Experimental Study of Fracture Behavior of Magnesium

alloy(Mg AZ31)
N.S. Prasada , K. Naveena , R. Narasimhana,, S. Suwasb
a

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science,

Bangalore 560012, India. Tel: +91-80-22932959
b
Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore 560012, India. Tel: +91-80-22932959

Abstract
Keywords: Magnesium single crystals; Fracture behavior; Tensile twinning;
Fracture toughness; crack deflection; EBSD
1. INTRODUCTION
Fracture toughness of Aluminum alloys has been reported to be higher
than Magnesium alloys.
Fracture behaviour of coarse-grained MgAZ31 alloy has been reported by
Somekawa et al. (2009). Extruded bar was annealed to obtain an average
coarse-grain size of 51.6m. Three-point bend(TPB) specimen was used
to conduct the mode-I fracture toughness test. Fracture toughness(K) was
found to be 21.5 MPa m1/2 . It was found that grain-size reduction improves
the fracture toughness and the tendency for the formation of deformation
twins reduces as suggested by Meyers et al. (2001). Formation of deformation
twins near the crack tip was examined at different stages corresponding to

Corresponding author.
Email address: narasi@mecheng.iisc.ernet.in (R. Narasimhan )

Preprint submitted to Materials Science and Engineering: A

March 19, 2014

the peak load and half of the peak load. Tensile twins(TTs) were formed
near the crack tip before crack initiation. At peak load, crack propagates
along the boundaries between the TTs and the matrix.
Since TTs form easily at the crack tip before crack initiation and they
define the crack propagation route which is along the twin-matrix boundary.
Delaying or suppressing the formation of TTs at the crack tip is one way to
increase the fracture toughness.
The effect of grain size and texture on tendency for deformation twinning is explained by Meyers et al. (2001). Hall-Petch slope for twinning is
higher than that of slip. It was found that as grain size decreases, tendency
for twinning decreases. Twinning stresses are different in compression and
tension in textured material as opposed to material with random texture.
Fracture mechanism of fine-grained Mg-Zn binary alloy has been reported
by Somekawa et al. (2010). The grain-size of extruded Mg-Zn alloy was 1-3m
and Mg4 Zn7 precipitate was added to the matrix. Three-point bend(TPB)
specimen was used to conduct the mode-I fracture toughness test. Fracture
test was stopped at different stages corresponding to the peak load and half
of the peak load in order to study the fracture mechanism. On the fractured
surface dimple pattern was observed which conforms the ductile fracture
feature as opposed to brittle type in the case of coarse-grained MgAZ31
alloy.
Somekawa et al. (2006) have investigated the effect of texture on fracture
toughness in a rolled Mg AZ31 alloy plate. Initial texture is a basal texture
with basal planes parallel to RD in most of the grains. Single edge notch
bend(SENB) specimen were cut along RD, TD and 45o to RD from the

rolled plate and were used to conduct the fracture toughness test according
to the ASTM-E399. Dimple sort of patterns and stretched zones(SZ) were
observed on the fracture surface. Using stretched-zone(SZ) analysis, fracture
toughness was found to be 17.6-20.7 MPa m1/2 . It was observed that the
specimen whose crack tip was parallel to RD has less value of toughness as
compared to the other two specimens. Since the sample has basal texture,
dislocations can easily glide on basal plane and less energy is required to
fracture the specimen whose crack plane is parallel to RD as compared to
other crack plane orientation.
Plane-strain fracture toughness test on thin rolled wrought Mg AZ31
alloy sheets was conducted by Sasaki et al. (2003). Three types of Mg AZ31
alloy sheets were used in which Fe and Mn components were different form
one sheet to another. Fracture toughness test was carried out according to
the ASTM-E399. The shape of the specimen was middle section of centrally
cracked panel. Stretched zone analysis was used to find the fracture toughness
which showed to be 16.5-18.4 MPa m1/2 . It was found that impurities such
as ferrite and manganese, do effect the fracture toughness. It was concluded
that either by decreasing the amount of ferrite or increasing the amount of
manganese, fracture toughness can be increased.
2. Experimental Procedure
2.1. Specimen details
The experiments are conducted using compact tension (CT) specimens
as shown in Fig. 1. Two sets of pre-notched compact tension are tested with
loading direction along TD in one set, referred to as TD specimen and along
3

