The hot deformation behavior of Al-Zn-Mg-0.25Sc-Zr alloy and its microstructural evolution were investigated by isothermal axisymmetric hot compression tests at temperatures from 340 to 500°C and strain rates ranging from 0.001 to 10 s -1 .The steady flow stress increased with increasing the strain rate or decreasing the deformation temperature,which can be described by a hyperbolic-sine constitutive equation with the deformation activation energy of 150.25 kJ/mol.The tendency of dynamic recrystallization enhanced at high deforming temperatures and low strain rates,which corresponded to low Z values.With decreasing Z value,the main softening mechanism of the alloy transformed from dynamic recovery to dynamic recrystallization, correspondingly,the subgrain size increased and the dislocation density decreased.
Al-5.8Mg-0.4Mn-0.25Sc-0.1Zr （mass fraction, %） alloys were prepared by water chilling copper mould ingot metallurgy processing which was protected by active flux. The recrystallization temperature and nucleation mechanism of the alloy were studied by means of hardness tests, observations of optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the anti-crystallization ability can be significantly improved by adding minor Sc and Zr into Al-Mg-Mn alloy. This can be proved by a much higher recrystalliztion temperature （450 ~C） than Al-Mg-Mn alloy without Sc and Zr （150 ℃）. The main reason of the great increase of recrystallization temperature can be attributed to the strong pinning effect of highly disperseded Al3（Sc,Zr） particles on dislocations and sub-grain boundaries. The recrystallizing process reveals itself the nucleation mechanism of the alloy involving not only the sub-grain coalescence but also the sub-grain growth.
