Low-Cycle Fatigue Behavior of Hot V-Bent Structural Components Made of AZ31B Wrought Magnesium Alloy

Abstract

Recent studies have shown the change of microstructure during hot-bending in uniaxial specimens made of AZ31B alloy. They also investigated the influence of the changed microstructure on the quasi-static and cyclic material behavior under uniaxial stress states. However, studies on the fatigue behavior of hot-bent structural components in which a multiaxial inhomogeneous stress state occurs are still lacking. For this purpose, a novel hot-bent V-shaped specimen was developed, of which three different variants, each with a different bending radius, were fabricated and investigated. Microstructural analyses reveal that band-like accumulations of twinned grains are already formed in the compressively stressed area of the specimen during the bending process. Force-controlled low-cycle fatigue tests were performed to investigate the twinning evolution after cyclic loading. Subsequent microstructure analyses show that bands of twinned grains are no longer visible but also that the occurrence of twins is evenly distributed. Due to the specimen shape, the specimens are subjected to a multiaxial stress state. During LCF tests, the strain was measured using 3D digital image correlation and fatigue life was modeled successfully with the application of the concept of highly strained volume.

Keywords

• low-cycle fatigue
• hot-bending
• V-bent structural component
• AZ31B
• concept of highly strained volume
• twinning