Thermally-stabilized nanocrystalline magnesium alloys

Abstract

Advanced nanocrystalline alloys have shown remarkable property improvements, particularly, order-of-magnitude strength increases, when compared to their coarse-grained counterparts. However, a major obstruction to the widespread application of such materials is the degradation of properties via rapid grain growth at even ambient temperatures. Conventional methods for circumvention of this problem at low temperatures have largely steered toward kinetically pinning the boundaries with disperoids, or through misorientation of grain boundaries, yet even these methods have limited utility at elevated temperatures needed for routine sintering and forming operations. In this work, we will present a synergistic approach to the development of thermally stable nanostructured Mg-alloys which incorporates elements of predictive modeling of suitable alloy systems, fabrication of nanostructured alloy powders by high energy ball milling and consolidation of the powders at elevated temperatures.