The Effect of Texture on the Corrosion Behavior of AZ31 Mg Alloy

Magnesium (Mg) grains show anisotropic corrosion behavior, which implies that the single-phase, hot-rolled Mg alloy AZ31 sheet, if highly textured, will have different corrosion performance depending on its crystallographic orientation of the grains. Its rolling surface, dominated by (0001) basal crystallographic planes, is more corrosion resistant than its cross-section surface, which is mainly composed of {10 (1) over bar0} and {11 (2) over bar0} prismatic crystallographic planes. Furthermore, grain refinement by hot rolling is beneficial to the overall corrosion resistance of AZ31 because of the dissolution of AlMn(Fe) intermetallic precipitates in the alloy. Surface compressive deformation machining can lead to refined grains and an expected preferred grain orientation, thus improving the corrosion resistance of AZ31 alloy.