High Strength and Ductility of a MgAg/MgGdYAg/MgAg Sandwiched Plate Produced by High-Pressure Torsion

Due to their unique precipitation behavior, magnesium-rare earth (Mg-RE) alloys exhibit excellent strength and high thermal stability. However, owing to the negative blocking effect of precipitation on dislocation slipping, the plasticity and ductility of Mg-RE alloys become deteriorate after aging treatment. In this work, a novel strategy to improve the combination of strength and ductility by designing a laminate heterostructured Mg alloy is proposed. High-pressure torsion (HPT) processing is employed to fabricate a clean and well-bonded interface between MgGdYAg and MgAg alloys. The two alloys have huge differences in precipitation hardening, and ductility is improved due to two facts. For one thing, the density of the second phases in the MgAg alloy is much lower than that of MgGdYAg alloy; for another, the non-basal 〈c+ a〉 slipping is continuously activated during deformation. Through this mechanism, the uniform elongation of the heterostructured MgAg/MgGdYAg/MgAg alloy is improved to 7.1%.