Fatigue behaviour of bare and pre-corroded magnesium alloy AZ31

Constant amplitude fatigue tests have been performed using smooth specimens of a rolled AZ31 magnesium alloy in order to assess the fatigue behaviour of the material. The tests were periodically interrupted and replicas were taken from the surface of the specimens in order to reveal crack initiation and early crack propagation. Based on the derived S–N curve a very high stress sensitivity of the fatigue life can be concluded; it may be attributed to the inability of the material to accumulate fatigue damage in terms of cyclic plasticity at the early stage of fatigue. Fatigue cracks initiate already after few fatigue cycles between strain incompatibility points (e.g. grain boundaries) due to difficulties in satisfying the von Mises criterion. The initiation and propagation mechanisms of the fatigue cracks are characterized as cleavage. Furthermore, the corrosion susceptibility of the material has been investigated in a salt spray environment. It becomes evident that the presence of corrosion damage, in terms of corrosion pitting, results in the development of stress concentration, facilitating essentially the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks. Thus, the fatigue limit is reduced to 50% of the respective value of the un-corroded material.