• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.63-71
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• 2004

Recently, a sheet forming process of Mg alloys is highlighted again due to increasing demand for Mg wrought alloys in the applications of casings of mobile electronics and outer-skins of light-weight transportation. Microstructure control is essential for the enhancement of workability and formability of Mg alloy sheets. In this research, AZ31 Mg alloy sheets were prepared by hot rolling process and the rolling condition dependency of the microstructure and texture evolution was studied by employing a conventional rolling mill as well as an asymmetric rolling mill. When rolled through multiple passes with a small reduction per pass, fine-grained and homogeneous microstructure evolved by repetitive dynamic and static recrystallization. With higher rolling temperature, dynamic recrystallization was initiated in lower reduction. However with increasing reduction per pass, deformation was locallized in band-like regions, which provided favorable nucleation sites f3r dynamic recrystallization. Through post annealing process, the microstructures could be transformed to more equiaxed and homogeneous grain structures. Textures of the rolled sheets were characterized by $\{0002\}$ basal plane textures and retained even after post annealing. On the other hand, asymmetrically rolled and subsequently annealed sheets exhibited unique annealing texture, where $\{0002\}$ orientation was rotated to some extent to the rolling direction and its intensity was reduced.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.139-144
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• 2018

Many studies have been conducted on the process of forming magnesium alloy sheets to reduce the body weights of vehicles. Magnesium has a lower specific gravity than steel and also has a higher specific strength. Mg alloy sheets have low formability and a lot of springback due to their limited ductility and low young's modulus. As the temperature increases, the yield strength of the material decreases. Warm forming increases the formability and minimizes the springback of a material by heating it and the die to reduce the required load at forming. In this study, the temperature of the AZ31B sheet was controlled in order to reduce springback and increase formability. However, as the temperature increased, the deformation characteristics of the material changed and the radius of curvature of the material increased. The load and springback amount required for forming were analyzed according to the temperature and the bottoming force in the bending deformation.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.12-18
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• 2016

Although magnesium alloy has received much attention to date for its lightweight and high specific strength, their applications are impeded by the low formability which is caused by the hexagonal crystal structure at room temperature. In general, equal-channel angular extrusion(ECAE) is recognized as one of the attractive severe plastic deformation techniques where the processed bulk metals generally achieve ultrafine-grained microstructure leading to improved physical characteristics and mechanical properties. ECAE process has several parameters such as angle of die, process temperature, process route and speed. During ECAE process of Mg alloy, these parameters has great influence on the extrudability and the mechanical properties of alloy. The aim of this study is to estimate the influences of process conditions on the formability of AZ31 and AZ31-CaO alloys. Mg alloys are processed through ECAE at elevated temperatures using three types of die with channel angle of $90^{\circ}$, $110^{\circ}$, $135^{\circ}$ using route $B_c$, respectively. This study discusses the feasibility of using ECAE to improve both formability and strength on magnesium alloys by comparative analyzing the mechanical properties and microstructural evolution in each condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.57-58
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• 2006

The effects of lowering ECAP temperature during ECAP process and Post-ECAP annealing on microstructure, texture and mechanical properties of the AZ31 alloys have been investigated in the present study. The as-extruded materials were ECAP processed to 2 passes at 553K prior to subsequent pressing up to 6 passes at 523K or 493K. When this method of lowering ECAP temperature during ECAP was used, the rods could be successfully deformed up to 6 passes without any surface cracking. Grain refinement during ECAP process at 553K might have helped the material to endure further straining at lower deformation temperatures probably by increasing the strain accommodation effect by grain boundary sliding, causing stress relaxation. Texture modification during ECAP has a great influence on the strength of Mg alloys because HCP metals have limited number of slip systems. As slip is most prone to take place on basal planes in Mg at room temperature, the rotation of high fraction of basal planes to the directions favorable for slip as in ECAP decreases the yield stress appreciably. The strength of AZ31 Mg alloys increases with decrease of grain size if the texture is constant though ECAP deformation history is different. A standard positive strength dependence on the grain size for Mg alloys with the similar texture (Fig. 1) supports that the softening of ECAPed Mg alloys (a negative slope) typically observed despite the significant grain refinement is due to the texture modification where the rotation of basal planes occurs towards the orientation for easier slip. It could be predicted that if the original fiber texture is restored after ECAP treatment yielding marked grain refinement, yield stress as high as 500 MPa will be obtained at the grain size of ${\sim}1{\mu}m$. Differential speed rolling (DSR) with a high speed ratio between the upper and lower rolls was applied to alter the microstructure and texture of the AZ31 sheets. Significant grain refinement took place during the rolling owing to introduction of large shear deformation. Grain size as small as $1.4{\mu}m$ could be obtained at 423K after DSR. There was a good correlation between the (0002) pole intensity and tensile elongation. This result indicates that tensile ductility improvement in the asymmetrically rolled AZ31 Mg alloys is closely related to the weakening of basal texture during DSR. Further basal texture weakening occurred during annealing after DSR. According to Hall-Petch relation shown in Fig. 1, the strength of the asymmetrically rolled AZ31 is lower than that of the symmetrically rolled one when compared at the same grain size. This result was attributed to weakening of fiber texture during DSR. The DSRed AZ31, however, shows higher strength than the ECAPed AZ31 where texture has been completely replaced by a new texture associated with high Schmid factors.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.97-101
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• 2008

