Thermal and electromigration effects of electropulsing on dynamic recrystallization in Mg–3Al–1Zn alloy

The effect of electropulsing tension (ET) on the elongation to failure, microstructure and fracture behavior of Mg–3Al–1Zn (AZ31) alloy was investigated. It was found that electropulsing increased the plasticity significantly at a high strain rate of 2.5 × 10−2 s−1 and the mechanism was based on dynamic recrystallization (DRX). The calculated temperature of the ET sample indicated that ET dramatically accelerated DRX at a relatively lower temperature, compared with conventional warm deformation. Based on the flux of vacancies contributed by the thermal and electromigration effects of ET, a model for simulating DRX under ET was established. The interplay between the two effects and a comparison with conventional warm deformation were also discussed.