RD in the other, referred to as RD specimen. The specimens are prepared

with dimensions as recommended in ASTM E813 test procedure. A notch
diameter of 90 m is machined using Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM).
Referring to Fig. 1, the other dimensions of the CT specimen are a0 = 22
mm, b0 = 32 mm, h = 60 mm and thickness B0 = 9.6 mm. The crack
mouth opening displacement (CMOD) gauge is fixed to the specimen so that
CMOD can be measure in addition to the load line displacement (LLD) and
the load P. After the test is conducted on TD specimen, EBSD scans are
performed at two locations indicated with A and B in Fig. 1. Evolution
of microstructure is analyzed at these locations, both at midplane and free
surface of the specimen for two different load levels before crack initiation.
Texture changes near the extended crack both on mid-plane and free surface
are analyzed using EBSD scans for RD specimen.
2.2. Specimen preparation and test Procedure
The material used for the the experiments is an magnesium alloy AZ31.
The chemical composition of the alloy is presented in Table 1. Specimens
were cut from a hot rolled Magnesium AZ31 sheet having nearly basal texture
as shown in Fig. 2. The mean grain size was determined as 13.5 m. From
the pole figure, it can be seen that many grains appear to have basal plane
normal [0001] offset from ND of the sample.
The experiments are conducted at a constant displacement rate of 0.3
mm/min on Instron 8502 having load cell capacity of 250 kN. Speckle pattern is put on the free surface of the specimen, in order to map out the 2D
Lagrangian strain field around the notch root using digital image correlation(DIC). Images of the the specimen are taken successively as load level
4

increases. Vic-2D software is used to get the strain contours by digital image
correlation technique. Samples near the locations A and B are cut using
EDM from the deformed specimen for microscopic study. Using Zeiss Axio
Vert.A1 microscope, optical metallographs are obtained by mechanically polishing the samples followed by chemical etching process(Xia et al. (2009)).
In-order to get the high quality electron backscattered diffraction Kikuchi
patterns for EBSD analysis, samples are mechanically polished followed by
electopolishing.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Load versus displacement curves
The load (P) versus load line displacement () and load verses CMOD
curves are shown in respectively in Fig. 4(a) and in Fig. 4(b) for TD and RD
specimens. It can be seen from these figures that there is not much between
the curves pertaing to specimen loaded parallel to RD and TD. There is a
deviation from linearity at around a load of 5 kN. Material displays high
strain hardening which is evident from the continued strong increase in load
with displacement beyond the 5 kN which is an outcome of profuse tensile
twinning. During the experiments, the region around the notch was carefully
imaged using a digital camera mounted in front of the testing machine. Crack
initiation is observed on the free surface at the peak load of 9.1 kN and CMOD
of 1.4mm. But crack starts tunneling at mid-thickness at a load of 8.7kN
and forming shear lips at the free surface at peak load. Load drop beyond
the peak load seems to be an indication of stable crack growth.

It can be seen from the Fig. 6, Lagrangian strain(E22 ) contour(green contour) obtained from 2D-DIC analysis is symmetric about the notch line. But
strain contours above 1% strain, seems to be assymetric due to blunting of
notch tip. The radius of plastic zone (rmax
green contour) is 9.16 mm approxp
imately equal to thickness of the specimen(9.6 mm) which is an indication
that the specimen thickness is in transition zone. There is a dimple on the
free surface near the notch tip due to relaxation of thickness constraint. This
could be the reason for shear lips on free surface along with tunneled zone
due to high stress triaxiality(Anderson (1995)) at mid-surface as seen in the
Fig. 7.
3.2. Energy release rate J versus load
The energy release rate J was computed from the load-displacement
curves presented in Fig. 4(a) following the procedure described in ASTM
E813.

Jt = Je + Jp

(1)

where Je and Jp are elastic and plastic components of Jt .

The energy release rate J determined by the above procedure is plotted
against load P for TD and RD specimens in Fig. 5 up to crack initiation stage.
Both the curves Je and Jt are coinciding up to the load of p = 5 kN. There
after the Jt curve is deviating from the Je curve which indicates considerable
plastic dissipation before crack initiation. At peak load Jt = 35 N/mm for
RD specimen and for TD, Jt = 40 N/mm. The equivalent KIC values are
41.62 MPa m1/2 and 44.33 MPa m1/2 for RD and TD specimens respectively.

But Somekawa et al. (2006) has reported the values of KIC are 17.6-20.7 MPa
m1/2 for a specimen with fatigue pre-crack, prepared from rolled Mg AZ31
alloy plate having basal texture. S. V. Kamat et al. (1991) have studied the
effect of notch root radius on fracture toughness. It was found that there is
a critical notch root radius below which fracture toughness is constant and
is equal to the toughness of the fatigue pre-cracked specimen. Thus if the
notch root radius is below the critical notch root radius, the obtained value of
fracture toughness is considered as a material property for a given material.
In the present case, notch root radius is 45 m. Thus the high toughness
may be due to notch root effect and shear lip formation.
3.3. Crack path and fractography
It can be seen from the Fig. 7 both TD and RD specimens, crack propagates along the curved path due to shear lips formation. There is flat fracture
region shown as Q-R in the mid-thickness and shear lips on free surfaces P
and S which indicates the specimen thickness is in the transition zone. Crack
starts tunneling at the mid-thickness first and then appears on the free surface by creating the shear lips. SEM images of the fracture surface in the
flat region Q-R of the Fig. 7(b) and (c) are shown in Fig. 8(c) and (a). Voids
which are in spherical shape separated by thin walls indicates that fracture
surface is formed by fracture of thin walls. Dimples indicate ductile fracture
in the flat region of the fracture surface (Gandhi et al. (1979)). Fractograph
near the shear lip P of the Fig. 7(c) is shown in Fig. 8(b). Dimples are
oriented along one direction indicates shear type of failure.

