Nucleation of recrystallization in magnesium alloy grains of varied orientation and the impacts on texture evolution

Selection of appropriate thermomechanical processing parameters is crucial for control of the crystallographic texture and grain size distribution in wrought magnesium alloys, which in turn dictate their mechanical properties. In this work, the recrystallization behavior of binary Mg-Zn alloys are examined after warm rolling as a function of alloy content and heat treatment temperature. The Avrami exponent increased with increasing heat treatment temperature up to the MgZn solvus, while the strength of the recrystallization texture decreased. Neither the Avrami exponent nor the qualitative trends in texture evolution were sensitive to the Zn alloying content in the examined range. EBSD and transmission electron microscopy observations revealed that the changes in texture and recrystallization kinetics could be attributed to differences in the nucleation behavior of basal and off-basal orientations.