Effect of burnishing strategies on surface integrity, microstructure and corrosion performance of wire arc additively manufactured AZ31 Mg alloy

AZ31 Mg alloy is an emerging material that has received considerable attention in aerospace, automotive, and temporary biodegradable implant applications owing to its attractive properties, such as low density, high specific strength, and biodegradability. Nevertheless, some shortcomings in Mg alloys are their low ductility, which is associated with challenging its manufacturing, and poor corrosion resistance associated with unreliable components. Therefore, a cold metal transfer wire arc additive manufacturing (CMT-WAAM) process is used to manufacture AZ31 Mg alloy and achieved 29.4 % ductility by controlling the gas porosity, keyhole porosity, and internal cracks. Further, severe plastic deformation is induced on the surface of deposited parts by low plasticity burnishing (LPB) with parallel and cross-pattern burnishing to modulate their surface to slow down the kinetics of the corrosion damage. The average surface roughness (S_a) of the cross-burnishing pattern is 0.235 μm, which is 123.6 % lower than the parallel burnished and 261.7 % lower than the milled specimens. The residual stress (RS) of WAAM is 40 MPa with a tensile nature; however, it is drastically reduced and develops compressive RS of 45 MPa under a parallel burnishing pattern and 62 MPa under a cross-burnishing pattern. Moreover, LPB with cross pattern deformed ∼395 μm depth of WAAMed AZ31 workpiece, which is ∼45 % higher than deformed depth (∼272 μm) by parallel pattern burnishing. The electrochemical corrosion rate of the WAAM specimen is 9.71 mm/year^, and it is reduced to 1.82 mm/year under LPB caused by compressive residual stress and grain refinement.