A Study on Microstructural Evolution of Hot Rolled AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Sheets

열간 압연한 AZ31 마그네슘합금 판재의 미세조직 발달에 관한 연구

Recently, a sheet forming process of Mg alloys is highlighted again due to increasing demand for Mg wrought alloys in the applications of casings of mobile electronics and outer-skins of light-weight transportation. Microstructure control is essential for the enhancement of workability and formability of Mg alloy sheets. In this research, AZ31 Mg alloy sheets were prepared by hot rolling process and the rolling condition dependency of the microstructure and texture evolution was studied by employing a conventional rolling mill as well as an asymmetric rolling mill. When rolled through multiple passes with a small reduction per pass, fine-grained and homogeneous microstructure evolved by repetitive dynamic and static recrystallization. With higher rolling temperature, dynamic recrystallization was initiated in lower reduction. However with increasing reduction per pass, deformation was locallized in band-like regions, which provided favorable nucleation sites f3r dynamic recrystallization. Through post annealing process, the microstructures could be transformed to more equiaxed and homogeneous grain structures. Textures of the rolled sheets were characterized by $\{0002\}$ basal plane textures and retained even after post annealing. On the other hand, asymmetrically rolled and subsequently annealed sheets exhibited unique annealing texture, where $\{0002\}$ orientation was rotated to some extent to the rolling direction and its intensity was reduced.