Constitutive Equations and Flow Behavior of an As-Extruded AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Under Large Strain Condition

A reasonable constitutive model is the key to achieving the accurate numerical simulation of magnesium alloy extrusion process. Based on the hot compression tests of the as-extruded AZ31 magnesium alloy, the strain-compensated Arrhenius equation, the constitutive equation taking into account dynamic recovery (DRV) and dynamic recrystallization (DRX), and the modified Fields-Backofen equation (FB) are established to describe the deformation behavior of this alloy under large strain condition (strain level greater than 1.0) and wide strain rate range (0.01 to 10 s⁻¹), respectively. Then material parameters in each constitutive model are determined by linear fitting method. The comparison of these three kinds of equations shows that the strain-compensated Arrhenius model provides the best prediction of flow stress, and the calculated value of correlation coefficient (R) is the highest as 0.9945 and the average absolute relative error (AARE) is the lowest as 3.11%. The constitutive equation with DRV + DRX can also predict flow stress accurately, and its values of R and AARE are 0.9920 and 4.41%, respectively. However, compared to the other two constitutive equations, the modified FB equation does not give good description of hot deformation behavior for this magnesium alloy. Finally, the advantages and drawbacks of these three kinds of constitutive models are discussed and compared. Therefore, this work could provide theoretical guidelines for investigating hot deformation behavior of wrought magnesium alloys and determining the appropriate extrusion process parameters under large strain condition.