Effect of intermetallic compound β-Mg17Al12 on ductility of AZ91D magnesium alloy
(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing 100083, China)
Abstract: The microstructures of the AZ91D die-cast magnesium alloy were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS). Moreover, the microstructure change of AZ91D samples was observed during the process of heat treatment at 300 ℃ for different time. And the tensile testing was carried out for these samples and the fracture morphology of the tensile test samples was also examined. The results show that the microstructures of AZ91D magnesium alloy are mainly composed of α-Mg phase and β-Mg17Al12 phase. The morphology of the β phase alters from continuous distribution to discontinuous distribution during the process of heat-treatment. Meanwhile, the ductility of the materials reduces from 1.71% to 1.08% after a long time heat-treated at 300 ℃. Moreover, the quasi-cleavage fractures characters are also found in the fracture morphology. The granulation and discontinuous distribution of β-Mg17Al12 results in the deterioration of the ductility of AZ91D die cast magnesium alloy.
Key words: AZ91D magnesium alloy; microstructure; morphology; ductility; fracture texture