Improvement of yield stress of friction-stirred Mg–Al–Zn alloys by subsequent compression

The AZ61 magnesium alloy shows a lower yielding strength when subjected to friction stir processing (FSP) due to the unique (0 0 0 2) basal texture that roughly surrounds the stir pin column surface. It demonstrates that a subsequent compression along the normal direction could improve the unfavorable texture by inducing deformation twins, thus raising the yielding stress significantly. A post-FSP compressive strain of ∼6% could raise the yielding stress of the AZ61 alloy from 140 to 260 MPa.