Time dependent magnesium AZ31B behavior: experimental and physically based modeling investigation

The need to produce vehicles with improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions has led the automotive industry to consider use of "lightweighting" materials in the construction of automotive body and chassis systems. For automotive body structures and closure panel applications, mostly made of sheet, aluminum alloys are being introduced due to their lower densities and relatively high specific strengths, as well as their compatibility with the traditional manufacturing process that are used with steel. However, interest has been increasingly focusing on the use of sheet magnesium in the manufacturing of panels and structural components, since its density is about 40% lower compared to aluminum. Accordingly, the objectives of this study are to investigate the evolution of microstructure during thermo-mechanical processing of twin-roll cast AZ31B alloys sheets, and to examine the mechanical properties of the alloy under superplastic conditions. The rate dependent crystal plasticity model have been used and integrated using an explicit model was coupled with the Taylor polycrystal model in the aim to capture the overall behavior of our studied material. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V.