Texture and microstructure development during hot deformation of ME20 magnesium alloy: Experiments and simulations

The influence of deformation conditions and starting texture on the microstructure and texture evolution during hot deformation of a commercial rare earth (RE)-containing magnesium alloy sheet ME20 was investigated and compared with a conventional Mg sheet alloy AZ31. For all the investigated conditions, the two alloys revealed obvious distinctions in the flow behavior and the development of texture and microstructure, which was primarily attributed to the different chemistry of the two alloys. The presence of precipitates in the fine microstructure of the ME20 sheet considerably increased the recrystallization temperature and suppressed tensile twinning. This gave rise to an uncommon Mg texture development during deformation. Texture simulation using an advanced cluster-type Taylor approach with consideration of grain interaction was employed to correlate the unique texture development in the ME20 alloy with the activation scenarios of different deformation modes.

► Second phase precipitates in ME20 hindered activation of tensile twinning at 300 °C.
► New off-basal sheet texture during c-axis compression at low Z conditions.
► Ce amplifies the role of pyramidal 〈a〉-slip over prismatic slip at 0.3Tm.
► Prismatic slip becomes equally important to deformation at 0.6Tm.
► Accurate texture predictions using a cluster-type Taylor model with grain interaction.