Transition in Deformation Mechanism of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy during High-Temperature Tensile Deformation

Magnesium alloys can be used for reducing the weight of various structural products, because of their high specific strength. They have attracted considerable attention as materials with a reduced environmental load, since they help to save both resources and energy. In order to use Mg alloys for manufacturing vehicles, it is important to investigate the deformation mechanism and transition point for optimizing the material and vehicle design. In this study, we investigated the transition of the deformation mechanism during the high-temperature uniaxial tensile deformation of the AZ31 Mg alloy. At a test temperature of 523 K and an initial strain rate of s−1, the AZ31 Mg alloy (mean grain size: ~5 μm) exhibited stable deformation behavior and the deformation mechanism changed to one dominated by grain boundary sliding.