Constitutive modeling and understanding of the hot compressive deformation of Mg–9.5Zn–2.0Y magnesium alloy with reduced number of strain-dependent constitutive parameters

Abstract

The hot compressive flow behavior of the cast Mg–9.5Zn–2.0Y alloy as a function of strain was analyzed, and the degree of dependence of the parameters (A: material constant, n ₂: stress exponent, Q _c: activation energy for plastic flow and α: stress multiplier) of the constitutive equation ($\dot \varepsilon = A{\left[ {\sinh \left( {\alpha \sigma } \right)} \right]^{{n_2}}}\exp \left( {\frac{{ - {Q_c}}}{{RT}}} \right)$) upon the strain was examined in a systematic manner. This is to explore the possibility of representing the hot compressive deformation behavior of metallic alloys in a simple way by using a reduced number of strain-dependent constitutive parameters. The analysis results for several different cases can be interpreted as follows: (1) Q _c can be treated as being strain-independent, which is physically sensible; (2) while only the microstructure changes as a function of strain at low flow stresses, as the flow stress increases, the power-law creep deformation and power-law breakdown mechanisms change; (3) the regime where only A is strain dependent expanded to higher strain rates and lower temperatures as the strain increased, suggesting that the number of the strain-dependent parameters decreases as the initial microstructure is refined by dynamic recrystallization, and the microstructure approaches a steady state.