Hot compressive deformation behaviors of Mg–10Gd–3Y–0.5Zr alloy

In this paper, the hot compressive deformation characteristics of a Mg–10Gd–3Y–0.5Zr (GW103K) alloy have been investigated by isothermal compression test at the temperature range of 350–450°C and strain rate range of 0.0001–0.1s−1. True stress–strain relationships at various strain rates showed the typical strain hardening and softening stage which is indicative of dynamic recrystallization during deformation. The results showed that the peak stress was obviously dependent on temperature and strain rate. A constitutive equation to describe the deformation process was established based on the hyperbolic sine function. The stress exponent n and apparent activation energy Q were determined to be 3.018 and 203.947 kJ/mol, respectively. Microstructure investigation showed that dislocation slipping was the dominant deformation mechanism during the hot deformation at all conditions. However, at the temperatures lower than 400 °C and strain rates higher than 0.01s−1, twinning was observed to be activated, which indicated another deformation mechanism. Dynamic recrystallization and dynamic precipitation were found to occur simultaneously under such deformation condition.