Internal strain and texture evolution during deformation twinning in magnesium

The development of a twinned microstructure in hexagonal close-packed rolled magnesium compressed in the in-plane direction has been monitored in situ with neutron diffraction. The continuous conversion of the parent to daughter microstructure is tracked through the variation of diffraction peak intensities corresponding to each. Approximately 80% of the parent microstructure twins by 8% compression. Elastic lattice strain measurements indicate that the stress in the newly formed twins (daughters) is relaxed relative to the stress field in the surrounding matrix. However, since the daughters are in a plastically “hard” deformation orientation, they quickly accumulate elastic strain as surrounding grains deform plastically. Polycrystal modeling of the deformation process provides insight about the crystallographic deformation mechanism involved.