High Cycle Fatigue of Cast Mg-3Nd-0.2Zn Magnesium Alloys

This paper investigates the high cycle fatigue properties of a recently developed high-strength cast magnesium alloy [Mg-3Nd-0.2Zn (all compositions in wt pct except when otherwise stated)] with varied Zr contents for grain refinement (NZ30K) and the influence of heat treatment conditions. The NZ30K alloy containing 0.45Zr and heat treated to the peak-aged T6 condition [14 hours at 473 K (200 A degrees C)] shows the highest fatigue strength, about 100 MPa, which is about 25 pct higher than that of commercial AZ91D-T6 alloy. In the absence of casting flaws, the high cycle fatigue properties of the NZ30K alloy strongly depend on its grain size and heat treatment conditions. The dependency of fatigue strength on grain sizes follows the Hall-Petch relationship. The NZ30K alloy also shows a significant response to heat treatments. The fatigue strength increases in a near linear fashion with increasing yield strength of the material through heat treatment.