Unique constitutive behavior of magnesium alloys as one of hexagonal close packed(hcp) metals has been implemented into the commercial finite element program ABAQUS. The constitutive equations can represent asymmetry in tension-compression yield stresses and flow curves. For the verification purpose, the springback of AZ31B magnesium alloy sheet was measured using the unconstrained cylindrical bending test proposed in Numisheet'2002 benchmark committee. Besides the developed constitutive models, the isotropic models based on tensile and compressive properties were also considered for comparison purpose. The predicted results by the finite element analysis and corresponding experiments showed enhanced prediction capability in springback analysis.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.218-224
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• 2010

Direct copper electroplating on Mg alloy AZ31B was carried out in a traditional pyrophosphate copper bath containing potassium fluoride. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization methods were used to study the effects of added potassium fluoride on electrochemical behavior. The chemical state of magnesium alloy in the electroplating bath was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Adhesion of the copper electroplated layer was also tested. Due to the added potassium fluoride, a magnesium fluoride film was formed in the pyrophosphate copper bath. This fluoride film inhibits dissolution of Mg alloy and enables to electroplate copper directly on it. A dense copper layer was formed on the Mg alloy. Moreover, this copper layer has a good adhesion with Mg alloy substrate.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2018

The high rate of corrosion of magnesium alloys makes it limited for industrial applications. Therefore, surface treatment is required to enhance their corrosion resistance. In our study, a chemical conversion coating for protecting the corrosion of the magnesium alloy, AZ31B, was prepared by using a phosphate-permanganate solution. The chemical conversion coating had a limited protection ability due to defects arising from cracks and pores in the coating layer. The sol-gel coating was prepared by using trimethoxymethylsilane (MTMS) and 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) as precursors, and aluminum acetyl acetonate as a ring opening agent. The corrosion protection properties of sol-gel and conversion coatings in 0.35wt% NaCl solution were measured by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization test. The EIS results indicated that the resistance of the chemical conversion coating with the sol-gel coating was significantly improved through the sol-gel sealed phosphate-permanganate conversion coating. The results of the potentiodynamic polarization test revealed that the sol-gel coating decreased the corrosion current density ($I_{corr}$). The SEM image showed that the sol-gel coating sealed conversion coating and improved corrosion protection.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.229-235
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• 2011

The formability of magnesium alloy sheets at room temperature is generally low because of the inherently limited number of slip systems, but higher at temperatures over $150^{\circ}C$. Therefore, prior to the practical application of these materials, the forming limits should be evaluated as a function of the temperature and strain rate. This can be achieved experimentally by performing a series of tests or analytically by deriving the corresponding modeling approaches. However, before the formability analysis can be conducted, a model of flow stress, which includes the effects of strain, strain rate and temperature, should be carefully identified. In this paper, such procedure is carried out for Mg alloy AZ31 and the concept of flow stress surface is proposed. Experimental flow stresses at four temperature levels ($150^{\circ}C$, $200^{\circ}C$, $250^{\circ}C$, $300^{\circ}C$) each with the pre-assigned strain rate levels of $0.01s^{-1}$, $0.1s^{-1}$ and $1.0s^{-1}$ are collected in order to establish the relationships between these variables. The temperature-compensated strain rate parameter which combines, in a single variable, the effects of temperature and strain rate, is introduced to capture these relationships in a compact manner. This study shows that the proposed concept of flow stress surface is practically relevant for the evaluation of temperature and strain dependent formability.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.23-29
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• 2021

The specific strength of magnesium alloy is four times that of iron and 1.5 times that of aluminum. For this reason, its use is increasing in the transportation industry which is promoting weight reduction. At room temperature, magnesium alloy has low formability due to Hexagonal closed packed (HCP) structure with relatively little slip plane. However, as the molding temperature increases, the formability of the magnesium alloy is greatly improved due to the activation of other additional slip systems, and the flow stress and elongation vary greatly depending on the temperature. In addition, magnesium alloys exhibit asymmetrical behavior, which is different from tensile and compression behavior. In this study, a jig was developed that can measure the plane deformation behavior on the surface of a material in tensile and compression tests of magnesium alloys in warm temperature. A jig was designed to prevent buckling occurring in the compression test by applying a certain pressure to apply it to the tensile and compression tests. And the tensile and compressive behavior of magnesium at each temperature was investigated with the developed jig and DIC equipment. In each experiment, the strain rate condition was set to a quasi-static strain rate of 0.01/s. The transformation temperature is room temperature, 100℃. 150℃, 200℃, 250℃. As a result of the experiment, the flow stress tended to decrease as the temperature increased. The maximum stress decreased by 60% at 250 degrees compared to room temperature. Particularly, work softening occurred above 150 degrees, which is the recrystallization temperature of the magnesium alloy. The elongation also tended to increase as the deformation temperature increased and increased by 60% at 250 degrees compared to room temperature. In the compression experiment, it was confirmed that the maximum stress decreased as the temperature increased.