EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

High pressure torsion (HPT) as a means of grain refinement to the nanoscale has been well-explored since Percy Bridgman's early physics experiments in the early 1900s. More recent studies continue to make strides in our understanding of the processing-to-property relationships of nanocrystalline materials, but the role of the applied pressure has received less attention, especially in the case of non-cubic crystal systems such as magnesium and it's alloys. In this work, we report on the effect of applied pressure on the microstructural evolution and hardening of dilute Mg-Y alloys during HPT processing. The results are compared with the extant literature on binary Mg alloys, and conclusions are drawn about the role of pressure, material crystal structure and alloying element and content on the microstructural evolution pathways and resulting properties. These conclusions will provide engineers who seek to use lightweight Mg NC materials more information to design processing pathways that achieve their performance goals.