Multi-Slips and Ductility Regulation of Magnesium Alloys

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00358

Acta Metall Sin

2025, Vol. 61

Issue (3): 361-371 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00358

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Multi-Slips and Ductility Regulation of Magnesium Alloys

ZENG Xiaoqin¹^,²(

), YU Mingdi¹^,², WANG Jingya¹^,²

1 National Engineering Research Center of Light Alloy Net Forming, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
2 State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

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ZENG Xiaoqin, YU Mingdi, WANG Jingya. Multi-Slips and Ductility Regulation of Magnesium Alloys. Acta Metall Sin, 2025, 61(3): 361-371.

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Abstract

Despite recent advancements in enhancing their absolute strength, magnesium alloys continue to face significant challenges due to their limited ductility and formability. This strength-ductility trade-off restricts the use of magnesium components in processing applications. This work explores the potential of improving the ductility of magnesium alloys by focusing on their crystal properties and plastic deformation mechanisms. The concept of multi-slips promoting ductility is proposed as a solution. By tailoring solute atoms and regulating the critical resolved shear stress ratios of basal and nonbasal slip systems through temperature adjustments, additional slip systems can be activated, thereby reducing plastic deformation anisotropy. External modifications, such as refining grain size or introducing deformable phases, can activate new plastic deformation mechanisms beyond dislocation slip. These adjustments offer methods to accommodate the plastic strain of magnesium alloys, presenting new perspectives for enhancing magnesium ductility and formability.

Key words: magnesium alloy plastic deformation strength and ductility dislocation multi-slip

Received: 29 October 2024

ZTFLH:

TG146.2

Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(52425101);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52471012)

Corresponding Authors: ZENG Xiaoqin, professor, Tel: (021)54740838, E-mail: xqzeng@sjtu.edu.cn

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00358 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2025/V61/I3/361

Fig.1 Schematics of slip and twinning deformation mechanisms in magnesium single crystal
(a) basal (b) prismatic (c) pyramidal I
(d) pyramidal II (e) extension twin (f) constraction twin

Fig.2 Effective shear strains (γ_eff) showing the slip morphology for grains deforming by basal slip (a), diffuse prismatic slip (b), and wavy prismatic slip (c) (White arrows in Fig.2a point to hard particles interacting with slip. Additionally, a hexagonal prism showing the crystallographic orientation and the slip traces for the three main active slip systems at room temperature in magnesium with Schmid factors m > 0.1 are displayed for each grain)^[18]

Fig.3 Engineering stress-strain curves of Mg-Zn-Ca alloys loading along the a-axis based on the micropillar compression method (D: [10 $1 ¯$ 0] indicates the loading direction of the grain crystal) (a); SEM images and schematics of crystallographic orientations of micropillar surface slip traces analysed from front (b) and back (c, d) views^[45]

Fig.4 Room-temperature tensile failure strain, as a measure of ductility, versus grain size in selected polycrystalline Mg and Mg alloys^[23]

Fig.5 Schematic of the deformation mechanisms in the Mg-6Al-1Ca alloy^[56] (GB—grain boundary, GNDs—geometrically necessary dislocations)

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