Influence of basal slip activity in twin lamellae on mechanical behavior of Mg alloys

•Introduction of a small amount of twin lamellae causes obvious low yielding.•The activation of basal slip in twin lamellae causes constant strain hardening.•The length of state II strain hardening is dependent on the amount of pre-strain.

Understanding the influence of basal slip activity on deformation features is very important for expanding the applications of Mg alloys. In this letter, twinned Mg alloy plates were used to understand the influence of basal slip activity on mechanical behaviors. It revealed that the introduction of only a small amount of twin lamellae will cause a low yielding and constant strain hardening (in stage II) behavior. However, with increasing pre-inducing twins, the hardening rate in stage II gradually decreases, while the length of stage II hardening increases.