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The influence of low-temperature closed-die forging on the quasi-static and cyclic behaviour of as-cast ZK60 magnesium alloy was investigated. As-cast ZK60 billets were forged at a ram speed of 20 mm/sec and a temperature of 250 °C. While the yield strength of the starting alloy was 139 MPa, the forging process improved the yield strength significantly by ~68% to 234 MPa. Moreover, the stresscontrolled push-pull fatigue tests at the stress amplitudes of 140 MPa to 180 MPa revealed that the fatigue life was enhanced by an order of magnitude. Microstructural analyses besides the texture measurements at different locations of the forged part manifested partial grain refinement and texture modification strengthening mechanisms. It is believed that the fatigue life improvement is achieved in the wake of the grain refinement and the subsequent material strengthening.

To improve the fatigue life of Mg alloy, high strength AA7075 spherical powder was deposited on AZ31B samples in nitrogen carrier gas environment at 400°C temperature in cold spray process followed by electrostatic painting with zinc phosphate. The fully reverse four-point rotating-bending fatigue tests were conducted on the coated and uncoated samples in different environmental conditions. It is seen that the cold sprayed AA7075 improved the yield strength of the AZ31B cast alloy. Similarly, a significant fatigue enchantment was observed in the coated samples, reaching a fatigue strength of 90 MPa compared to as-cast fatigue strength of 70 MPa at 107 cycles when tested in air, and fatigue strength of 80 MPa under a 3.5%NaCl testing environment. The SEM analysis at the interface of the tensile tested sample exhibited the interfacial fracture followed by delamination of the coating. Similarly, delamination of coating was merely detected in the fatigue fracture sample tested in the air, while the sample tested in the corrosive environment showed pits which allowed the solution to penetrate in the AZ31B substrate results delamination and premature failure. However, the presence of e-paint forms a passive layer which is hindering the pit formation and extending the fatigue life.

