Cold rolling textures in AZ31 wrought magnesium alloy

Samples of the magnesium alloy AZ31 (3 wt% Al, 1 wt% Zn, balance Mg) with two microstructures, recrystallized and squeeze cast, were rolled at room temperature. The initial texture and the final cold rolling texture were investigated by X-ray diffraction. The cold rolling texture of both examined initial microstructures consists of two fibres, representing the familiar double peak in the basal pole tilted +/-15degrees from the normal direction to the rolling direction. A systematic texture modelling was performed using a viscoplastic Taylor model, based on different combinations of four slip modes and one twinning mode. The best agreement with experiment can be achieved for a combination of <a>-basal, <a>-prismatic, <c + a>-pyramidal slip systems together with the {01 (1) over bar2} (01 (11) over bar1) twinning system. (C) 2004 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.