Tearing energy of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets determined by the multiple tensile testing method

Tearing energy of the AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets in the annealed (O-tempered) and half-hard (H24) conditions was studied in both rolling and transverse directions by the multiple tensile testing method. The results showed that while plastic deformation energy was primarily controlled by the strain hardening exponent, tearing energy was directly related to the neck breadth parameter N, which depends on the strain hardening, strain rate hardening, and plastic anisotropy of the tested sheets. It was also found that the tearing energies obtained for the annealed AZ31 sheets were comparable to those of AA5010 aluminium sheets, while the plastic deformation energies were much higher than those of aluminium sheets. This may imply that AZ31 magnesium sheets can be potential candidates for dissipating the impact energy in the vehicles structures which are prone to collision.