Effects of intermediate annealing on twin evolution in twin-structured Mg-Nd alloys

In the present study, in-situ electron back-scattered diffraction analysis was carried out to systematically investigate dominant mechanism for twinning process during re-compression after intermediate annealing in Mg alloys containing 0.03 at% and 0.18% at% Nd. The results show that twin growth is the dominant mechanism for both alloys during re-compression after annealing, while twin nucleation is the dominant mechanism for both alloys without annealing. Furthermore, the contribution of nucleation to twinning process decreases with the increase of Nd concentration for the alloys without annealing, while the contribution of nucleation increases with the increase of Nd concentration after annealing.