Effect of Al on microstructure and mechanical properties of as-cast Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy

This paper aims to investigate the effect of aluminum addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy.,Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn-xAl (x = 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 Wt.%) alloys were prepared by the conventional gravity casting technology, and then microstructures, phase composition and mechanical properties were investigated by material characterization method, systematically.,Results show that the as-cast microstructure of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy mainly consists of a-Mg matrix as well as Mg12REZn (18 R LPSO structure), and island-like Mg3(RE, Zn) phase is distributed at the grain boundary. The addition of a small amount of Al (0.5 Wt.%) can decrease the content of island-like Mg3(RE, Zn) phase, but significantly increase the content of long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) structure, resulting in the improvement of both tensile strength and elongation of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy. However, the addition of excessive Al will consume Re element and decrease the amount of LPSO structure, leading to the decrease of tensile properties. When the content of Al is 0.5 Wt.%, the tensile strength and elongation are 225 MPa and 9.0% of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy, which are 14% and 29% higher than that of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy, respectively.,Adding aluminum to Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy strengthens its mechanical properties. And the effect of Al content on the alloy strengthening. The formation mechanism of LPSO structure with different aluminum content was revealed.