The purpose of this research is to investigate the statistical behavior of fatigue crack propagation(FCP) in magnesium alloy AZ31. FCP tests have been performed on compact specimens of AZ31 at load ratio conditions and maximum fatigue load conditions to obtain statistical data of FCP. It was found that the variability of fatigue crack propagation rate was significantly large at initial stage of FCP and gradually became smaller as the fatigue crack propagated. The finding of the study showed that increasing the load ratio could increase the variability of fatigue crack propagation rate at initial FCP stage. The samller the load ratio, the higher the fatigue crack propagation rate at initial stage. It was also found that the load ratio is a factor affecting the fatigue crack propagation rate in magnesium alloy.

The objectives of this paper are to evaluate the factors affecting the fatigue crack propagation(FCP) behavior in AZ31 magnesium alloy. FCP experiments have been performed on the specimens of AZ31 magnesium alloy under various conditions such as a loading frequency, a specimen thickness, a maximum fatigue load, and a load ratio and the obtained results were analyzed to find the influence factors on the FCP behavior in magnesium alloy. It is necessary to consider the influence factors for the design and the maintenance of lightweight structures. The correlation between the crack growth rate exponent and the crack growth rate coefficient, which are FCP behavior parameters, was also analyzed and the regression model was presented.