Stability of the BCC Structure in the Mg-Ca Alloy System

Magnesium and it’s alloys have long suffered from poor formability. The origin of this can be traced back to the HCP structure, which Mg assumes for ambient pressures, since the requirement of five independent slip planes for ductility is generally not satisfied. This has lead to interest in BCC Mg alloys for which, given thermal activation, there are the requisite number of slip planes. Most of the previous work in this regard has focused on Lithium containing alloys. However, we explore the stability and mechanical properties of a BCC Mg-Ca alloy using special quasi random structures and novel GPT alloy pair potentials. In addition, we make calculations of the heat of formation in order to assess the solubility of Ca in the Mg bulk..