Superplastic Behavior of an Extruded Mg-Zn-Y
Transcription
Superplastic Behavior of an Extruded Mg-Zn-Y
Materials Science Forum Vols. 546-549 (2007) pp. 337-341 online at http://www.scientific.net © (2007) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Superplastic Behavior of an Extruded Mg-Zn-Y-Zr Alloy Weineng Tang, Daokui Xu, Rongshi Chena, En-hou Hanb Environmental Corrosion Center, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China a [email protected], [email protected] Keywords: Mg-Zn-Y-Zr alloy; Mechanical behavior, Superplasticity; Deformation mechanisms, Abstract. A conventional extrusion has been carried out to induce significant grain refinement in Mg-Zn-Y-Zr alloy. The results showed that good superplasticity have obtained in this extruded alloy. The simple and rapid processing route may allow it to be put into successfully practical use in industry. The effects of temperature and strain rate on superplastic deformation of the extruded alloy were studied. The optimum condition with the elongation of more than 450% was found to be at 450°C and 3.3×10-4s-1. Jump tests were carried out at 300-450°C and 8.3×10-5 ~ 1.7×10-2s-1. The activation energy for superplastic deformation at 300-450°C is 106kJ/mol and the stress exponent is about 2.8. The superplasticity observed in this studied condition may be attributed to mechanisms of dislocation creep mainly within large grains and grain boundary sliding (GBS) of small grains. Introduction Magnesium alloys have high potential as lightweight structural materials because of their low density and recyclable ability. To date, most structural Mg products have been fabricated by casting methods. In order to increase structural applications of Mg alloys, development of wrought alloys is desirable [1]. However, Mg alloys generally exhibit poor workability because of its hcp structure. In order to exploit the benefits of magnesium alloy, it is important to develop some processes, which can effectively produce complex engineering components directly from wrought products. Therefore, it is required to improve poor workability of Mg alloys for development of plastic forming technology. It has been demonstrated that many magnesium alloys exhibit some extent superplasticity [1-3.] Application of superplasticity is expected for the plastic forming of the hard-to-form magnesium alloys [2]. Wrought Mg-Zn-Y-Zr alloys recently attracted wide attention because they have both high strength and good ductility either at room temperature or at elevated temperatures [4]. An icosahedral phase (I-phase) of composition Mg3Zn6Y usually appears in this alloy [5]. Since I-phase has many good properties such as high hardness, thermal stability, low coefficient of friction, low interfacial energy [5], its particles can effectively prohibit grain growth and cavitation during high temperature deformation [4]. The aim of this paper is to systematically study the high temperature deformation behavior of the extruded fine-grained Mg-Zn-Y-Zr alloy. The dependence of temperature and strain rate on superplastic behavior was investigated in order to reveal the high temperature deformation mechanisms of this alloy. Experimental Procedure The chemical composition of Mg-Zn-Y- Zr alloy used in this study is 6.5%Zn, 1.0%Y, and 0.9%Zr (wt.%). The alloy was fabricated with pure magnesium (99.9%), pure Zn (99.99%), Mg-25%Y master alloy, and Mg-33%Zr master alloy ingots by resistance melting under SF6 and CO2 atmosphere. The melting was poured into a cylindrical metal model with a diameter of 100 mm. The ingots were homogenized at 350°C for 5h and then hot extruded into plates at 350°C with section of 5mm in thickness and 60mm in width. The extrusion ratio is 25:1. The extruded plates were annealed at 350°C for 1h, and then were machined along the extruded direction into tensile specimens with the All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher: Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland, www.ttp.net. (ID: 210.72.131.48-05/01/07,09:33:06) 338 Light Metals, Aerospace Materials and Superconductors section of 4mm × 3mm and gauge length 10mm. Tensile test was carried out at a constant cross-head speed at temperature of 300°-450°C and strain rate of 8.3x10-4s-1 to 3.33x10-2s-1. Before tensile tests, samples were hold in the furnace for about 