Influence of aluminum content on twinning and texture development of cast Mg-Al-Zn alloy during compression

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of aluminum content on the twinning and texture evolution of cast magnesium alloys during compression. As-cast AZ31, AZ61, and AZ91D magnesium alloys exhibited basically a random orientation. Compressive deformation resulted in the formation of {(1) over bar2 (1) over bar0} [0001] and {01 (1) over bar0} [0001] texture components, indicating that the c-axes of hcp unit cells in most grains were rotated toward the anti-compression direction due to the occurrence of extension twinning. The intensity of the texture components increased with increasing compressive strain. The presence of a higher amount of beta-Mg17Al12 precipitates arising from more Al content in alloy AZ91D hindered the formation and growth of twins which led to the weakening of deformation texture of the high Al-containing magnesium alloy at higher compressive strains. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.