Improvement of creep rupture life in magnesium-aluminum by high temperature pre-creep binary solid solutions

Effects of high-temperature pre-creep on creep life in magnesium-aluminum solution hardened alloys have been investigated. Creep life. at 0.55T(m) (T-m is the absolute melting temperature) are drastically improved by pre-creep treatment, which is given at higher temperature, 0.7T(m). The samples show almost the same minimum creep rate, although creep rate in tertiary creep is affected by the pre-creep treatment. Improvement of creep life by pre-creep is attributed to suppression of linkage of inter-granular cavities at non-straight grain boundaries formed by high temperature pre-creep. The significance of pre-creep treatment on creep life of the alloys is presented and the high-temperature pre-creep treatment is considered as a promising method to improve the creep life of magnesium alloys. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.