Microstructure, Mechanical, Corrosion, and Ignition Properties of WE43 Alloy Prepared by Different Processes

Abstract

This paper deals with the effect of microstructure condition on ignition temperature, mechanical and corrosion properties of commercial WE43 alloy prepared by various processing techniques including conventional casting, extrusion, and powder metallurgy methods such as spark plasma sintering. For different processing technique, differences in microstructures were observed, including different grain sizes, intermetallic phases, amount of alloying elements in the solid solutions, or specific structural elements. Mechanical and corrosion properties were improved especially by grain refinement. Precipitation from oversaturated solid solutions led to further improvement of mechanical properties, while corrosion resistance was just slightly decreased due to the fine and homogeneously distributed precipitates of Mg41Nd5. The obtained results indicate huge differences in ignition resistance based on the metallurgical state of the microstructure. An improved ignition resistance was obtained at the condition with a higher concentration of proper alloying elements (Y, Nd, Gd, Dy) in the solid solution and absence of eutectic phases in the microstructure. Thermally stable intermetallic phases had a minor effect on resulting ignition temperature.

Special Issue: “Processing and Treatment of Hexagonal Metals”

“…Dvorsky et al [14] investigated the influence of the processing route on the behavior of the WE43 magnesium alloy. In their detailed and extensive study, they compare microstructure, mechanical and corrosion behavior, as well as ignition temperature of the WE43 alloy prepared by casting, extrusion, T4 heat treatment and two kinds of powder metallurgical routes.…”

Effect of cooling rate on microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-9Gd-4Y-1Zn-1Al alloy

“…It has been found that Mg-RE phase can pin dislocations effectively during loading process and play a significant role in strengthening [5]. Although commercial Mg-RE alloys have been applied, for example, WE alloys [6,7], they are far from adequate for current engineering application. In recent years, because of good solid solution and precipitation strengthening effect [8][9][10], Gd and Y have attracted extensive attention and Mg-Gd-Y alloys have been a research hotspot.…”

Influence of Severe Plastic Deformation by Extrusion on Microstructure, Deformation and Thermal Behavior under Tension of Magnesium Alloy Mg-2.9Y-1.3Nd

“…In view of the above, various deformation methods were proved to be very promising, including severe plastic deformation (SPD), for example, equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP), abc-forging, rotational forging, extrusion, etc. These methods allow one to obtain a high level of mechanical properties in metals by grinding grain to an ultrafine-grained (UFG) state [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. In this case, it becomes possible to significantly improve the mechanical properties of alloys.…”