The present study clarifies the complex interplay between mechanical twinning and dislocation slip during low-cycle fatigue testing of Mg-Zn-Ca alloys. Temporal details of these mechanisms are studied non-destructively by in situ monitoring of the acoustic emission (AE) response powered by a robust signal categorization. Through the analysis of AE time series, the kinetics of deformation twinning per cycle and the overall accumulation of twinning during cyclic loading is described and its effect on fatigue life is highlighted.
