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The influence of grain size and strain rate on the mechanical behavior of pure magnesium

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Abstract

Commercially pure magnesium was processed by severe plastic deformation techniques and thermo-mechanical routes to produce samples with grain sizes in the range from 1.0 to 300 µm. Tensile testing of a fine-grained material revealed a decrease in hardening and an increase in strain rate sensitivity with decreasing testing strain rate from 10−2 to 10−7 s−1. Compression testing of fine-grained samples not only revealed similar trend, but also there was a transition from twinning to slip-dominated flow. Dynamic ultra-microhardness testing showed an increase in strain rate sensitivity with decreasing grain size. The trend of decreasing hardening rate and increasing strain rate sensitivity with decreasing strain rate was not observed in samples with a coarser grain size. Compression testing at different temperatures suggests that a creep mechanism with stress exponent of ~7 and activation energy close to grain boundary diffusion operates at low strain rates and moderate temperatures. A model for a new deformation mechanism is proposed based on the present experimental results and published data.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by CNPq, FAPEMIG, and CAPES and in part by the European Research Council under ERC Grant Agreement No. 267464-SPDMETALS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Engineering and Civil Construction, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Roberto B. Figueiredo

  2. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Flávia S. J. Poggiali & Cláudio L. P. Silva

  3. Department of Civil Construction, Centro Federal de Ensino Tecnologico de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 30510-000, Brazil

    Flávia S. J. Poggiali

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Paulo R. Cetlin

  5. Materials Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Terence G. Langdon

  6. Departments of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-1453, USA

    Terence G. Langdon

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  1. Roberto B. Figueiredo
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  2. Flávia S. J. Poggiali
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  5. Terence G. Langdon
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Correspondence to Roberto B. Figueiredo.

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Figueiredo, R.B., Poggiali, F.S.J., Silva, C.L.P. et al. The influence of grain size and strain rate on the mechanical behavior of pure magnesium. J Mater Sci 51, 3013–3024 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9612-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9612-x

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