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IMEPEG (2019) 28:3021-3030 intipss/do:ong/10.1007%811665-019-04067-2 ASM International 1059-9495/819.00, Microstructure, Texture, and Mechanical Properties of AM60 Magnesium Alloy Processed by Extrusion and Multidirectional Forging ‘MA, Salevat, F. Akbaripanah (9, and R. Mabmudi (Submitted October 15, 2018; in revised form February 13, 2019: published online Aprit 29, 2019) In the present paper, multidirectional forging (MDF), as a severe plastic deformation process, was carried out on an extruded AMG0 magnesium alloy. The microstructure, texture, and mechanical properties of the MDFed samples were examined. Microstructural findings indicated that the grain size of the alloy de- creased from 10.2 to 3.7 um after six MDF passes, carried out at a constant temperature of 220 °C. ‘Textural studies revealed that after six MDF passes, the fiber texture of the extruded material was transformed to another texture, in which the basal planes tend to rotate toward 45° to the transverse direction. Shear punch testing (SPT) was employed (0 assess the shear yield stress (SYS) and ultimate shear strength (USS) at room temperature, Both SYS and USS were enhanced after two MDF passes, but ‘decreased in the next pressing stages, despite developing finer grains at higher levels of imposed strain. The observed drop in strength is ascribed to texture softening that counterbalances the grain refinement strengthening effects. The variation in average microhardness values ufler different passes of MDF showed the trend that was in concurrence with the rise and fall of the SPT results. Finally, the changes in ‘mechanical properties were discussed, based on the microstructural and textural findings. Keywords magnesium alloy, mechanical pre multidirectional forging, texture 1. Introduction Nowadays, lightweight alloys have gained a more vital role due tothe energy crisis, environmental issues, and the need for building lighter structures for less fuel consumption in the transportation industry. Because of their low density, good castabilty, high srengthtowlnsity ratio, ease of reeycability and rational cost, magnesium alloys have attracted considerable attention (Ref 1,2). However, Mg alloys tend to develop coarse grains during’ high-temperature processing, and their microstructure becomes inhomogeneous, affecting their ‘mechanical propertis. Grain refinement is @ proper way of enhancing mechanical properties of Mg alloys. Different sev Plastic deformation (SPD) processes, such as equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE), accumulative rol-bonding (ARB), highepessure torsion (HPT) and multidirectional. forging (MDE, are well-established techniques for refining grains ‘0 submicron levels and improving mechanical properties (Ret 3- 0 With the increase in deformation severity, materials undergo considerable refinement in such a way that they finally each an ultrafine grained (UFG) microstucture. Among all SPD MA. Salevati and F Akbaripanah, Department of Mechanical Engincering, Faculty of Enginering, Malayer University, Mal Iran; and R. Mahmud, ‘School of Motallrgc Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tebra Iran. Contact email, fakbanpanahamelayer. ae Joumal of Materials Engincering and Performance techniques, MDF has @ high potential for sealing up to be used in real industrial applications, where the parts are of relatively large sizes. Tn essence, MDF is a closed-die forging, process, in which the direction of applied strain is changed al cach step (ie, x > y 9 29 x >...) Since the dimensions of the workpiece remain constant after the forming, process, large plastic strains can be induced to the sample during repeated compression Guo et al. (Ref 8) performed MDF on A780 magnesium alloy at 390°C, reporting a critical strain that controls the extent of structural uniformity. After this critical strain, however, fine uniform microstructures may be achieved, further refinement of which becoming difficult. Zhao et al. (Ref 9) examined the microstructural changes of an_as-extruded AZ91D ~ Yalloy processed by MDF at 300 °C. They reported that the inerease in the number of MDF passes improves the ‘microstructural uniformity, hardness, and strength, Li et al. (Ref 10) studied the microstructure and mechanical properties of a cast AZ61 alloy deformed by MDF at 320°C with an increased strain rate, It was reported that the structure of the tested material