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: +91-80-22933245

Abstract
Fracture behaviour of magnesium alloy Mg AZ31 is studied by conducting
Mode-I fracture test using compact tension(CT) specimens cut from a rolled
sheet having basal plane normals slightly off from normal direction(ND) of
the plate. There are two sets of specimens such that in one set loading direction(LD) is parallel to rolling direction(LD k RD specimen) and in the
other LD is parallel to transverse direction of the sheet(LD k TD specimen).
High strain hardening in the load-displacement curves is an outcome of profuse tensile twinning. Fracture toughness values are found to be 41.62 MPa
m1/2 and 44.33 MPa m1/2 for RD and TD specimens respectively. Crack
propagates along the curved path due to shear lips near the free surface and
tunneling at the mid-thickness indicates that the thickness of the specimen
is in the transition zone. Fractographs shows ductile fracture at the midthickness and shear type failure near shear lips. Using electron backscattered
diffraction(EBSD) data, development of tensile twinning at various load lev

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

Preprint submitted to Materials Science and Engineering: A

June 6, 2014

els before crack initiation is analyzed near the notch and at the far end on the
central line of the notch. Tensile twins(TTs) are observed near the notch root
named as anomalous twins that are formed as opposed to the compressive
strain along c-axis of basal textured grains. As load increases, it is observed
that tendency for plastic deformation by twining increases. Texture changes
near the extended crack tip both at mid-surface and free surface are also analyzed using EBSD data. At the mid-surface, most of the grains retain the
basal orientation and having twins across the contiguous grains. Most of the
grains on the free surface which were having basal orientation are completely
reoriented to prismatic due to the growth of tensile twins which engulf the
entire grain. TEM images that are taken just below the fracture surface show
dislocations in the twinned region. It is found that during plastic deformation, formation of TTs along with dislocation slip play an important role in
dissipating energy that leads to high toughness.
Keywords: Magnesium alloy; MgAZ31; Fracture behavior; Tensile
twinning; Fracture toughness; EBSD; TEM
1. INTRODUCTION
Transportation industry always prefers to used light weight materials so
as to increase the fuel efficiency. Among all the alloys used for structural
applications, magnesium alloys are the lightest ones. They have good damping, corrosion resistance properties and are easily machinable. In spite of
these attractive properties, their formability at room temperature is limited
due to hexagonal crystal structure. However as cast magnesium alloys are
promising alternatives to wrought magnesium alloys, they have poor mechan-

ical properties like tensile strength, fracture toughness and fatigue strength
compared to wrought alloys. To use the wrought magnesium alloys as safe
structural materials with out any catastrophic failure, one should investigate
the ductility, tensile strength, fracture toughness of these alloys.
In magnesium, deformation along the basal plane is accommodated by
are basal, non-basal slip systems(prismatic and pyramidal hai). Deformation
along the c-axis is accomadated by pyramidal ha + ci slip system, tensile
and compression twin systems. The interaction between these different deformation mechanisms result in a significant anisotropy in the macroscopic
response for the textured polycrystalline Mg.
There has been extensive study on compression and tension behaviour
of Mg AZ31 alloy in the current literature by Knezevic et al. (2010), Lou
et al. (2007), Barnett (2007), Barnett (2004), Jiang et al. (2007), Koike et al.
(2008). Tensile twins(TTs) are formed when tensile stress is applied along
c-axis or compressive stress is applied perpendicular to c-axis. In most of
the experiments, samples cut from rolled sheets or extruded rods are loaded
either in compression or in tension such that c-axis is perpendicular to the
loading direction. From the stress-strain curves, tension-compression yield
asymmetry was observed and the difference in strain hardening behaviour
was attributed to the deformation twinning. Effect of temperature on ductility and strain hardening behaviour were also considered. It was found that
as temperature increases there is a transition from the twin to slip dominated deformation. Decreasing the grain size has similar effect to increasing
temperature in that that twinning get suppressed and deformation is by slip
only.

