Formability of a wrought Mg alloy evaluated by impression testing

This study is focused on furthering our understanding of the different factors that influence the formability of Magnesium alloys. Towards this end, formability studies were undertaken on a wrought Mg-2Zn-1Mn (ZM21) alloy. In contrast to conventional formability studies, the impression testing method was adopted here to evaluate the formability parameter, B, at temperatures ranging from 298 to 473K. The variation of B of ZM21 with temperature and its rather limited values were discussed in the light of different deformation mechanisms such as activation of twinning, slip, grain boundary sliding (GBS) and dynamic recrystallization (DRX). It was found that the material characteristics such as grain size, texture and testing conditions such as temperature and strain rate, were key determinants of the mechanism of plastic deformation. A by-product of this analysis was the observation of an interesting correlation between the Zener-Hollomon parameter, Z, and the ability of Mg alloys to undergo DRX.