Effects of Y content on microstructures and thermal expansion behavior of Mg-Al-Y alloys

Abstract Low thermal expansion alloys play an important role in the applications of high-precision instruments because of their excellent dimensional stability under thermal shock. Hence, the effect of Y content on coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of Mg-1Al- x Y ( x = 4, 6, 8, wt. %) alloys were systematically studied. The results showed that the volume fraction of second phase increased and the grain size of the Mg alloys decreased with the increases of Y content, resulting in the CTE of Mg-1Al- x Y alloys decreased with the increases of Y content. The grain size of the Mg-1Al-6Y alloy was more suitable and the second phase distributed uniformly, which lead to the lowest CTE after multiple cycles. The experimental value and model predictions of CTE of alloys differ greatly at lower temperature and coincide well at high temperature. The XRD and EBSD results proved the existence of residual stress in the three alloys, which reduced the CTEs of the magnesium alloy. While the rotation of crystal grains reduces the residual stress in multiple thermal cycles, increasing the CTEs and stability of thermal cycling of Mg alloys. The pole diagram of Mg alloys revealed that number of thermal cycling has a great effect on the intensity of the texture.