In contrast to extensive study on compression and tension behaviour of

wrought Mg AZ31 alloy, there has not been much focus on fracture behaviour
of these alloys. There are some reports in the literature on fracture behaviour
of magnesium and are described as follows.
Fracture toughness of Aluminum alloys has been reported to be higher
than wrought magnesium alloys. Fracture behaviour of magnesium alloys
have been studied by Purazrang et al. (1991), Sasaki et al. (2003), Barbagallo et al. (2004), Somekawa et al. (2006), Somekawa et al. (2009), Somekawa
et al. (2010), and Somekawa et al. (2007). The effect of texture on fracture
toughness in a rolled Mg AZ31 alloy plate has been investigated by Somekawa
et al. (2006). The initial texture of rolled sheet was a basal texture with a
slight deviation of basal poles from ND and were distributed along the RD
in the pole figure. Fracture toughness tests were conducted according to the
ASTM-E399 using three point bend(TPB) specimens cut along RD, TD and
45o to RD from the rolled plate having a grain size of 65 m. Dimple sort
of patterns were observed on the fracture surface and the fracture toughness
was found to be 17.6-20.7 MPa m1/2 . It was concluded that the specimen
whose crack front was parallel to RD has less value of toughness as compared
to the other orientations, since dislocations can easily glide on basal plane.
Somekawa et al. (2005) also performed similar experiments using TPB specimens cut from extruded bar having a grain size of 13.5 m. The fracture
toughness was reported to be 15.9-22.0 MPa m1/2 . Based on the fact that
non-basal planes have higher surface energy, it was found that the specimen
whose crack front is perpendicular to basal plane is having higher toughness
compared to the other orientations. Fracture toughness value of 21.5 MPa

m1/2 was reported by Somekawa et al. (2009) for an extruded bar with an
average coarse-grain size of 51.6 m. Formation of deformation twins near
the crack tip was examined at different stages of loading corresponding to 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 boundary between the TTs and the matrix without blunting resulted in
brittle fracture. Since TTs form easily at the crack tip before crack initiation, delaying or suppressing the formation of TTs at the crack tip is one
way to increase the fracture toughness. It was found that as grain size decreases, tendency for twinning decreases as explained by Meyers et al. (2001).
Somekawa et al. (2005A) have found that fracture toughness increases from
12.7 MPa m1/2 to 17.8 MPa m1/2 by reducing the grain size from 55 m to 1
m in extruded pure magnesium. 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 1-3 m. Subgrained structures were observed
near crack tip instead of deformation twins which leads to higher fracture
toughness. Due to higher stresses around the voids, nano-order twins were
observed. Crack propagated along twins and connected to the voids. On the
fractured surface dimple pattern was observed which conforms the ductile
fracture opposed to brittle type in the case of coarse-grained MgAZ31 alloy.
Thus the plastic deformation in fine -grain alloy is dominated by dislocation
slip. In addition to grain refinement, Somekawa et al. (2007) has found that
fracture toughness can further increases by adding fine precipitates which obstruct the dislocation movements. Fracture toughness of Mg-Zn-Y alloy with
quasicrystalline phase was found to be 32.5 MPa m1/2 . Due to strong inter-

face between matrix and quasicrystalline phase, void nucleation was delayed
resulted in high toughness. Many dimples were observed on the fracture surface indicates material fails by ductile fracture. More recently, Kaushik et al.
(2014) has performed mode-I fracture tests on magnesium single crystals.
Dependence of fracture resistance on lattice orientation with respect to the
crack plane was studied. In one of the three point bend(TPB) experiments,
notch front is aligned along c-axis which simulates the basal texture in polycrystal rolled Mg AZ31 sheet in the present work. From the EBSD maps on
the free surface, it was observed that tensile twins(TTs) nucleate near the
loading edge and as load increases, twins were extending towards notch root
leaving small region around the notch root free of twins . But in the present
work on polycrystal Mg AZ31, TTs were observed near the notch root as
opposed to compressive strain causing dimple on the free surface. It was
concluded that plastic dissipation due to profuse twinning can enhance the
fracture toughness and crack propagates along the prominent twin-matrix
boundary and finally gets deflected at twin-twin intersections.
In this paper, mode-I fracture experiments have been conducted at room
temperature using compact tension(CT) specimens cut from a rolled Mg
AZ31 sheet having nearly basal texture. It was found that the fracture
toughness values are in the range of 41.62 MPa m1/2 - 44.33 MPa m1/2 which
are different from the previously reported values by Somekawa et al. (2006).
Crack propagates along the curved path due to shear lips near the free surface
and tunneling at the mid-thickness indicates that the thickness of the specimen is in the transition zone. Fractographs are analyzed at the mid-thickness
and near shear lips to reveal the the fracture mechanism. In order to un-

