Grain refinement and strengthening mechanism of AZ31 magnesium alloy formed by pre-upsetting alternating forward extrusion

The pre-upsetting deformation process was added before the alternating forward extrusion forming, which can significantly refine the grains and improve the mechanical properties while reducing the load. The effects of 14%, 25%, 36% pre-upsetting deformation on the microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ31 magnesium alloy were investigated. The results show that the pre-upsetting alternating forward extrusion (UAFE) process can achieve significant grain refinement from 31.1 µm to 2.9–3.5 µm. With the increase of pre-upsetting deformation, the elongation at break tends to decrease and the tensile strength tends to increase. The comprehensive mechanical properties of U2AFE are the best, the yield strength and tensile strength are 203.1 MPa and 299.0 MPa respectively, and the elongation at break is 12.5%. The enhancement of the pre-upsetting deformation process not only makes the basal plane of grains in the billet randomly distributed and weakens the basal plane texture, but also stores a large amount of strain energy and dislocation inside the billet, which accelerates the subsequent continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) process of alternating extrusion. This provides scientific guidance and technical support for the research of high-performance magnesium alloy extrusion forming technology.