Hot deformation behavior and processing maps of Mg-Zn-Cu-Zr magnesium alloy

The deformation behaviors of a new quaternary Mg-6Zn-1.5Cu-0.5Zr alloy at temperatures of 523-673 K and strain rates of 0.001-1 s(-1) were studied by compressive tests using a Gleeble 3800 thermal-simulator. The results show that the flow stress increases as the deformation temperature decreases or as the strain rate increases. A strain-dependent constitutive equation and a feed-forward back-propagation artificial neural network were used to predict flow stress, which showed good agreement with experimental data. The processing map suggests that the domains of 643-673 K and 0.001-0.01 s(-1) are corresponded to optimum conditions for hot working of the T4-treated Mg-6Zn-1.5Cu-0.5Zr alloy.