Modified twinning behaviour induced by texture evolution in hot rolled Mg–3Al–1Zn alloy

Compressive deformation along the rolling direction (RD) of a hot rolled Mg-3Al-1Zn alloy is applied to investigate the texture evolution and the recompressive yield strength (RYST) along the transverse direction (TD). Preferential orientation of the basal and prismatic planes is generated by the plastic deformation. Precompression along RD results in one plane of {10-10} aligned nearly perpendicular to the normal direction to the rolling plane. As the compressive strain along RD increases, the RYST shows an earlier raised and later decreased trend. The modified twinning mechanism is investigated using X-ray diffraction and electron backscattered diffraction observations. The results reveal that {10-12} twinning in the matrix dominates the recompression along TD, while the formation of {10-12}-{10-12} twins becomes comparatively easier to occur in the previous {10-12} twins for large precompressed samples.