Progress in Strengthening and Toughening of Magnesium Matrix Composites

Author of the article:ZHANG Bin, SUN Yunxia, LIANG Tuo, LI Tian, YANG Changlin

Author's Workplace：State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China

Key Words：magnesium matrix composites; fabrication techniques; mechanical properties; strength-ductility tailoring

Abstract：Magnesium matrix composites show great application potential in the aerospace and automobile industries due to a series of advantages, such as low density, high specific strength and modulus, and good thermal stability. However, for traditional magnesium matrix composites, the increase in strength is always at the expense of ductility, and the room temperature elongation to fracture of as-cast magnesium matrix composites is less than 5% in most cases, which severely hinders the development and application of magnesium matrix composites in industries. The main reasons that the strength and plasticity of magnesium matrix composites cannot be improved simultaneously are the imperfections of the current fabrication techniques and strengthening and toughening mechanisms. Therefore, innovating fabrication techniques, modifying strengthening and toughening mechanisms and breaking through the performance bottleneck eventually become the development direction of magnesium matrix composites with high strength and ductility. Based on this, this work is aimed at reviewing the commonly used matrix and reinforcements, the main fabrication techniques, the mechanical properties and the corresponding strengthening and toughening mechanisms of magnesium matrix composites. The development tendency of magnesium matrix composites in the future is prospected, and the mechanisms tailoring the strength-ductility behavior of magnesium matrix composites are proposed.