The role of mesoscopic deformation heterogeneities in plastic flow and recrystallization of a magnesium sheet alloy

Unconventional rolling schemes characterized by high reductions and a low number of passes were employed to deform a new magnesium sheet alloy to large strains in order to obtain a heterogeneous deformation microstructure with large local variations in defect density. Microstructure heterogeneity was present in the form of large elongated grains, twinning, and shear banding. The rolled material was further deformed in tension at room temperature along different sheet directions to study the effect of such microstructure on plastic flow and planar anisotropy. Other rolled samples were subjected to annealing treatments before tensile testing to investigate the mechanisms of recrystallization in conjunction with deformation heterogeneity. Recrystallization chains were seen to form by stages of progressive subgrain rotation and subgrain growth giving rise to new grain boundaries capable of long-range migration during annealing. Unlike the as-rolled condition where planar anisotropy of the yield strength and maximum elongation was evident due to several reasons discussed in the study, the annealed condition with its homogeneous equiaxed grain structure and weak textures demonstrated an almost isotropic plastic flow behavior.