3.4. Development of tensile twinning

It can be seen from the Fig. 9(a) most of the twins are aligning along the
central line of the notch. As load increases from 8.1kN to 8.7kN, compare
to Fig. 9(a) most of the grains in Fig. 11(a) are having multiple twins indicating the tendency for plastic deformation by twinning is increasing. In big
grains(like E, one below M) having multiple twins, most of the matrix region is already reoriented by twin-twin coalescence. It seems that if the load
is increased further, the whole grain is being completely reoriented which
is probably the reason for grain reorientation near the extended crack tip
as shown in the Fig. 15(a). In some grains(top right of G) having multiple
twins, lengthening of one twin is obstructed by another twin. If there is
no obstruction, the twins are forming from one end to the other end of the
grain(left of F).
EBSD scan infront of notch root at x1 = 0.1 mm is shown in Fig. 9(b).
It can be seen that there is a combination of big(like E, F) and small grains(
H, K) of basal orientation and are having tensile twins. Lengthening and
widening of twin boundaries in big grains is more predominant as compare
to that in small gains. It was found from the literature Meyers et al. (2001),
that decreasing the grain size reduces the tendency for twinning . It may be
due to the fact that big grains are having critical resolved shear stress(CRSS)
less compared to that of small grains for give stress state. Twin boundaries
are across the set of contiguous small grains. As load increases from 8.1kN
to 8.7kN, compared to Fig. 9(b), there are multiple parallel twins in some
grains(like E, one on top of G, H) as shown in Fig. 11(b) and are likely
to under go twin-twin coalescence to increase the twin width. Twin-Twin
8

intersection can be observed in some grains(like F). There is a combination

of big and small grains.
It is observed that crack has tunneled at the mid-surface. Compared to
the Fig. 9(b), the most of the grains are smaller size in Fig. 10 and their
orientation is not perfect basal. It can be seen in some grains(like E, F),
twins are forming across the grains. Since the matrix orientations of the
grains are different, the twinned region is reoriented differently. It can seen
from the Fig. 12, Twins are forming like circular arcs with center at the notch
tip across the contiguous grains(like E, F, G) like in the Fig. 13. Since the
matrix orientations of the grains are different, the twinned region is reoriented
differently along the lengthening direction of twin in some grains(E) like in
the Fig. 10. Few grains(like Q, one below L) are having multiple twins. In
the ligament region along the central line of the crack, the are no twins found
between the locations A, B both on the mid-surface and free surface of the
specimen.
3.5. Texture change and twin patterns around extended crack
Near the extended crack, EBSD scans are performed both at mid-thickness
and on the free-surface. There are tensile twins in most of the grains near
the extended crack tip at mid-thickness as shown in the Fig. 13. On top
side of the crack, some of the grains are completely reoriented from basal to
prismatic. It can be seen from the enlarged view of the region(indicated with
the rectangle(KLMN)) infront of the crack tip, most of the grains are having
basal orientation(indicated with unit cells) and are having twins which are
forming arc shape across the set of contiguous grains. Misorientation angle
across the line X-Y is shown in the Fig. 14. There is an 86
9

Due to tensile twinning most of the grains above and ahead of the extended crack tip are completely reoriented to prismatic on the free surface
shown in the Fig. 15. Above the crack tip, in the completely reoriented
prismatic grains(like E), there are tensile twins with in which the reoriented
region is having the basal orientation. It is not clear why some of grains exhibit this back and forth texture change(Basal Prismatic Basal). It may
be due to detwinning. Below the crack tip, there are very few grains which
are reoriented to prismatic but most of the grains have the basal orientation
with tensile twins.
4. Summary and Conclusions