derstand the high strain hardening behaviour observed in load-displacement

curves, specimens are unloaded at different load levels before crack initiation
and microscopic analysis is conducted using optical metallographs, orientation imaging microscopy(OIM) maps, TEM bright field(BF) images. Tensile
twins(TTs) were observed near the notch root as well as along the central
line of the notch near free edge of the specimen. It is observed that as load
increases, the tendency for plastic deformation by twinning increases.
2. Experimental Procedure
2.1. Specimen preparation
In the present work, material used for the experiments is a hot rolled
magnesium alloy AZ31. The chemical composition of the alloy is presented
in Table 1. Specimens were cut from a rolled sheet having nearly basal texture
as shown in Fig. 2. Grain sizes are inhomogeneous and the mean grain size
was determined as 13.5 m. From the pole figure Fig. 2(b), it can be seen
that many grains appear to have c-axis slightly off from ND of the sheet.
The Mode -I fracture experiments are conducted using compact tension (CT)
specimens as shown in Fig. 1. Two sets of pre-notched CT specimens are
tested with loading direction(LD) along transverse direction(TD) in one set,
referred to as LD k TD specimen and along rolling direction(RD) of the sheet
in the other, referred to as LD k 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 a = 22 mm,
W = 54 mm, h = 60 mm and thickness B0 = 9.6 mm.
7

2.2. Test Procedure

The experiments are conducted at a constant displacement rate of 0.3
mm/min using Instron 8502 testing machine having load cell capacity of
250 kN. 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. Speckle pattern is put on one of the
the free surfaces of the specimen by spraying black paint on the background
white paint. Images of the the specimen are taken successively as load level
increases. Vic-2D software is used to get the 2D Lagrangian strain field contours around the notch root using digital image correlation(DIC) technique.
Some of the specimens were loaded to initiate and propagate the crack. The
deformed specimens were cut near the extended crack tip using EDM for
fractographic studies. Texture changes near the extended crack both on
mid-plane and free surface are analyzed from EBSD scans for RD specimen.
To understand the evolution of microstructure with load level, TD specimens
are unloaded at two different load levels before crack initiation. Samples near
the locations A and B in Fig. 1 are cut using EDM for optical and EBSD
analysis.
2.3. Material characterization
In-order to get the high quality electron backscatter diffraction Kikuchi
patterns for EBSD analysis, samples are mechanically polished up to 3000
grit SIC polishing paper followed by cloth polishing using diamond past of

1
3

grit. Samples are electro-polished using the electrolyte containing 3:5 solution
of H3 P O4 and ethanol to get better surface for indexing. EBSD scans are

performed with a step size of 0.8 m in ESEM Quanta 200, FEI machine
and the patterns are indexed using EBSD(TSL) software.
For optical metallography, following the same sample preparation procedure used for EBSD analysis, sample surface is etched for 5 sec in the etchant
solution. The etchant used for etching process is prepared by mixing 5 gm of
picric acid, 10 ml of acetic acid, 90 ml of ethanol and 10 ml of water(Xia et al.
(2009)). Etched samples are observed using Zeiss Axio Vert.A1 microscope
to get the optical metallographs.
For TEM analysis, slices of 300 m thickness are cut just below the
fracture surface from the deformed LD k RD specimen such that basal plane
is edge-on using EDM. Mechanical polishing is done in order to reduce the
thickness to 150 m using 1500 grit paper and deionized water as a coolant.
Circular disc of 3 mm diameter were punched manually in the sheets using
a punching machine. Further mechanical polishing of discs is done using
2500 grit paper to reduce the thickness to 60 m. Some selected samples are
electro-polished in a twin jet electropolishing machine using electrolyte which
has 99:1 solution of methanol and HClO4. During twin jet polishing, thin
region is obtained for electron transparent around the holes by adjusting
the flow rate of electrolyte. In order to remove the oxide layer formed on
the surface, further thinning of the sample is done by maintaining the the
temperature at 140 C during ion milling process in Gatan Precision Ion
Polishing system(PIPS) at an angle of 2 degrees. Sample are examined
using Tecnai G2 T20 S-Twin TEM at an operating voltage of 200 kV.