15mins at the test temperature. Jump tests were also carried out through instantaneously changing the crosshead speed by a factor of 2 or 2.5. The microstructure and fracture surface of the deformed samples were observed with Philip XL30 Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) operated at 10 kV. Results Microstructure and Mechanical Behavior. The average grain size of the extruded alloy after annealing at 350°C for 1h is about 10μm. It can be seen from Fig.1(a) that the microstructure is rather heterogeneous. A small number of large grains of approximately 20 µm in diameter are embedded in a matrix of small-recrystallized grains about 5 µm in diameter. There are some second phases in the alloy, which are I-phase with the formula of Mg3Zn6Y. Fig. 1. Microstructure of the extruded alloy after annealing at 350°C for 1h. Extrusion direction is horizontal; (b) is the magnification of the region marked with A in (a). Fig. 2. (a) .Stress-strain curves of the samples tested at 1.7×10-3s-1 and different temperatures;.(b). samples before and after tensile tests. Tensile tests at a constant strain rate of 1.7 × 10-3 s-1 and different temperatures are shown in Fig. 2. The strain hardening gradually weakens with the tested temperature increasing. The dependence of the elongation to failure on the strain rate and temperature are shown in Fig. 3. It is shown that the elongation is better at intermediate strain rate of 1.7 × 10-3 s-1 and intermediate temperature of 400°C than that in others conditions, except at 450°C and 3.3×10-4s-1, where the optimum superplastic elongation of 450% in the tested temperatures and strain rates range was obtained. The fracture Materials Science Forum Vols. 546-549 339 surfaces of the samples tested at different temperatures are partly shown in Fig. 4. The fracture appears to be typical superplastic fractural surface. Fig. 3. The dependence of the elongation to failure on: (a) strain rate and (b) temperature. Fig. 4. The SEM images of fracture surface of samples tested at 450°C and 1.7 × 10-3 s-1. (b) the magnification of the position marked with black rectangle in (a). Deformation Mechanism. At constant strain (ε) and temperature (T), the strain rate sensitivity, m, can be calculated according to m= ∂ (lnσ)/ ∂ (ln ε& ) [6], which can be obtained from the slopes in the plot of lnσ vs. ln ε& (Fig. 5(a)). The m value is 0.33 for the sample tested at 300°C and about 0.36, 0.36 and 0.39 for the sample tested at 350, 400 and 450°C, respectively. The superplastic deformation can be considered as a simple thermal activated process, which can be expressed by an Arrhenius-type rate equation. According to the data in Fig. 5(a), the stress exponent n can be assumed as a constant, and then be under a constant stress at these test temperatures, the apparent activity energy can be evaluated according to the equation [7]: ∂ (ln ε& ) Qa = − R (1) σ = cons tan t . ∂ (1 / T ) Where Qa is the apparent activation energy for the rate controlling process, and R is the gas constant (R=8.31J/Kmol). In the plot of ln ε& vs. 1/T, Fig. 5(b), Qa is calculated to be 106kJmol-1. The stress exponent, n, can be obtained from the slope in the plot of ln[ ε& exp(Q/RT)] vs. lnσ. The value of n is estimated to be around 2.8 as shown in Fig. 5(c). 340 Light Metals, Aerospace Materials and Superconductors 4.5 4.0 -4 (a) σ = 18 MPa, -5 σ=18MPa 3.5 Q = 106 kJ/mol -1 -6 2.5 lnε, s lnσ, MPa 3.0 . 2.0 -7 0 . 300 C 0 350 C 0 400 C 0 450 C 1.5 1.0 3 lnε=-Q/RT= -12.779X(1/TX10 ) -8 -9 0.5 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 1.3 -3 1.4 . lnε 9 10 8 10 7 10 6 10 5 10 4 10 3 10 2 εexp(Q/RT), s -1 10 1.5 1.6 3 1.7 1.8 -1 10 /T, K 0 300 C 0 350 C 0 400 C 0 450 C 2.8 . 