Microstructure and Texture Evolution of AZ31 Alloy Prepared by Cyclic Expansion Extrusion with Asymmetrical Extrusion Cavity at Different Temperatures

This work is to study the microstructure and texture evolution of AZ31 alloy prepared by cyclic expansion extrusion with an asymmetrical extrusion cavity (CEE-AEC) at different deformation temperatures. The result shows AZ31 alloy undergoes continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) and discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DDRX) during CEE-AEC processing. At the initial stage of deformation, AZ31 alloys exhibit similar bimodal microstructure of coarse deformed grains surrounded by fine DRXed grains. As the passes increase, the cumulative strain increases, and the coarse grains of all samples are almost replaced by fine equiaxed grains. The average grain sizes and the basal texture intensities of the deformed samples increase as the deformation temperature increases. In addition, due to the existence of an asymmetrical cavity, as the passes increase, the basal textures of all samples are deflected with maximum intensities increase, and even an unusual bimodal texture is formed, resulting in a soft orientation that is easy to basal slip.