The hot compression behavior of a wrought Mg-6Zn-1Al-0.3Mn magnesium alloy was investigated using Gleeble test at 200-400 °C with strain rates ranging from 0.01 to 7 s-1. The true stress-strain curves show that the hot deformation behavior significantly depends on the deformation temperature and strain rate. The calculated hot deformation activation energy Q is 166 kJ/mol with a stress exponent n=5.99, and the constitutive equation is deduced to be ε＆ =3.16×1013[sinh（0.010σ）]5.99exp [-1.66×105/（RT）]· Deformation microstructure shows that the incompletely dynamically recrystallized grains can be found at grain boundaries and twins with the strain rates ranging from 0.01 to 1 s^-1 at 250 °C, and completely dynamic recrystallization occurs when the temperature is 350 °C or above during hot compression, the size of recrystallized grains decreases with the increment of the strain rate at the same temperature. The relatively suitable deformation condition is considered temperature 330-400 °C and strain rate of 0.01-0.03 s-1, and temperature of 350 °C and strain rate of 1 s-1.
The fatigue behavior of friction stir spot welded （FSSW） AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet joints was investigated by tension- compression of fatigue test. The results suggest that all the fatigue failures occur at the stir zone of the FSSW AZ31 sheet joints, and all cracks initiate at the stir zone outer edge between the upper and lower sheet. When the cycle force equals 1 kN, the crack propagates along the interface of heat-affected zone and thermo-mechanical zone, simultaneously across the direction of force; while the cycle force equals 3 kN, the crack propagates along the diameter of stir zone and shear failure occurs finally. Moreover, the transverse microsections indicate that there is a tongue-like region at the outer edge of stir zone between the two AZ31 sheets, and the direction of tongue-like region is toward outside of the stirred zone and all fatigue cracks initiate at the tongue-like region.
The plastic flow behavior of a newly developed high ductility magnesium alloy, Mg-4Al-2Sn-Y-Nd, was investigated by hot compression from 200 to 400 ℃ with a strain rate of 1.5×10-3 to 7.5 s-1. The results reveal that the strain rate sensitivity factor （m） of the alloy is much lower than that of the AZ31 alloy, which implies that the alloy should be more suitable for processing at high strain rate. The constitutive relationship of the alloy deformed at elevated temperature was obtained by plotting the experimental data. The stress exponent of the alloy is 10.33, which reveals that climb-controlled dislocations creep is the dominated deformation mechanism. The processing-map technique was used to determine the practical processing window. The proper deformation temperature and strain rate of the cast alloy were determined as 350-400 ℃ and 0.01-0.03 s-1, respectively.
