with addition of further two ECAP passes and two passes of rolling. Similarly, the as-received Mg alloy had a corrosion rate of 13.74 mm/y. conventionally, the MDF-3P followed by the ECAP-2P enabled the AZ80 alloy to be improved to 3.69 mm/y. Thus, the corrosion rate has been significantly reduced to 0.95 mm/y using the synergistic treatment of MDF, ECAP, and rolling.