Probabilistic Characteristics of Fatigue Behavior Parameter of Paris-Erdogan Law in Mg-Al-Zn Alloy

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the probabilistic characteristics of the fatigue parameters that describe the fatigue crack growth behavior in magnesium alloy. Statistical fatigue crack propagation experiments have been performed on rolled AZ31 magnesium alloy CT specimens with different specimen thickness, load ratio, and maximum load at ambient temperature in a laboratory. Using the statistical fatigue data obtained from these experiments, the goodness-of-fit of the probability distribution of the fatigue behavior parameters is evaluated in this study by performing statistical analyses. The crack growth rate coefficient is a fatigue parameter having a very large COV(Coefficient of Variation), but the variation of a crack growth rate exponent is not substantial. It is considered that a crack growth rate exponent can be a material constant. It is also found that the best fit probability distribution of the parameters such as the crack growth rate coefficient and crack growth rate exponent for a magnesium alloy is a three-parameter Weibull distribution, and two-parameter Weibull distribution is a good distribution only for the crack growth rate coefficient.