Enhancing the Performance of Magnesium Alloy AZ31 by Integration with Millimeter Length Scale Aluminium-based Cores

Abstract

New bimetal magnesium/aluminium macrocomposites containing millimeter-scale Al-based core reinforcement were fabricated using solidification processing followed by hot coextrusion. Two approaches were attempted for enhancing the performance of AZ31: (a) AZ31 shell integration with pure Al core (pure Al core approach) and (b) AZ31 shell integration with AA5052 core (AA5052 core approach), in that order. In the AA5052 core approach eventually, macrointerface width was increased by 2 orders of magnitude (compared to that in the macrocomposite obtained using the pure Al core approach), while stiffness was increased (+36%), 0.2%YS was unchanged and UTS was increased (+14%) (compared to monolithic AZ31). The evolution of the Mg-Al macrointerface and its effect on microstructure and mechanical properties is investigated in this article.

Improved ductility in ZM21 magnesium–aluminium macrocomposite produced by co-extrusion

“…There was an improvement in stiffness as well as significant increase in failure strain and work of fracture of Mg as observed. Paramsothy et al (2010) also analyzed the co-extrusion behaviour of AZ31 and AA5052 alloy. They reported improved stiffness and UTS when compared to monolithic AZ31.…”

High temperature tensile response of nano-Al2O3 reinforced AZ31 nanocomposites

“…Hence, plastic deformation methods to form semifinished products from these magnesium alloys are intensively investigated [3,4]. Successful attempts have been made in recent time to simultaneously increase the strength and formability of these alloys by using nano-size particulate reinforcements [1,[5][6][7][8][9][10] and, hence, enhanced their potential to further industrial applications. Among the nano-size reinforcement used, Al 2 O 3 particulate was found to be the most promising in simultaneous improvement of room temperature strength and formability of magnesium and its alloys.…”