Effects of Distance and Alignment Holes on Fatigue Crack Behaviors of Cast Magnesium Alloys

Abstract

To study the fatigue microcrack initiation and propagation behaviors of cast magnesium alloys, the small fatigue crack propagation tests were carried out using the in-situ observation with scanning electron microscope (SEM). All initiations and propagations of fatigue small cracks focused on effects of the interaction of artificial two small holes, which there are the different distances and alignments of two small holes. The results indicate that the fatigue small cracks of cast magnesium alloys occurred mainly at the defects or root of notch but the early stage crack propagations were influenced on the distance and alignment between two small holes. For cast AM50 and AM60B alloys, the fatigue small cracking prior to occurred at the weak dendrite boundary and had some concomitances such as the plastic deformation on surface of α-Mg phase. For AZ91 alloy, the fatigue cracking characterization depended mainly on the brittle properties of β-Mg17Al12 phase, which the multi cracks occurred at the boundaries of β-Mg17Al12 phase. The effect of notch on the fatigue cracking behavior becomes weaker when the radius of notch is over 3-4 times than that of average α-Mg grain size. The fatigue crack propagation behaviors varied with the different arrangements of two small holes. The effects of distance and alignment of two small holes on the fatigue crack propagation behaviors are also obvious.