EFFECT OF COOLING RATE ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SOLUTION-TREATED Mg-9Gd-4Y-2Zn-0.5Zr ALLOY

Abstract

Different cooling rates, such as room temperature water cooling (WQ), furnace cooling (FC), and water cooling + furnace cooling (FC +WQ), were introduced to study the effect on the solution-treated Mg-9Gd-4Y-2Zn-0.5Zr (w/%) alloy microstructure and mechanical properties. The grain size decreases as the cooling rate increases. With the lengthening of the cooling process time, the LPSO phase had enough time to nucleate and diffuse, the LPSO (long-period stacking order) phase filled the whole matrix crystal grains at the same time. In the process of furnace cooling and water cooling, the brightness of the LPSO phase was different, so it could be seen that the cooling rate would affect the contrast and morphology of the LPSO phase. The tensile yield strengths of the samples cooled with the furnace were better than those of the water-cooled samples, but their ultimate tensile strength and elongation to failure were poor. The fracture modes of the samples under different cooling rates were all subject to cleavage fracture, and the number and area of the cleavage planes and cleavage steps increased with the decrease of cooling speed, and the tearing area decreased, resulting in poor ultimate tensile strength and stretchability.