10

References
H. Somekawa and A. Singh and T. Mukai, 2009. Fracture mechanism of a
coarse-grained magnesium alloy during fracture toughness testing. Philosophical Magazine Letters. 89, 2 10.
M. A. Meyers and O. Vohringer and V. A. Lubarda, 2001. The onset of
twinning in metals: A constitutive description. Acta Materialia. 49, 40254039.
H. Somekawa and K. Nakajima and A. Singh and T. Mukai, 2010. Ductile
fracture mechanism in fine-grained magnesium alloy. Philosophical Magazine Letters. 90, 831-839.
H. Somekawa and T. Mukai, 2006. Fracture toughness in a rolled AZ31 magnesium alloy. Journal of alloys and compounds. 417, 209-213.
Taisuke Sasaki, Hidetoshi Somekawa, Akira Takara, Yukio Nishikawa and
Kenji. Higashi, 2003. Plain-strain fracture toughness on thin AZ31 wrought
magnesium alloy sheets. Mateials Transactions. 44, 986-990.
Anderson, T. L, 1995. Fracture mechanics, Fundamentals and applications.
CRC Press University Series in Basic Engineering. Van Nostrand.
C. Gandhi and M. F. Ashby, 1979. Fracture mechanism maps for materials
which cleave: F.C.C., B.C.C., and H.C.P. metals and ceramics . Acta
Materialia. 27, 1565-1602.
S. V. Kamat and N. Eswara Prasad, 1979. Effect of notch root radius on frac-

11

ture toughness of an 8090 aluminium-lithium alloy. Scripta Metallurgica

et Materialia. 25, 1519-1523.
Weijun Xia, Zhenhua Chen. Ding Chen and Suqing Zhu, 2009. Microstructure
and mechanical properties of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets produced by
differential speed rolling. Journal of materials processing technology. 209,
26-31.

12

Table 1: Chemical composition (in % wt.) of the hot rolled Mg AZ31 alloy.

Al

Zn

Mn

Fe

Cu

Ca

Mg

3.13

0.87

0.44

0.002

0.1

0.03

95.428

Appendix A. ASTM E813 for computing J

At a point (vi , pi ) on the load verses displacement curve
Ji = Je i + Jp i

(A.1)

[Ki ] [1 2 ]
Je =
E
i

(A.2)

and Ki is given by
i

K =
where f

a
W


a
2+
f
=
W

"

pi
1

B0 (W ) 2

a
f
W

(A.3)

is given by

a
W

 h

0.886 + 4.64

a
W

Jp i =

13.32 Wa


 3
1 Wa 2

Ap i
B0 b

2

+ 14.72

a 3
W

5.6

a 4
W

(A.4)

(A.5)

where is a shape factor, b = W a is the uncracked ligament length, B0

is the specimen thickness and Ap i is the area under load verses displacement
curve described in ASTM E813.
13

Figure 1: Schematic of compact tension (CT) specimen with the various dimensions.

14

(a)

(b)
Figure 2: (a) IPF of the hot rolled Mg AZ31 alloy plate on free surface. (b) Pole figure

15

(a)

(b)
Figure 3: (a) IPF of the hot rolled Mg AZ31 alloy plate on mid surface. (b) Pole figure

16

10
TD
RD

Load (kN)

2
3
Displacement (mm)

(a)
10
TD
RD

Load(kN)

8
6
4
2
0
0

0.5

1
1.5
CMOD(mm)

2.5

(b)
Figure 4: (a) Load-displacement curves for TD and RD specimens. (b) Load-CMOD
curves for TD and RD specimens.

17

Jt (RD)

40

Je
Jt (TD)

J (N/mm)

30

20

10

4
6
Load (kN)

10

Figure 5: Energy released rate J verses load curves for TD and RD specimens

Figure 6: Strain contours obtained from DIC on free surface for the TD specimen at a
load of 8.7 kN

18

(a)
(b)

(c)
Figure 7: crack path (a) Front and (b) Side views for TD specimen. (c) Side view for RD
specimen .

19

(a)

(b)

20

(c)

(a)

21

(b)

Figure 9: IPFs (a) At location B (b) At location A on the free surface for TD specimen
at a load of 8.1 kN.

(a)
Figure 10: IPF at loaction A on mid-thickness for TD specimen at a load of 8.1 kN.

22

(a)

(b)
Figure 11: IPFs (a) At location B (b) At location A on the free surface for TD specimen
at a load of 8.7 kN.

23

(a)
Figure 12: IPF at loaction A on mid-thickness for TD specimen at a load of 8.7 kN.

24

X2
x1

(a)
Figure 13: IPF near the extended crack tip on mid-thickness for RD specimen.

25

Misorientation angle (degrees)

Point-to-point
Point-to-origin

Distance (microns)

(a)

(b)
Figure 14: (a) Mis-orientation along the line XY in a grain. (b) Pole figure for RD
specimen

26

x2

x1

(a)

27
(b)
Figure 15: (a) IPF near the extended crack tip on free surface for RD specimen. (b) Pole
figure.