Enhancing strength and stress corrosion cracking resistance in high-Mg Al-Mg alloys through nanostructuring and controlled annealing

The strength of traditional Al-Mg alloys primarily depends on cold deformation and increasing Mg content,but it can become susceptible to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) when the Mg content is high ( > 3 wt.%). Simultaneous optimizing strength and SCC resistance in Al-Mg alloys is challenging. This study introduces a nanostructured Al-10Mg (10 wt.%) alloy with improved strength and SCC resistance by dynamic plastic deformation and optimized annealing. The as-deformed sample exhibits a nano-scaled lamellar structure. With rising annealing temperatures, structure size of the alloy increases while dislocation density decreases, transitioning lamellar to equiaxed grains.