Strain-dependent consititutive analysis of hot deformation and hot workability of T4 treated ZK60 magnesium alloy

The hot deformation behavior of T4-treated ZK60 magnesium alloy was investigated in a compression test conducted with a thermo-mechanical simulator at a temperature range of 523 K to 673 K and a strain rate of 0.001 s−1 to 1 s−1. The results show that the flow stress increases as the deformation temperature decreases and the strain rate increases. Strain-dependent constitutive relationships were developed using regression method and artificial neural network, and good agreements between the experimentally measured values and the predicted ones were achieved. The work hardening analysis and onset of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) were investigated. The processing map reveals a domain of DRX at the temperature range of 620–673 K and strain rate range of 0.001–0.01 s−1, with its peak efficiency of 32% at 623 K and 0.001 s−1, which are the optimum values of the parameters for hot working of the T4-treated ZK60 alloy. The strain level has a great effect on the processing maps and lower temperatures and higher strain rates should be avoided during hot working processes. DRX model indicates that DRX of ZK60 alloy is controlled by the rate of nucleation, which is slower than the rate of migration