Deformation and fracture during equal channel angular pressing of AZ31 magnesium alloy

The deformation and fracture characteristics of AZ31 magnesium alloy during equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) were established. The isothermal behavior of AZ31 magnesium alloy was determined at temperatures between 150 and 250 °C and ram speeds producing average effective strain rates between 0.001 and 0.25 s−1. AZ31 magnesium alloy was particularly susceptible to shear localization during ECAP, uniform flow occurred only at high temperatures and low strain rates. Observations of shear banding and shear fracture were interpreted in terms of the tendency for strain concentration as quantified by the flow localization ‘α’ parameter, or the ratio of the normalized flow softening rate to the strain-rate sensitivity. These understandings of the effect of material properties on flow localization tendency are helpful for the selection of processing parameters with uniform flow during ECAP.