Twinning-Induced Abnormal Strain Rate Sensitivity and Indentation Creep Behavior in Nanocrystalline Mg Alloy

Nanocrystalline materials exhibit many unique physical and chemical properties with respect to their coarse-grained counterparts due to the high volume fraction of grain boundaries. Research interests on nanocrystalline materials around the world have been lasting over the past decades. In this study, we explored the room temperature strain rate sensitivity and creep behavior of the nanocrystalline Mg–Gd–Y–Zr alloy by using a nanoindentation technique. Results showed that the hardness and creep displacements of the nanocrystalline Mg–Gd–Y–Zr alloy decreased with increasing loading strain rate. That is, the nanocrystalline Mg–Gd–Y–Zr alloy showed negative strain rate sensitivity and its creep behavior also exhibited negative rate dependence. It was revealed that the enhanced twinning activities at higher loading strain rates resulted in reduced hardness and creep displacements. The dominant creep mechanism of the nanocrystalline Mg–Gd–Y–Zr alloy is discussed based on a work-of-indentation theory in this paper.