Variation in Deformation Behaviors Along the Transverse Direction During the Warm Rolling of a 1480-mm-Wide AZ31B Plate

A decrease in the weight of aerospace vehicles, large ships, weapons, and high-speed trains will increase the demand for wide-width magnesium alloy plates and their composite parts to replace steel and plastic. An investigation was conducted to study the variation in deformation behaviors along the transverse direction during the warm rolling of a 1480-mm-wide AZ31B plate. A uniaxial thermal compression test with a 59 % reduction was performed at different positions on a 13.7-mm-thick rolled plate along the width direction at a temperature of 220 °C and 270 °C and strain rate of 15 s−1. At the same time, the 13.7-mm-thick plate was rolled in a single pass to 5.6 mm on a mill with a 1725-mm-wide roll to confirm the thermal deformation behavior and the dynamic recrystallization (DRX). The results show that the main texture type does not change and the grain size does not have a clear deflection when the magnesium alloy plate reaches a certain value under rolling accumulative reduction. The grain size of a 13.7-mm-thick plate increases with a decrease in the distance to the center layer in the thickness direction. In the width direction, the edge (R6) first decreases and then increases toward the symmetric plane (R1). The critical stress required for dynamic recrystallization in the transition zone R3 of the rolled plate width is minimum, and the average grain size is minimum owing to the relatively complete recrystallization.