1 1 10 100 σ, MPa Fig. 5. Data obtained from jump tests performed at 300, 350, 400 and 450°C: (a) Strain rate dependence of stress. (b) Activation energy for the deformation. (c) Relationship between the steady state stress and the normalized strain rate over the temperature range of 300-450°C. Discussion It is well known that the value of strain rate sensitivity, m, of metals is usually low at room temperature but it increases with temperature rising, especially at temperatures above half of the absolute melting point. High strain rate sensitivity, usually m> 0.33, is a characteristic of superplastic metals and alloys [6]. The m for the present alloy tested at 300 to 450°C are all around or more than 0.33, which also indicates that superplasticity should appear in this temperature and strain rate range. As the experimental result show, in which over 450% elongation is obtained at 450°C and 3.3×10-4s-1. Many attempts have been made to develop theories for predicting both the mechanical and topological features of superplastic deformation [6]. One of the main mechanisms for superplasticity in terms of microstructural features is grain boundary sliding, which has been accepted as the dominant deformation process of superplastic flow [8, 9]. The grain compatibility during grain boundary sliding is also required to maintain by some accommodation mechanisms [10]. Obvious grain boundary sliding characters can be found in Fig. 4 on fracture surfaces of the deformed specimens. Superplastic deformation process dominated by a GBS mechanism usually leads to a stress exponent equal to 2, while stress exponent of 3–7 is usually obtained for dislocation creep controlled deformation processes [6,11]. The stress exponent, n, calculated based on the activation energy is about 2.8 for present alloy, which is exactly the reciprocal of strain rate sensitivity (m =0.36) calculated above. The n value of 2.8 also suggests that the mechanism of Materials Science Forum Vols. 546-549 341 superplastic deformation in present alloy is mainly controlled by GBS assisted by dislocation creep mechanism. The apparent activation energy for superplastic deformation in present alloy is calculated to be about 106 kJmol-1, which is between the activation energy for magnesium lattice diffusion (135kJmol-1) and that for grain boundary diffusion of magnesium (92kJmol-1) [3]. Higashi et al [12] has pointed out that both lattice and grain boundary diffusion likely play an important role during superplastic deformation of Mg alloys and an effective diffusion coefficient, Deff, must be considered. This coefficient is a combination of lattice diffusion and grain boundary diffusion coefficients. Moreover, it is also well known that grain boundary sliding is usually considered as a major possible plastic deformation mechanism in fine grains materials, and dislocation activity in fine grains (less than 5μm) is presumably very limited [6]. Therefore, in present alloy, the dislocation creep may mainly control the plastic deformation within large grains. The large elongation observed in this extruded alloy could be a result of combination of these two major deformation mechanisms. The exact contribution of each mechanism is, however, still not clearly established. Summary Superplastic deformation behavior was investigated in the extruded Mg-Zn-Y-Zr alloy with mixture microstructure of small-grained (~5μm) and large grains (~20μm) in order to understand the dominant deformation mechanisms at 300-450°C. It was found that the material exhibited superplasticity with maximum elongations-to-failure over 450% at 450°C and 3.3×10-4s-1. The activation energy of the alloy for superplastic deformation at temperature of 300-450°C is about 106 kJ/mol, and the stress exponent is about 2.8. The mechanisms for superplasticity in present alloy may be a combination of dislocation creep within large grains and GBS of small grains. References [1] T. Mohri, M. Mabuchi, M. Nakamura, T. Asahina, H. Iwasaki, T. Aizawa, K. Higashi: Mater. Sci. Eng. A Vol. 290 (2000), p. 139. [2] H. Watanabu, T. Mukai, M. Kohzu, S. Tanabe and K. Higash: Acta. Mater. Vol. 47 (1999), p. 3753. [3] W. J. Kim, S. W. Chung, C. S. Chung and D. Kum: Acta. Mater. Vol. 49 (2001), p. 3337. [4] D.H. Bae, S.H. Kim, D.H. Kim, W.T. Kim: Acta. Mater. Vol. 50 (2002), p. 2343. [5] A. Singh, A.P. Tsai: Scr. Mater. Vol. 49 (2003), p. 143. [6] T.G. Nieh, J. Wadsworth, O. D. Sherby: Superplasticity in metals and ceramics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). [7] Y.N. Wang, J.C. Huang: Scr. Mater. Vol. 48 (2003), p.1117. [8] R.Z. Valiev, O.A. Kaibyshev: Acta. Metall. Vol. 31 (1983), p. 2121. [9] T.G. Langdon: Mater. Sci. Eng. A Vol. 174 (1994), p. 225. [10] A. K. Ghosh, R. Raj: Acta. metall. Vol. 29(1981), p. 607. [11] R.Z. Valiev: Mater. Sci. Eng. A Vol.59(1997), p. 234. [12] K. Higashi: Proc. Iwasaki Workshop on Superplasticity, Ed. By H. Iwasaki, (Work-1 Co. Ltd, Sagamihara, Japan, 2003), p. 89.