Effects of manganese on microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ31 magnesium alloy processed by differential speed rolling

A DSR processing with a roll speed ratio of 1.08 was carried out on an AZ31 alloys with Mn additions of 0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 wt.% for investigating the effects of Mn on the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties. The amount of the Al-Mn compounds increased with increasing the Mn content. Compare with the DSR processed sheet without Mn addition with a homogeneous grain size, those with Mn additions exhibited an inhomogeneous microstructure due to the appearance of the shear bands comprising the small grains around 5 mu m. The Mn addition exhibited a significant effect in grain refinement even for a low content of 0.2 wt.%, which reduced the average grain size from about 25 mu m to 10 mu m. The Mn addition resulted in the significant increases in the tensile strength and the 0.2% proof stress by about 25 MPa and 40 MPa, respectively.