Effect of initial texture on dynamic recrystallization of AZ31 Mg alloy during hot rolling

Wedge-shaped AZ31 plates with two kinds of initial textures were rolled at 573 K to investigate the effect of initial texture on dynamic recrystallization (DRX). The results indicated that the initiation and nucleation of DRX were closely related to the initial texture. The initiation and completion of DRX in the TD-plate were significantly retarded compared with that in the ND-plate. Twin related DRX nucleation was mainly observed in the ND-plate samples; while gain boundary related DRX nucleation was mainly observed in the TD-plate samples. The different DRX behavior between the TD- and ND-plates was attributed to the different deformation mechanism occurring before DRX initiation. For the ND-plate, dislocation glide was considered as the main deformation mechanism accompanied with {1 0 −1 1}–{1 0 −1 2} double twin, which led to the increment of a faster increasing stored energy within the grains. And {1 0 −1 1}–{1 0 −1 2} double twin was mainly found to be DRX nucleation site for the ND-plate. For the TD-plate, {1 0 −1 2} extension twin was the dominant deformation mechanism which resulted in a basal texture with the c-axis nearly parallel to ND. The stored energy caused by dislocation motion was relatively small in the TD-plate before a basal texture was formed, which was considered as the main reason of that DRX was retarded in the TD-plate compared with that in the ND-plate. Based on the difference in deformation mechanism and DRX mechanism caused by the different initial texture, the variation in grain size, micro-texture and misorientation angle distribution in the ND and TD plates were discussed.