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Fracture strength characterization of protective intermetallic coatings on AZ91E Mg alloys using FIB-machined microcantilever bending technique

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Abstract

The fracture strength of β-Mg17Al12 and τ-Mg32(Al, Zn)49 intermetallic coatings on AZ91E Mg alloy was investigated using a nanoindentation-based microcantilever bending technique. A set of micrometer-sized cantilevers with varying dimensions were machined using focused ion beam milling. A nanoindenter was then used to apply an increasing bending load until each cantilever fractured. The corresponding linear-elastic finite element models were created to simulate the deflection of the cantilevers and the fracture strength σm was derived from the models. The results showed that the fracture occurred at the root of the cantilever where the tensile stresses were highest; the average fracture strengths of the β-Mg17Al12 and τ-Mg32(Al, Zn)49 phases were 1.76 and 1.05 GPa, respectively. The potential sources of error are also discussed.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank the ARC linkage project (LP110200800) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia

    Mingyuan Lu, Hugh Russell & Han Huang

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  1. Mingyuan Lu
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  2. Hugh Russell
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  3. Han Huang
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Correspondence to Han Huang.

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Contributing Editor: Jürgen Eckert

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Lu, M., Russell, H. & Huang, H. Fracture strength characterization of protective intermetallic coatings on AZ91E Mg alloys using FIB-machined microcantilever bending technique. Journal of Materials Research 30, 1678–1685 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.104

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