Annealing hardening in detwinning deformation of Mg–3Al–1Zn alloy

The present work reports the effect of annealing treatment on detwinning deformation in Mg alloy AZ31 and pure Mg that have pre-strained twins. It shows that appropriate annealing enhances, rather than reduces, the yield strength of the pre-strained AZ31, but it does not cause any strengthening of the pre-strained pure Mg. STEM–EDS mapping shows that both Al and Zn segregate to twin boundaries in the pre-strained AZ31 after the annealing process. It is proposed that it is the pinning of twin boundary by segregated solute atoms that results in an increased activation stress for detwinning deformation and, hence, annealing hardening.