The microstructural origins of premature fatigue failures were investigated on a variety of forged components manufactured from AZ80 and ZK60 magnesium, both at the test specimen level and the full-scale component level. Both stress and strain-controlled approaches were used to characterize the macroscopically defect-free forged material behaviour as well as with varying levels of defect intensities. The effect of thermomechanical processing defects due to forging of an industrially relevant full-scale component were characterized and quantified using a variety of techniques. The fracture initiation and early crack growth behaviour was deterministically traced back to a combination of various effects having both geometric and microstructural origins, including poor fusion during forging, entrainment of contaminants sub-surface, as well as other inhomogeneities in the thermomechanical processing history. At the test specimen level, the fracture behaviour under both stress and strain-controlled uniaxial loading was characterized for forged AZ80 Mg and a structure-property relationship was developed. The fracture surface morphology was quantitatively assessed revealing key features which characterize the presence and severity of intrinsic forging defects. A significant degradation in fatigue performance was observed as a result of forging defects accelerating fracture initiation and early crack growth, up to 6 times reduction in life (relative to the defect free material) under constant amplitude fully reversed fatigue loading. At the full-scale component level, the fatigue and fracture behaviour under combined structural loading was also characterized for a number of ZK60 forged components with varying levels of intrinsic thermomechanical processing defects. A novel in-situ non-contact approach (utilizing Digital-Image Correlation) was used as a screening test to establish the presence of these intrinsic defects and reliably predict their effect on the final fracture behaviour in an accelerated manner compared to conventional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axial monotonic and load-controlled fatigue tests were performed to investigate the influence of forging at various temperatures and different deformation rates, on both the microstructural and mechanical behaviour of extruded AZ31B magnesium alloy. The obtained microstructural analysis showed that the extruded AZ31B magnesium alloy possesses a bimodal grain structure with strong basal texture. In contrast, once forged, the material showed refined grains and a modified texture. A monotonic yield and ultimate tensile strength of about 223 MPa and 278 MPa were observed for the forged samples showing an increase of 18%, from the as-extruded material. The optimum forging condition was determined to be the coldest of the investigated temperatures, based on the improvement in both monotonic and cyclic properties vs. the as-extruded material. The fractographic analysis of the failure surfaces showed that ductile type fractures occurred in both asextruded and forged samples. However, more dimples and plastic deformation were identified in the fracture surfaces of the forged specimens. A significant improvement of fatigue life was also observed for all of the forged samples, in particular those forged at 400°C and 39 mm/min. Forging improved the fatigue life via a combination of grain refinement and texture modification resulting in improved strength and ductility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fatigue property of dissimilar spot welds between an aluminium alloy (AA5052) and a magnesium alloy (AZ31) was studied in this research. The AA5052 and AZ31 coupons were resistance spot welded together by using an interlayer of Sn-coated steel between the two coupons. The fatigue test results revealed that the Mg/Al joints had the same level of fatigue strength as Mg/Mg resistance spot welds. It was found that within the life range of Nf < 105 cycles, Mg/Al welds degraded faster than Mg/Mg joints. This was attributed to the larger bending moment on the plane of fatigue failure in the Mg/Al welds. Three failure modes were observed under different cyclic loading regimes: Al/steel interfacial failure, Mg coupon failure and Al coupon failure. Fatigue fracture surface of Mg/Al welds consisted of two distinct regions: crack propagation region with brittle morphology and final rupture with ductile morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fatigue behaviour of AZ31B extrusion magnesium alloy under load-control cyclic test conditions is estimated using a combination of simulation and experimental results. The strain measurement of this asymmetric material is found experimentally using a Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor during rotating bending tests. Then, to analyse applied stresses in the sample - particularly in the plastic deformation range - the Variable Material Property (VMP) method is employed. Using this simulation method, the hysteresis loops of two critical top and bottom elements of the sample's cross section under different bending moments are obtained. Finally, the strain of the sample during rotating bending, as measured by the embedded FBG sensor, is related to the stresses obtained from the modeling using a mapping function. The hystereses obtained from this combination of the modeling and experimental results are compared with the results of a companion strain-control pull-push test in which the input strain history was that of measured by the FBG sensor. Observations verify that the stresses of the combined VMP-FBG hysteresis loops have good compatibility with the stress responses obtained through the experiment. The hybrid model introduced in this work can be employed to capture cyclic hysteresis, and hence estimate the fatigue life, under load-controlled rotating bending tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray penetration in magnesium alloys is significant due to the low X-ray mass attenuation coefficient. To measure the surface residual stresses in magnesium alloys, a correction needs to be made to account for penetration depth. The residual stresses in as-received and shot peened AZ31B-H24 rolled sheet samples were measured using two-dimensional X-ray diffraction (2D-XRD) method. The electro-polishing layer removal method was used to find the residual stress pattern at the surface and through the depth. The results show that the corrected residual stresses in a few tens of micrometers layer from the surface differ from the raw stresses. To better estimate the residual stress distribution in the surface, the grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) technique was applied. Additionally, micrographs of the lateral cross-section of the peened specimens confirmed the presence of microcracks in this region, causing the residual stresses to vanish. Due to the low X-ray absorption coefficient of Mg alloys, this study shows how a small uncertainty in a single raw measurement leads to high uncertainty in the corrected residual stresses. The results were corroborated with the hole drilling method of residual stress measurements. The corrected X-ray diffraction (XRD) results are in close agreement with the hole drilling and GIXD results.

Supersonic impact of particles in their solid state with substrate at a low temperature creates a complex bonding mechanism and surface modification in cold spray coating. Here, we report the formation of a layer of 200 to 300 nm intermetallic at the interface of cold spray coated AZ31B-type Mg alloy with AA7075-type Al alloy powder. XRD, SAED, and FFT analysis confirmed the layer possessed BBC crystal structure of Mg 17 Al 12 intermetallic. The HR-TEM image analysis at the interface identified the BBC crystal structure with interplanar spacing of 0.745 nm for (110) planes, suggesting the Mg 17 Al 12 phase. The nanoindentation tests showed that the hardness at the interface was ~3 times higher than the substrate. It was also noticed that Young's modulus at the interface was 117GPa. The combined action of impact energy and carrier gas temperature, along with the multiple passes during coating, caused the formation of intermetallic.