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 Fig. 4(a) and in Fig. 4(b) for TD and RD specimens
respectively. It can be seen from these figures that there is not much difference between the curves pertaining to specimen loading direction either
parallel to RD or TD. There is a deviation from linearity at 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 8.7 kN and forming shear lips on 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
at a load of 8.7 kN for the LD k TD specimen. 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 is an order of specimen
p
thickness(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
10

(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 as explained in the appendix.

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 the values of Jt are
35 N/mm and 40 N/mm for LD k RD specimen and for LD k TD specimen
respectively.. 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, cut from rolled Mg AZ31 alloy sheet having basal texture.
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

11

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 in both LD k TD and LD k RD specimens, crack propagates along the curved path from the notch root due to
the formation of shear lips. Crack starts tunneling at the mid-thickness first
and then appears on the free surface by creating the shear lips. There is flat
fracture region shown as Q-R in the mid-thickness and shear lips on the free
surfaces near the locations indicated as P, S. The size of shear lip(PQ) is
defined as the distance measured in the thickness direction from free surface
to the location where shear lip ends. Shear lip sizes for RD, TD specimens
are 3.2 mm and 3.15 mm respectively. It can be concluded from these observations that the specimen thickness is in the transition zone. 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). Dimples indicate ductile fracture in the flat region of
the fracture surface (Somekawa et al. (2006), Gandhi et al. (1979)). There is
a combination of small and big voids in the range of 9-15 m comparable to
the grain size of the present material. Tear ridges encompasses the set voids.
There are nucleating inclusions of size 1.5 m can be seen in some voids.
Fractograph near the shear lip P of the Fig. 7(c) is shown in Fig. 8(b). Voids
are oriented along one direction indicates shear type of failure. Inclusions
can be seem in some of the voids. Hydrostatic stress is high at mid-thickness
which responsible for void initiation, growth and coalescence. As load level
increases, following the crack tunneling at mid-thickness, the material adjacent to the tunneled zone near the free surface carry more load and leads
12

to failure by shear along maximum shear stress planes. This leads to the
formation of shear lips near free surface (Venkert et al. (2001)).
It can be seen from the macroscopic load-displacement curves and J verses
load curves, there is considerable non-linear behaviour after 5 kN. In order to
answer the questions like why there is a the high strain hardening and considerable plastic dissipation, It is important to conduct microscopic analysis.
Plastic deformation in Mg AZ31 is due to both slip and twinning. Out of
the four different types of slip systems, the only slip system that can accommodate plastic deformation along c-axis is the secondary pyramidal ha + ci
slip system. Since the critical resolved shear stress(CRSS) is very high, it is
difficult to activate at room temperature. Therefore the only other mechanism to accommodate the deformation along c-axis at room temperature is
by deformation twinning. Extension along the c-axis of the crystal is caused
by Tensile twins(TTs). TTs can contribute to strain hardening by Hall-Petch
effect, Basinski mechanism and texture hardening. In Hall-petch effect, the
effective slip length decreases due to the formation of TTs in the matrix region which can cause hardening. According to Basinski mechanism, glissile
dislocation changes to sessile within the twined regions as a result twinned
region is much harder than the matrix region(Salem et al. (2006)). Since
TTs can engulf the grain quickly, the whole grain can re-orient to harder
orientation and it leads to texture hardening(Knezevic et al. (2010)). To understand the role of tensile twining(TT), LD k TD specimens are unloaded at
two different load levels before crack initiation, one at 8.1 kN and other 8.7
kN. Optical metallographs and EBSD scans are taken near both locations A
and B as shown in Fig. 1 for two load levels. The evolution of twining seems

