Texture Analysis on the AZ31 Magnesium Alloy Using Neutron Diffraction Method

The nature of crystalline materials depends on the individual crystal properties and the features of the polycrystalline state. The direction of crystallite orientation (texture) can undergo evolution during casting, processing, deformation, welding, and also heat treatment. Because texture plays an important role in mechanical characteristics and physical behavior, initial characterization before mechanical treatment needs to be analyzed first. The neutron diffraction method for texture analysis has advantages compared to the x-ray diffraction method, because neutrons can penetrate the material up in the order of centimeters (bulk, texture) compared to x-rays which are only on the surface of the material (surface texture). This research uses magnesium alloy, because this alloy is very light, and is widely used in industries, such as the automotive, computers, communication systems and electronics. The magnesium alloy used is AZ31 type. The AZ31 magnesium alloy is selected due to the most ductile and the most popular amongst AZ wrought alloys (Mg-Al-Zn group). Initial characterization using the neutron diffraction method was held away before the welding procedure was taken out. In this study, a texture neutron diffractometer (DN2), BATAN, set at a wavelength of 1.2799 Angstrom was used to characterize AZ31 material. The neutron source is produced by the GA Siwabessy reactor, which operates at a power of 15 MW. From the characterization of the neutron diffraction pattern, four pole figures {100}, (002}, {101} and {102} were taken. From the pole figure analysis, the crystallite orientation (texture) was obtained in the direction of {001} <110>. The highest intensity lies in the basal center (0002), also seen basal fiber {0001} and prismatic fiber {10-10}