Electroplastic Effects on the Mechanical Responses and Deformation Mechanisms of AZ31 Mg Foils

Electrical-assisted (EA) forming technology is a promising technology to improve the formability of hard-deformable materials, such as Mg alloys. Herein, EA micro tensile tests and various microstructure characterizations were conducted to study the electroplastic effect (EPE) and size effect on the mechanical responses, deformation mechanisms, and fracture characteristics of AZ31 Mg foils. With the assistance of electric currents, the ductility of the foils was significantly improved, the size effects caused by grain size and sample thickness were weakened, and the sigmoidal shape of the flow stress curves during the early deformation stage became less obvious. The EBSD characterization results showed that the shape change of the flow stress curves was due to the EPE suppressing the activation of extension twinning at the early deformation stage, especially for the coarse grain samples. The suppression of extension twinning resulted in a quick increase in flow stress due to the dislocation-dominant work hardening, and the increased flow stress eventually promoted extensive deformation twins at large deformation. Thus, as the sample strained to 10% tensile deformation, the EA-tested samples showed a larger volume fraction of deformation twins than the non-EA samples. The reference orientation deviation analysis verified that the deformation twins in the EA samples were formed in the large deformation stage. Combined with the fractography, the EPE also improved the ductility by suppressing the expansion of cleavage surfaces.