13

to play an key role in dissipating the energy during plastic deformation which
is analyzed in the following section.
3.4. Development of tensile twinning
In order to observe the evolution of tensile twinning before crack initiation, LD k TD specimens are unloaded at 8.1 kN and 8.7 kN and the
microstructure near locations A and B are compared.
At location B, it can be seen from the the optical micrograph Fig. 9
and the IPF Fig. 10(a) , most of the twins of {1012} are aligning along the
central line of the notch. Some of the grains are having parallel twins. As
load increases from 8.1 kN to 8.7 kN, compare to Fig. 10(a) most of the grains
in Fig. 13(a) have multiple twins and the twin area fraction obtained using
EBSD maps increases from 9% to 24.2%. This indicates that the tendency
for plastic deformation by twinning increases with load level.
Following the fracture study of single crystals by Kaushik et al. (2014),
twin growth can occur by either twin-twin coalescence of same twin variants
or by lengthening and widening of individual twins. In big grains(like E, one
below M) having multiple thick twins, most of the matrix region is already
reoriented by twin-twin coalescence. If the load is increased further, the
whole grain would have been completely reoriented by twinning which could
be the reason for grain reorientation near the extended crack tip as shown in
the Fig. 17(a). In some grains(top right of G) having multiple intersection of
twins, lengthening of one twin is obstructed by another twin variant which is
also observed by Kaushik et al. (2014). If there is no obstruction, the twins
are forming from one end to the other end of the grain(left of F).
EBSD scan near location A in front of notch root is shown in Fig. 10(b).
14

{1012} twins are observed near the notch root. Tensile twins are formed
as opposed to the compressive strain along c-axis of basal textured grains
near the notch root. This type of twins are also seen on the surface of the
tension specimen cut from the present rolled plate and loaded in rolling direction(RD). These twins are named as anomalous tensile twins by Koike et al.
(2008). It was found that these anomalous twins form in grains having large
deviation of c-axis from the ND of the rolled sheet and are surrounded by
grains having c-axis parallel to ND. Differences in strain at grain boundaries
causes the formation of anomalous twins in the grains having greater basal
slip and less prismatic slip compared to the surrounded grains having greater
prismatic slip activity.
It can be seen that there is a combination of big(like E, F) and small
grains( H, K) having c-axis slightly off from ND of the rolled plate. 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) have found 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 the given
stress state. Twin boundaries can be seen across the set of contiguous small
grains. As load increases from 8.1 kN to 8.7 kN, compared to Fig. 10(b),
there are multiple parallel twins in some grains(like E, one on top of G, H)
as shown in Fig. 13(b) and are likely to under go twin-twin coalescence to
increase the twin width. Twin-Twin intersection are also observed in some
grains(like F).
At mid surface near location A, Compared to the Fig. 10(b), most of the

15

grains are smaller size in Fig. 11 and their orientation is not perfect basal. It
can be seen in some grains(like E, F), twins are forming across the contiguous
grains. As load level increases from 8.1 kN to 8.7 kN, twin boundaries are
forming circular shaped arcs across the contiguous grains(like E, F, G) can
seen in the Fig. 14. Since the matrix orientations of the grains are different,
the twinned region is reoriented differently along the lengthening direction
of twin in some grains(like E). Few grains(like Q, one below L) are having
multiple parallel twins and intersection of twins can be seen in grain indicated
as N.
The length of the ligament region(AB) in Fig. 1 is 33 mm. From the
optical metallographs, twins are observed on the free surface up 1 mm in
front of the notch at A and 11 mm from the free edge at B for the specimen
unloaded at p = 8.7 kN .
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. 15. Above the
extended 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)) in front of the crack tip, most of the grains are having nearly basal orientation(indicated with unit cells) and are having twins
which are forming like circular arcs across the set of contiguous grains. Misorientation angle across the line X-Y is shown in the Fig. 16. There is an 860
rotation of c-axis about h1120i in the twinned region.
Compared to the initial pole figure Fig. 3(b), due tensile twins in most of
16

