Magnesium alloys such as AZ91, AZ31 and AM60 are the lightest
constructional material with the advantages of lower density,
higher specific strength and specific stiffness, better cast properties,
better electric conductivity and good thermal conductivity. So
magnesium alloys are widely used in automobile, electron, aerospace
and 3C industries [1e3]. However, the commercial widely
application of magnesium alloy is limited due to low mechanical
strength and poor creep resistance when ambient temperature
exceeds 150 C. The poor creep property of Mg-Al based alloys can
be attributed to the softening of b-Mg17Al12 phase at high temperature.
The grain deformation and grain boundary sliding of Mg-
Al magnesium alloys during creep can not be effectively hindered
by the coarsening b-Mg17Al12 phase at high temperature [4e6].
Many attempts have been made to improve the mechanical
strength and creep resistance of Mg-Al magnesium alloys at high
temperature by adding a small amount of alloying elements for the