Improved plasticity of Mg-Al-Zn alloy by electropulsing tension

The effect of electropulsing tension (ET) on the elongation to failure and microstructure of Mg-3A1-1Zn (AZ31) alloy was studied. It was found that electropulsing increased the elongation to failure dramatically at a high strain rate of 2.5 x 10(-2) s(-1), compared with the non-ET sample. The mechanism for increasing the elongation was proposed mainly based on dynamic recrystallization (DRX). The results in this investigation indicated that an ideal improvement in plasticity and fine equiaxial grains were obtained at a low temperature and a high strain rate due to the coupling of the thermal and athermal effects of ET. It is different from conventional theories. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.