Effects of Rare Earth Element Additions on the Impression Creep Behavior of AZ91 Magnesium Alloy

The effects of 1, 2, and 3 wt pct rare earth (RE) element additions on the microstructure and creep behavior of cast AZ91 Mg alloy were investigated by impression tests. The tests were carried out under constant punching stress in the range 200 to 650 MPa at temperatures in the range 425 to 525 K. Analysis of the data showed that for all loads and temperatures, the AZ91-2RE alloy had the lowest creep rates and, thus, the highest creep resistance among all materials tested. This is attributed to the formation of Al11RE3 with a branched morphology, reduction in the volume fraction of the eutectic β-Mg17Al12 phase, and solid solution hardening effects of Al in the Mg matrix. The stress exponents and activation energies were the same for all alloy systems studied, 5.3 to 6.5 and 90 to 120 kJ mol−1, respectively, with the exception that the activation energy for the AZ91-3RE system was 102 to 126 kJ mol−1. An observed decreasing trend of creep-activation energy with stress suggests that two parallel mechanisms of lattice and pipe diffusion-controlled dislocation climb are competing. Dislocation climb controlled by dislocation pipe diffusion is controlling at high stresses, whereas climb of edge dislocations is the controlling mechanism at low stresses.