Estimating dislocation density from electron backscatter diffraction data for an AZ31/Mg-0.6Gd hybrid alloy fabricated by high-pressure torsion

The Geometrically Necessary Dislocation (GND) density was estimated from Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) data for an AZ31/Mg-0.6Gd (wt.%) hybrid material fabricated by high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature through an equivalent strain range of epsilon eq = 0.3-144 using Kernel Average Misorientation (KAM) and the Nye tensor approaches. The results show that generally the GND densities are significant at the beginning of the deformation (epsilon eq = 0.3) and decrease in both alloys when epsilon eq increases. The Mg-0.6Gd alloy exhibits a lower GND density due to rapid dynamic recrystallization. These results were compared to the GND densities measured in AZ31 and Mg-0.6Gd mono-materials processed separately by HPT under the same experimental conditions. In these mono-materials the GND densities increase with increasing equivalent strain up to 7 and then decrease with further straining. The Mg-0.6Gd and AZ31 regions of the hybrid material exhibit higher GND densities than the mono-materials particularly at low strain where the disc thickness and the bonding of the AZ31/Mg-0.6Gd interfaces cause more deformation heterogeneity in the hybrid material. It is shown that the GND density evolution as a function of epsilon eq has the same tendency for the KAM and the Nye approaches but the average values are significantly higher with the Nye approach. An analysis suggests that the Nye approach overestimates the GND density of the Mg-based alloys.