Tailoring good combinations among strength, ductility and damping capacity in a novel Mg-1.5Gd–1Zn damping alloy via hot extrusion

Magnesium alloys with excellent comprehensive properties need to be developed due to the urgent demand in vibration and noise reduction or elimination fields. Herein, a novel high damping Mg-1.5Gd–1Zn alloy that exhibits strength and ductility similar to or even better than those of previously reported low-alloyed high-performance Mg-Gd-Zn alloys is developed by traditional hot extrusion. The specific results show that the good performance combinations of the as-extruded alloys are 314/211/145 MPa for the tensile yield strength (TYS), 21.0%/31.0%/33.0% for the elongation (EL) and 0.017/0.02/0.023 (at strain amplitude ε = 10−3) for the damping value Q−1 at room temperature. In addition, the damping curves for the tested as-extruded alloys exhibit three or two internal friction (IF) peaks during the elevated temperature damping test. Therefore, the resulting microstructures are systematically characterized in the as-extruded alloys. Meanwhile, the damping capacity and its mechanism are thoroughly analyzed and discussed. The alloy combines strength, ductility and damping capacity well, demonstrating its practicability in the reduction or elimination of noise and vibrations.