Influence of heat treatment on cyclic deformation and low-cycle fatigue behavior of sand-cast Mg–10Gd–3Y–0.5Zr magnesium alloy

Cyclic deformation and low-cycle fatigue behavior of Mg–10Gd–3Y–0.5Zr alloy in sand-cast and aging treatment conditions (sand-cast-T6) were investigated by carrying out full reversed strain-controlled tension-compression tests at the strain amplitude ranging from 0.25 to 0.7%. The results show that stress–strain hysteresis loops of the studied alloys display near tension-compression symmetry, which is dominated by microstructure and strain amplitude. Both sand-cast and sand-cast-T6 alloys exhibit cyclic hardening and softening phenomenon with increasing loading cycles. Meanwhile, the fatigue life of the aged alloy is higher than that of the sand-cast alloy at all applied strain amplitudes. The theoretical strain fatigue limits (ε0) of sand-cast and sand-cast-T6 alloys are 2.1% and 2.3%, respectively. In addition, the low-cycle fatigue behavior of the studied alloy at different strain amplitudes was also investigated.