Microstructure and Texture Evolution During Hot Compression of Cast and Extruded AZ80 Magnesium Alloy

Uniaxial compression tests were conducted on cast and extruded AZ80 alloys at 400 °C and a strain rate of 0.1 s⁻¹ up to a true strain of 1.0. Microstructure and texture evolution during hot deformation was studied using optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction macrotexture analysis and electron backscatter diffraction. The results indicate that dynamic recrystallization (DRX) occurred in the samples during deformation for both cast and extruded starting materials and the DRX fraction was found to increase with deformation strain level. The DRX grain size for both cast and extruded materials was measured as ~5 µm and was independent of the deformation strain. In both cast and extruded materials, hot deformation led to the development of a sharp basal texture along the compression direction, which was attributed to grain rotation occurring during deformation, and preservation of deformation texture by the DRXed grains.