The effect of precipitate state on the creep resistance of Mg-Sn alloys

The tensile creep performance of Mg-Sn alloys, containing Zn and Zn + Na alloying additions, have been measured at temperatures of 177 and 150 degrees C. Under a load of 60 MPa, the Mg-Sn-Zn-Na alloy shows secondary creep rates five orders of magnitude slower than the binary alloy and approximately three orders of magnitude slower than the ternary Mg-Sn-Zn alloy. Transmission electron microscopy shows that the origin of the excellent creep properties of the Mg-Sn-Zn-Na alloy is the remarkable thermal stability of the precipitate structure. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc. All rights reserved.