PROCESSING AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF FINE GRAINED MAGNESIUM BY EQUAL CHANNEL ANGULAR PRESSING

Abstract

In this paper, grain refinement of pure magnesium using severe plastic deformation was investigated in order to enhance mechanical properties of the hard-to-deform metallic material. The microstructure and the mechanical properties of Mg processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at various processing temperatures were examined experimentally. ECAP of channel angle of 90° and corner angle of 0° was successful without fracture of the magnesium workpiece at 300°C, but not under 200°C. The hardness of the ECAP processed magnesium decreased with increasing ECAP processing temperature. The effect of temperature on the hardness, instrumented indenting response and microstructure of the ECAP processed magnesium were discussed. Fracture behavior during ECAP under different processing temperatures was demonstrated using the finite element method associated with ductile fracture model. © 2008 The Japan Institute of Metals.