Plastic deformation behavior of ZK60 magnesium alloy with addition of neodymium

The hot deformation simulation of a ZK60 magnesium alloy at different temperatures from 373 to 673 K and different strain rates of 0.1, 0.01 and 0.002 s −1 was studied by using the Gleebe-1500 simulator. The plastic deformation behavior was measured and the deformation activation energy was calculated. The microstructures of ZK60 magnesium alloy with an addition of neodymium during the deformation process were observed by using Polyvar-MET optical microscope and Tecnai G 2 20 TEM. The results show that the working hardening, the dynamic recovery and the dynamic recrystallization occur during the plastic deformation process at different temperatures and strain rates. The dynamic recrystallization starts when the temperature is over 473 K and the DRX grain size after hot deformation is only 5–10 μm. So the refined grains improve both the tensile strength and the elongation of alloys at room temperature. Neodymium is added into the alloy and a precipitate phase Mg 12 Nd that impedes the movement of dislocations is formed, which benefits to increasing mechanical properties of ZK60 magnesium alloy.