Study on hot deformation behavior and microstructure evolution of cast-extruded AZ31B magnesium alloy and nanocomposite using processing map

Highlights: ► Hot deformation behavior of AZ31B Mg alloy and nanocomposite were studied. ► Activation energy of AZ31B Mg alloy and nanocomposite were determined. ► Twining, shear bands and flow localization were observed. - Abstract: The hot deformation behavior and microstructural evolution of cast-extruded AZ31B magnesium alloy and nanocomposite have been studied using processing-maps. Compression tests were conducted in the temperature range of 250–400 °C and strain rate range of 0.01–1.0 s−1. The three-dimensional (3D) processing maps developed in this work, describe the variations of the efficiency of power dissipation and flow instability domains in the strain rate (ε) and temperature (T) space. The deformation mechanisms namely dynamic recrystallization (DRX), dynamic recovery (DRY) and instability regions were identified using processing maps. The deformation mechanisms were also correlated with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical microscopy (OM). The optimal region for hot working has been observed at a strain rate (ε) of 0.01 s−1 and the temperature (T) of 400 °C for both magnesium alloy and nanocomposite. Few instability regimes have been identified in this study at higher strain rate (ε) and temperature (T). The stability domains have been identified in the lower strain rate regimes