the grains there is another texture component seen on the circumference of

the basal pole figure Fig. 16(b). Most of the basal poles are shifted towards
ND at an angle of 45 .
As deformation progress, growth of tensile twins is such that they can
quickly engulf the entire grain as explained by Knezevic et al. (2010). Most of
the grains above and ahead of the extended crack tip which were having basal
orientation, are completely reoriented to prismatic on the free surface shown
in the Fig. 17. Above the crack tip, in the partially reoriented grains(like
E), there are tensile twins with in which the reoriented region is having the
prismatic orientation and the matrix region having basal orientation. Below
the crack tip, there are few grains which are reoriented to prismatic but most
of the grains have the basal orientation and having tensile twins. There is an
asymmetry in the formation of tensile twins about the crack tip which could
be attributed to the fact that the stress state is different above and below
the crack tip due to formation of shear lips.
Due to complete reorientation of large number of grains, most of the basal
poles are on the circumference of the basal pole figure Fig. 17(b). Thus there
is a complete texture change compared to the one in the initial pole figure
Fig. 2(b). Thus texture hardening by tensile twins could be the reason for
the plastic dissipation in this material.
4. Summary and Conclusions
In this work, mode I fracture experiments have been conducted at room
temperature using compact tension(CT) specimens cut from the rolled plate
such that in one set of specimens loading direction is parallel to rolling di17

rection(LD k RD sample) and the other set is loaded along transverse direction(LD k TD sample). The main observations / conclusions from the
present work are summarized below.
There is not much difference between the load displacements curves
pertaining to specimen loaded either parallel to RD or TD. The fracture
toughness values of the present specimens are in the range of 41.62 MPa
m1/2 - 44.33 MPa m1/2 which are comparable to the fracture toughness
values of Aluminum alloys. High toughness in the present work can be
due to notch root effect.
Crack propagates along a curved path due to the formation of shear
lips. From the DIC analysis, it is found that the specimen thickness is
in the transition region.
Fractographs shows ductile fracture at the mid-thickness and shear type
failure near shear lip region.
Before crack initiation at peak load, there is a considerable non-linearity
in load displacement curves. From the optical metallographs and EBSD
analysis, it was found that twin area fraction increases with load level.
Thus the tendency for plastic deformation by twinning increases with
load level.
As opposed to compressive strain near the notch root, tensile twins(TTs)
are observed during loading and are named as anomalous tensile twins.
In front of the extended crack tip near mid section, twin boundaries are
forming circular shaped arcs across the contiguous grains. On the free
18

surface, above and ahead of the extended crack tip, most of the grains
are completely reoriented to prismatic due to profuse tensile twinning.
There is an asymmetry in the formation of TTs about the extended
crack tip, attributed to the fact that the stress state is different above
and below the crack tip due to the shear lips.
Thus it can be conclude that tensile twinning is found to be a dominant
energy dissipation mechanism which leads to high hardening in the load
displacement curves.
Acknowledgement

19

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23

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
"

pi

K =

B0 (W ) 2
where f

a
W


a
2+
=
f
W

a
f
W

(A.3)

is given by

a
W

 h

0.886 + 4.64

a
W

13.32 Wa


 3
1 Wa 2

2

+ 14.72

a 3
W

5.6

a 4
W

(A.4)

Jp i =

Ap i
B0 b

(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.
24

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

25

(a)

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

26

(a)

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

27

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.

28

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

29

(a)
(b)

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

30

(a)

(b)

31

x2

x1

(a)
Figure 9: Optical metallograph at loaction B on free-surface for TD specimen at a load of
8.1 kN.

32

(a)

33

(b)

Figure 10: 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 11: IPF at loaction A on mid-thickness for TD specimen at a load of 8.1 kN.

34

x2
x1

(a)
Figure 12: Optical metallograph at loaction B on free-surface for TD specimen at a load
of 8.7 kN.

35

(a)

(b)
Figure 13: IPFs (a) At location B (b) At location A on the free surface for TD specimen
at a load of 8.7 kN.

36

(a)
Figure 14: IPF at loaction A on mid-thickness for TD specimen at a load of 8.7 kN.

37

X2
x1

(a)
Figure 15: IPF near the extended crack tip on mid-thickness for RD specimen.

38

Misorientation angle (degrees)

Point-to-point
Point-to-origin

Distance (microns)

(a)

(b)
Figure 16: (a) Mis-orientation along the line XY in a grain. (b) Pole figure for RD
specimen

39

x2

x1

(a)

40
(b)
Figure 17: (a) IPF near the extended crack tip on free surface for RD specimen. (b) Pole
figure.