Experimental study of fracture behavior of magnesium single crystals

In this work, the fracture behavior of magnesium single crystals is studied by conducting experiments with notched three point bend specimens of three crystallographic orientations. In the first and second orientations, the c-axis is along the normal to the flat surface of the notch, while in the third it is aligned with the notch front. For all the orientations, in situ electron back scattered diffraction observations made around the notch root show profuse tensile twinning of {101¯2}-type. Further, in the first two orientations basal and prismatic slip traces are identified from optical metallography. The width of the most prominent twin saturates at around 120–150μm, while twins continue to nucleate farther away to accommodate plastic deformation. In all the orientations, crack initiation occurs before the attainment of peak load and the crack grows stably along twin–matrix interface before deflecting at twin–twin intersections. Results show that profuse tensile twinning is an important energy dissipating mechanism that enhances the fracture toughness.