An Investigation on Formability and Crystallographic Texture in Novel Magnesium Alloys

Magnesium alloys offer many advantages. They offer the very low density and good strength. They also offer good damping properties. One of the industries where reducing component weight in the automotive industry. That makes the magnesium alloys good candidates for these applications. Reduced weight of an automobile means also lower fuel consumption. The hexagonal closed packed structure of magnesium lends itself to strong mechanical anisotropy. In the current work, neutron diffraction was used to study the crystallographic texture developed in novel magnesium alloys during cold rolling operations. The texture was compared with that developed in the commercial AZ-31 magnesium alloy.  Tests were run at the High-Pressure-Preferred-Orientation (HIPPO) beamline at Los Alamos National Lab. The texture was then analyzed using pole figures, created using the Material Analysis Using Diffraction (MAUD) software.