Mechanical Properties and Tribological Behavior of Grain Refined WE43 Magnesium Alloy

In the current work, the surface of WE43 Mg alloy has been modified by friction stir processing (FSP) in order to assess grain refinement on mechanical and tribological properties. After FSP, along with the decreased grain size, the reduced fraction of intermetallics (Mg24Y5, Mg41Nd5) was observed as also confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Furthermore, the altered intensity of the significant XRD peaks after FSP indicates the development of texture. Increased micro hardness (from 86.3 ± 7.9 HV0.1 to 127.2 ± 3.4 to) and tensile strength (from 207 to 267.2 MPa) at the cost of marginally losing the ductility as reflected in decreased % of elongation from 32.02 to 29.04 were observed in FSPed alloy. The scratch test was conducted by applying three different loads (30 N, 40 N and 50 N) to assess the tribological properties of the FSPed surface. The scratch hardness obtained from the width of the scratch indicated a significant increase in the scratch hardness in the FSPed alloy compared with the base alloy. The results suggest the promising role of modifying surface microstructure by FSP to improve the mechanical performance and tribological characteristics of WE43 alloy.