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Microstructure Evolution and Thermal Stability of Mg-Sm-Ca Alloy Processed by High-Pressure Torsion

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Abstract

The nanostructured Mg-Sm-Ca alloy with excellent mechanical properties was successfully prepared by high-pressure torsion (HPT). The alloys exhibit exceptional strengthening properties when annealed at a high temperature of 200ºC. It was found that microhardness can reach ~134.4 HV in HPT-processed samples, which is about 97% higher than that of the as-solution samples. The strengthening of HPT-processed samples is mainly caused by dense and fine Mg41Sm5 precipitates with an average size of about 32 nm. Additionally, the HPT-processed alloy exhibits excellent thermal stability after annealing in the high-temperature region of 200-400ºC for 1 h. Results have demonstrated that the activation energy of the alloy in the high-temperature region is approximately 169-193 kJ/mol and the cohesive energy of the Mg41Sm5 phase is − 191.9452 kJ/mol. Mg41Sm5 particles with stable crystal structures distributed in the grain boundaries can reduce the mobility of GBs and prevent grain growth effectively during the annealing process.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51675092).

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  1. State Key Lab of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Hebei Key Lab of for Optimizing Metal Product Technology and Performance, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

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Liu, X., Xu, R. Microstructure Evolution and Thermal Stability of Mg-Sm-Ca Alloy Processed by High-Pressure Torsion. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 31, 2644–2652 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-06433-5

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