Flow stress and microstructure evolution of semi-continuous casting AZ70 Mg-alloy during hot compression deformation

To evaluate and predict flow stress and set up hot forging process of AZ70 magnesium alloy, hot compression tests of AZ70 magnesium alloy were carried out on Gleeble 1500D thermo-mechanics tester at 300–420 °C and strain rates of 0.001–1 s−1 with different compression degrees. It is indicated that temperature and strain rate are the main factor affecting the flow stress and microstructure. Stress increases but average grain size decreases with temperature decreasing and strain rate increasing. The stress model, constituted by introducing temperature-compensated strain rate, the Zener-Hollomon parameter, has a good fitness with the proof stress value under the experimental condition. The reciprocal of grain size at true strain of 1.0 has a linear relation with natural logarithm of Z parameter, and the correlation coefficient, R=0.95, is very significant by examination. The hot deformation activation energy Q of AZ70 alloy is 166.197 kJ/mol by calculation.