Orientation-dependent microstructure and shear flow behavior of extruded Mg–Li–Zn alloys

The microstructural and textural evolutions together with the orientation dependencies of mechanical properties of the extruded Mg–6Li–1Zn (LZ61), Mg–8Li–1Zn (LZ81) and Mg–12Li–1Zn (LZ121) alloys were investigated. The shear punch testing (SPT) method was employed to evaluate the room- and high-temperature (200–300 °C) mechanical anisotropy of the extruded materials. Microstructural analysis revealed that, despite a great discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) occurred in the extrusion direction (ED) and normal direction (ND), the microstructural anisotropy was observed in all extruded materials, the effect which was more pronounced in the LZ81 alloy by developing banded structure in the ND condition. Textural studies in both hcp LZ61 and LZ81-α phase showed a fiber-type texture with the basal planes being parallel to the ED after extrusion. For the LZ81 alloy, however, the interfering presence of β phase affects the LZ81-α-phase texture by reducing the intensity of the maximum orientations of the basal and prismatic planes. Similar weakened bimodal type texture was formed in the bcc-structured LZ81-β phase, where some <110> poles were located parallel to the ED along with developing some other poles of a fiber-type character. It was also found that the abnormal grain growth might have been encouraged by the strong texture developed in the extruded LZ121 alloy. The SPT results indicated that the texture-dependent hcp LZ61 alloy showed higher shear strength in the ND condition than the ED condition, caused by the texture strengthening effect. As the Li content and deformation temperature increase, the texture dependence of strength properties, and thus, the mechanical anisotropy, decrease so that the LZ121-ND sample showed lower shear strength than the ED specimen due to the greater grain sizes achieved in the ND condition.