Investigation on the anisotropy of mechanical properties along different orientations of an AZ31 hot-extrusion bar

To systematically investigate the texture induced anisotropy for magnesium, the microstructure, texture and mechanical properties were tested on samples cut along different orientations from an AZ31 extrusion bar. It shows that microstructure, texture and mechanical properties varied with the angle β between the sample direction and transverse direction. Tensile and compression yield planes could be fitted by liner and exponential equations, respectively. The volume fraction of grains favoring different deformation mechanisms were calculated with the increase of β angle by dividing the grains into different types. The deformation mechanism was analyzed for samples with varying β angle under a tensile and compression loading. The mechanical properties and strain hardening anisotropy were discussed by comparative analyses between experimental and calculated results.