Improved mechanical properties of AZ31 magnesium alloy plates by pre-rolling followed by warm compression

AZ31 magnesium alloy plates were processed by pre-rolling followed by warm compression. The corresponding microstructure evolution and mechanical properties were investigated in the present paper. The pre-introduced twins by pre-rolling increased the number of nucleation sites for dynamic recrystallization (DRX) during subsequent warm compression, which resulted in a fine completely recrystallized microstructure. With the increasing warm compression, more grains were recrystallized and the basal texture intensity was greatly strengthened. Finally, the average grain size was significantly refined from 31.9 μm to 2.0 μm by pre-rolling followed by warm compression. As a result, the AZ31 alloy plates processed by pre-rolling followed by warm compression exhibited higher yield stress and ultimate stress resulting from grain refinement without a reduction in elongation.