Effect of hot forging on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg–Zn–Y alloy

The use of hot forging as an alternative thermo-mechanical treatment to refine a quasicrystalline reinforced Mg–Zn–Y cast alloy has been explored. Hot forging refines the grain size of the cast Mg–Zn–Y alloy and induces a strong texture with the basal planes perpendicular to the forging direction. However, forging is not effective to distribute the I-phase homogeneously through the magnesium matrix. At low temperature, grain refinement is the main strengthening mechanism and contributes to increasing the mechanical strength of the forged-Mg–Zn–Y alloy. Furthermore, the basal texture affords an additional strengthening contribution whose magnitude depends only on the texture intensity.