was refined gradually with inereasing the MDF passes, resulting in enhanced uniformity of the microstructure, Shear punch test (SPT) is a miniaturized test used for obtaining the strength of many materials by using only a small sample. The initial idea for this test procedure comes from the blanking operation, in which a sheet material is sheared by a flat-ended punch through a die hole (Ref 4), There are many. similarities between the flow behavior derived from the load— displacement curves obtained in the SPT and uniaxial tension curves (Ref l-l3), The deviation point, where the curve deviates from linear behavior, is defined as the shear yield siress (SYS), and the stress at the maximum load is defined as, ‘ultimate shear strength (USS). Even though this technique was primarily applied to thin sheet metals, it has recently been expanded for use in magnesium alloys processed by different Volume 28(5) May 2019—3021 SPD methods of ECAP (Ref 14, 15), high-pressure torsion (HPT) (Ref 16) and fiction stir processing (FSP) (Ref 17). Ibis ‘well accepted that texture has a significant effect on mechanical properties, and therefore, the influence of inital texture and, cexture evolution during plastic deformation has been reported in several references (Ref 15, 18, 19). The aim of this study is to examine the effect of extrusion and MDF oa the microstruc ture, texture, shear strength, hardness, and_microhardness homogeneity in an AM60 magnesium alloy. The variations in shear strength after different passes of MDF ate explained, based on the grain size and textural evolution of the material. While most of the studies on the MDF of magnesium alloys have considered the influence of grain size on the strength of che materials, it is intended to show that textural modifications can have a crucial role in this respect. 2, Experimental Procedure The AMG0 alloy, with the nominal composition of Mg-6Al- 035M-0.12n, was prepared using high-purity (about 99.9 wt%) Mg, Al, and Mn, The weighted charge was melted in an clectical fuace under « covering flux held at 750 °C. ‘The molten alloy was held at this temperature for 30 min and, stirred by a stainless steel bar for 2 min before being cast Pouring was accomplished in a stecl mold preheated to 150 °C. The cylindrical cat billets of 44 mam diameter were extruded t0 13 mm x 13 mm rectangular bars at 380 °C. The extruded bars were excised to billets having dimensions of 13 mm x 13 mm x 20 mm for MDF processing, The billets were farmed in the MDF dic at an isothermal temperature of 220 °C in s universal tensile testing machine, where they were forged by repeated pressing after changing the loading direction, by an angle of 90° TThe schematic representation of the dic assembly together with the sequence of the MDF process is depicted in Fig. 1 ‘The dic assembly was heated to the desired temperature for cach pass before the placement of the sample. Afier attaining, the desired temperature in the MDF die, the sample was given, 15 min for temperature equilibrium before the pressing was carried out, A true strain of 0.5 was obtained after cach pass of MDF according to the dimensions of the billets. The extruded 3022—Volume 28(5) May 2019 axis was parallel to the initial forging diection. A. 0,05-mm- thick PTFE film was used to coat the samples as a lubeicant, and the samples were then pressed ata speed of | man/min for two, four and six passes. No cracks were detected on the surface of te billets after two, four and six pastes of MDF processing ‘The pressed samples were quenched in cold water after each pass of MDF and then sectioned in the center, parallel to the last pressing direction to study the microstructural evolution of the alloy alter extrusion, and MDF processing. The cut surfaces of the samples were polished by 0.05 jm AIO, and then etched with a solution of 4.2 g picrie acid, 10 mL acetic acid, 10 mL. disilled 110, and 70:mL ethanol at room temperature Scanning electon microscopy (SEM) was employed to exam ine the microstructural evolution of the material during MDF. ‘The secondary electron imaging at a voltage of 15 kV was employed for this purpose. The Clemex image analyzer was crmployed to determine the grain size os the diameter of the cquivalent citele with the same area. Then, the grain size distribution was plotted and the average grain size was caleulated forthe studied samples ‘As cam be soon in Fig 2, texture samples were cut ffom the MDFed bars