Impact of asymmetry deformation on microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ31B alloy sheets deformed by on-line heating rolling

The effect of asymmetry deformation on microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ31 sheet was investigated in the present paper. Two AZ31 sheets were rolled together with an on-line heating rolling mill and separated from each other afterwards. For each sheet, the strain on both surface during rolling was asymmetry and this rolling method is called asymmetry rolling (AR) in present work. For comparison, symmetry rolling (SR) was also carried out on the same rolling mill that only one sheet was rolled in one pass. The sheets deformed by AR showed more homogeneous microstructure with higher recrystallization level and symmetry distributional basal texture. Moreover, SR sheets showed many narrow shear bands which distributed as "V" shape along rolling direction, while less shear bands with wider size are observed in AR sheet. The shear bands in AR sheet distributed as a line and across the entire thickness of the sheet, resulting in layered bimodal structure. Based on the unique microstructure and texture characteristics, AR sheet has lowest mechanical property anisotropy and a good balance of strength and elongation.