Design of an age hardening Mg-Li alloy and its aging behavior

An effort was made to design an age hardening Mg-Li alloy based on the phase diagrams calculated by means of "THERMO-CALC"-a thermodynamic software. Experiments were carried out to verify the calculated results by melting the alloy and examining its structure and aging behavior. The results show that the alloy possesses a structure constituent as expected, besides,the alloy has apparent aging behavior and over aging happens even at lower temperature. Metastable (Mg, Li, Al, Zn) phase has been identified when the hardness reaches the aging peak. With the increase of the aging time, (Mg, Li, Al, Zn) phase transforms to stable α phase and over aging happens.