In this work, nanocrystalline AZ31 magnesium alloy powders, reinforced by submicron TiB₂ particles, were prepared via mechanical milling. It was found that TiB₂ particles stimulated the fracture and welding of AZ31/TiB₂ powders, leading to the acceleration of the milling process. Meanwhile, the TiB₂ particles were refined to submicron-scale size during the milling process, and their distribution was uniform in the Mg matrix. In addition, the matrix was significantly refined during the milling process, which was also accelerated by the TiB₂ particles. The formation of grain boundary segregation layers also led to the weakened TiB₂ peaks in the XRD patterns during the mechanical milling. The grain sizes of AZ31–2.5 wt % TiB₂, AZ31–5 wt % TiB₂ and AZ31–10 wt % TiB₂ powders were refined to 53 nm, 37 nm and 23 nm, respectively, after milling for 110 h. Under the combined effect of the nanocrystalline matrix and the well-dispersed submicron TiB₂ particles, the AZ31/TiB₂ composites exhibited excellent micro-hardness. For the AZ31–10 wt % TiB₂ composite, the micro-hardness was enhanced to 153 HV0.5.

The influence of electropulsing treatment (EPT) parameters on the static recrystallization (SRX) microstructure in a cold-deformed Ni-based superalloy was investigated. During EPT, both the volume fraction of SRX grains and the average grain size increased with the increasing EPT temperature, which was attributed to the thermal effect and athermal effect induced by EPT. The mobility of SRX grain boundaries was promoted at the higher temperature due to the thermal effect, while the nucleation rate would be increased by EPT through decreasing the thermodynamic barrier. The formation of parallel dislocations caused by electron wind force could also play an indirect role in promoting SRX process. Moreover, the volume fraction of SRX grains increased significantly with the extension of EPT time at 700 °C, while the EPT time had a trivial effect on the average grain size. In addition, the sufficient deformation was essential to the occurrence of SRX behavior during EPT, and the localized Joule heating effect could promote the SRX behavior in the samples with the larger strains. Besides that, the influence of twining and carbides on the SRX behaviors was also investigated.

In this work, vanadium particles (V_P) were utilized as a novel reinforcement of AZ31 magnesium (Mg) alloy. The nanocrystalline (NC) AZ31–V_P composites were prepared via mechanical milling (MM) and vacuum hot-press sintering. During the milling process, the presence of V_P contributed to the cold welding and fracture mechanism, resulting in the acceleration of the milling process. Additionally, increasing the V_P content accelerated the grain refinement of the matrix during the milling process. After milling for 90 h, the average grain size of AZ31-X wt % V_p (X = 5, 7.5, 10) was refined to only about 23 nm, 19 nm and 16 nm, respectively. In the meantime, V_P was refined to sub-micron scale and distributed uniformly in the matrix, exhibiting excellent interfacial bonding with the matrix. After the sintering process, the average grain size of AZ31-X wt % V_P (X = 5, 7.5, 10) composites still remained at the NC scale, which was mainly caused by the pinning effect of V_P. Besides that, the porosity of the sintered composites was no more than 7.8%, indicating a good densification effect. As a result, there was little difference between the theoretical and real density. Compared to as-cast AZ31 Mg alloy, the microhardness of sintered AZ31-X wt % V_P (X = 5, 7.5, 10) composites increased by 65%, 87% and 96%, respectively, owing to the strengthening mechanisms of grain refinement strengthening, Orowan strengthening and load-bearing effects.