Effect of Aging Temperature on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of AZ81-4%Gd Magnesium Alloy

The microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ81-4%Gd magnesium alloy sheet after aging at 150, 200, 250, 300 were analyzed and tested by x-ray diffraction,scanning electron microscope,energy dispersive spectrometer and hardness tester. The results demonstrated that β-Mg17Al12 phases were precipitated in two patterns, those were continuous precipitation and discontinuous precipitation during aging below 250 and the morphology of β-Mg17Al12 phase was different. The β-Mg17Al12 phases were precipitated in the pattern of continuous during aging at 300. The analysis showed that the precipitation pattern and morphology of β phases were related to the mechanism of nucleation and growth. The alloy hardness achieved the highest value after aging at 250 and 300 for 24 hours, the hardness of the alloy was the highest after aging at 150 and 200 for 32 hours. In addition, the observations on microstructure and the testing on hardness revealed that the best aging temperature is 200 for the AZ81-4%Gd alloys within the scope of the study.