Superplasticity of AZ31 magnesium alloy prepared by friction stir processing

Microstructure and tensile behaviors of AZ31 magnesium alloy prepared by friction stir processing (FSP) were investigated. The results show that microstructure of the AZ31 hot-rolled plate with an average grain size of 92.0 μm is refined to 11.4 μm after FSP. The FSP AZ31 alloy exhibits excellent plasticity at elevated temperature, with an elongation to failure of 1050% at 723 K and a strain rate of 5×10−4 s−1. The elongation of the FSP material is 268% at 723 K and 1×10−2 s−1, indicating that high strain rate superplasticity could be achieved. On the other hand, the hot-rolled base material, which has a coarse grain structure, possesses no superplasticity under the experimental conditions.