The deformation behaviour of the magnesium alloy AZ80 at 77 and 293 K

The effects of initial texture and strain path (tension and compression) on the work hardening and texture evolution have been studied in an AZ80 alloy deformed at 77K and 293K. Crystal plasticity simulations have been used to interpret slip and twinning activity based on these experiments and a systematic and physically based approach has been used to fix the adjustable slip and twinning system parameters. These combined experiments and simulations indicate that the work hardening rate is significantly affected by temperature, the high hardening rate at 77K being interpreted as resulting from a combination of texture hardening and reduced dynamic recovery. For conditions where slip is expected to be the dominant deformation mechanism, simulations and experiments are in excellent agreement, while agreement with twinning dominated test conditions are hindered by the ability to predict accurately the twinning kinetics. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.