On the precipitates and mechanical properties of magnesium–yttrium sheets

Light-weight wrought magnesium alloys is an important part of the weight reduction in automobiles industry for improve their fuel efficiency. Yttrium containing magnesium alloy is a potential material in this perspective. In this work, two magnesium–yttrium alloys (C and D alloys) were cast and rolled to 2 mm thick sheets. The mechanical properties of these hot rolled and annealed sheets were determined. Optical microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with EDX were used to investigate microstructure evolution during thermo-mechanical processing in the studied alloys. Precipitates evolution during hot rolling and annealing processes were analyzed and compared with those calculated using thermo-chemical software (FactSage). Schiel phase distribution diagrams of C and D alloys were calculated using FactSage.