Strain rate sensitivities of deformation mechanisms in magnesium alloys

Strain rate sensitivity (SRS) is an important material property that governs the rate dependent mechanical behaviors associated with deformation rate changes, creep, stress relaxation, formability, etc. The variety of activated deformation mechanisms of magnesium alloys under different loading paths, e.g. tension vs. compression, implies that SRS of magnesium alloys obviously depends on loading paths, and each deformation mechanism has its own SRS. However, a single SRS scheme is commonly employed in numerical modeling to describe the rate dependent behaviors of magnesium alloys, which disregards the distinction of SRSs among different deformation mechanisms. The implementation of the constitutive model that works for a wide range of values of SRSs has been a challenge to crystal plasticity modeling for metals with multiple deformation mechanisms like magnesium. Especially, very small values of SRS, corresponding to low rate-sensitivity, generally lead to high nonlinearity involved in the governing equations, and then computational failure. In this paper, the elasto-viscoplastic self-consistent (EVPSC) crystal plasticity model is improved to enhance its numerical robustness for very small SRS values. Taking advantage of this improvement, different SRSs for various deformation mechanisms are employed to investigate the strain rate dependent behaviors of magnesium alloys at room temperature. First, the SRSs for various deformation mechanisms are determined based on the compressive stress relaxation tests on an AZ31 alloy plate; secondly, the obtained SRSs are applied to interpret internal elastic strain evolution of the same magnesium alloy under in-plane compression; finally, the determined SRSs are applied to investigate the deformation of another AZ31 alloy under various deformation paths and strain rates. The present work is the first effort on studying effects of strain rate-sensitivity on mechanical behavior of Mg alloys under wide range of applied strain rates by using an improved self-consistent polycrystal plasticity model. Good agreement between the experiments and simulations reveals the importance and necessity of using different SRSs for the deformation mechanisms involved. The rate dependent behaviors of magnesium alloys can be better described by using multiple SRSs associated to each operative deformation mechanism.