perpendicular to the forging direction. The specimens were frequently immersed in a diluted solution of HCI for eliminating the polishing eflecs. Texture measure- ments wete implemented in Philips X’Per diffractometer. The intensity distibutions of the {0002} pole figures were mea- sured from the planes parallel the pressing direction for both extruded and MDFed conditions. The measurement was taken using Cu Ka radiation (k= 1.54056 A) at SO KV, and tube current of 30 mA with the sample lt angle from 0° 10 90" and a scanning, rate of 2"/min TTo determine the degree of homogeneity, Vickers micro- hardness was measured on the samples eut perpendicular to the pressing direction of the extruded and MDFed bars according to ASTM E384 (Ref 20). Microhardness measurements were taken in an ILLINOIS-60044 microbardness tester with a Vickers indenter under a load of 0.5 N for a loading period of 30/3, Measurements were taken over the ental part of the 12 mm x 12 mm section for each sample on a rectilinear grid pattem of I mm x 1/men squares. Afterward, hardness was rmeasuted a each ofthese 169 points and 4 points around them to measure the exact hardness in each point. This measurement Joumal of Materials Engineering and Performance Gee, Fig. 2 Prepa was repeated for all 169 points to obain the hardness for the entire sample. The measured H, values were plotted as color- coded contour maps showing the variation in the local ‘microbardness over the tested section of each extmded of MDFed sample. The overall macrohardness of the material under different testing condition was assessed by the Vickers testing under a load of 30 N for a dwell time of 30 s. To have a ‘more representative hardness data, the hardness of three separate positions on the surface of three different samples was measured, and the readings were then averaged. "The shear punch testing at room temperature was adopted for the measurement of the strength of the material. Wire cut, ‘machining of the MDFed samples perpendicular tothe pressing. direction was used to prepare small squate specimens with nominal sides of 13 mm and 1mm thickness (Fig. 2). The specimens were then polished down fo 0.7 mm thickness using, SIC papers. The shear punch fixture used for this experiment is shown in Fig. 3. This fixture includes a flat eylindvical punch, with a diameter of 3.21- and 3.26-mm-diameterreceiving-hole, ‘The tests were performed using the same universal tensile testing machine as that employed for MDF. The load eell had 20 KN capacity, and the tests were performed at a crosshead, speed of 0.25 mn/min, The instantaneous applied load P was recorded as a function of punch displacement after application of the load, and the data were transferred to a computer 10 determine the shear stress and shear strain rate using the (E91) (Eq 2) where dis the average value ofthe punch and die diameters, tis the specimen thickness, Z isthe punch-displacement rate and is the die-punch clearance. Thice different samples were tested for each test condition, and the variations in the measured, ultimate shear strengths were reasonably small, being approx imately + 2 MPa, Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance stages ofthe texture, microhardness and SPT test samples Punch: Main body Holders Specimen Fig. 3 Schematic representation of shear punch die assembly (Ref 19) 3. Results and Discussion 3.1 Microstructural Evolution Due to the low formability of Mg alloys, especially in the as-cast condition, it is desirable to combine the extrusion process with MDF. The starting microstructure, therefore, ‘would be a wrought equiaxed recrystallized one, which reduces the chance of eracking during the severe deformation process of MDF that is. performed at relatively low temperatures 10 achieve fine grain sizes, The material microstructure after extrusion and different passes of MDF was examined by SEM, Figure 4 exhibits the SEM images of the extruded (a), two-pass MDFed (b), four-pass MDFed (6), and six-pass MDFed (4) alloys. The microstructure of the extruded material consists of equiaxed grains having an average grain size of 10.2 jam with a standard deviation of 4.3 pm, as shown in Fig. 4(a). After two passes of MDF, a non-uniform microstructure comprising both, coarse and fine grains is obtained. The new fine grains have formed at original grain boundaries of the coarser grains by Volume 28(5) May 20193023,

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