Influence of Solute Cerium on the Deformation Behavior of a Mg-0.5 wt.% Ce Alloy

The effect of solute Ce was investigated on the deformation behavior of a Mg-Ce binary alloy at elevated temperature. Compression and tension tests were performed on samples taken from extruded bars of Mg-0.5 wt.% Ce. Dynamic strain aging (DSA) was observed to occur during both tension and compression testing. Under the latter conditions, the effect of DSA on increasing the flow stress was greater than that of extension twinning. The occurrence of DSA also led to a decrease in the ductility. After heat treatment, the detrimental effect of the DSA taking place during compression was reduced significantly to an extent that depended on the cooling rate employed. However, these heat treatments did not lead to appreciable improvements in the tensile ductility.