This doctoral thesis deals with the determination of the influence of plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) on fatigue behaviour of extruded AZ61 magnesium alloy in air and in the 3.5% NaCl solution. The coatings were formed in the silicate-phosphate electrolyte under pulsed current conditions at a frequency of 50 Hz. The influence of current density on coating formation was examined under current densities of 70, 130 and 200 mA cm-2 for different durations up to a maximum of 1800 s. 8 g dm-3 of KF were added to the electrolyte to study the influence of fluoride ions in plasma electrolytic oxidation. It is shown that fluoride ions inhibit localised oxidation in the initial stage of the process, associated with the secondary particles based on Al–Mn. The presence of fluoride also modified the sparking characteristics, decreased the rate of coating growth and changed the morphologies of the coatings. The influence of fluoride on the coating hardness, and the corrosion resistance of the alloy during exposure to salt spray, was negligible. Based on previous optimised PEO conditions, coatings formed under a current density of 130 mA cm-2 for 300 s in the electrolyte containing KF were chosen for fatigue testing. The high-cycle fatigue tests were carried out on cylindrical samples under a force controlled sinusoidal tension-tension cycle with asymmetry parameter R=0. The experimental data were fitted with Kohout & Věchet function. The fatigue limit of uncoated alloy in air for 107 cycles was determined at 145.4 MPa and the combination of PEO coating with chloride ions caused a reduction of ~55 %. Attention was paid to the fatigue crack initiation in different conditions of cyclic loading. The fracture surfaces underwent detailed fractography analysis including secondary crack observation on the gauge length. The contribution of Al–Mn particles were confirmed on the uncoated alloy in air and the presence of chloride ions were observed as another influential contributor to local corrosion attack. The cyclic loading caused spalling of the outer layer, and the multiple initiation was observed on PEO coated alloy, caused by cracks in the coating and stress transferring to the alloy.

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In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein prozessübergreifendes Simulationsmodell für die Temperatur- und Gefügeentwicklung im Band und Coil beim reversierenden Warmwalzen entwickelt. In der Software werden die erstmals aufgestellten Modelle der Bandab- und aufwicklung implementiert. Die Temperatur- und Gefügeveränderungen im gewalzten Warmband werden lokal und prozessübergreifend betrachtet. Die für das gesamte Modell notwendigen Koeffizienten zur Beschreibung der Wärmeübertragung wurden mittels der inversen Methode bestimmt. Die Bestimmung der radialen Wärmeübertragung im Coil erfolgte mit Hilfe von Laboruntersuchungen in Abhängigkeit von der Temperatur, der Banddicke und des radialen Druckes. Die Validierung des Modells für die Temperatur- und Gefügeentwicklung erfolgte am Beispiel des reversierenden Warmwalzens der Magnesiumlegierung AZ31. Zu diesem Zweck wurden Versuche zu Temperaturmessungen in den einzelnen Phasen der Prozesskette durchgeführt. Die Ermittlung der Einflüsse der Umformbedingungen auf die Temperatur- und Gefügeentwicklung während des reversierenden Warmbandwalzens erfolgte abschließend mit Hilfe des entwickelten Modells. Die Ergebnisse zeigen auf, wie sich die Walzbedingungen auf die Entwicklung der Temperatur und des Gefüges auswirken.

Magnesium with two-thirds of the density compared to aluminium and one-quarter of steel, intrigues product developers and material scientists due to the light metal’s excellent combination of strength to weight ratio as well as their capability of being produced as a High Pressure Die Cast component compared to other ferrous or light metal alloys.   However, a magnesium alloy inherits some concerning drawbacks, limiting the exploitation in structural applications and mechanical design such as automotive, heavy machinery and aerospace components. The need for a magnesium alloy that could withstand a sufficient amount of wear, temperature and corrosive environment, leads towards the investigation and evaluation of a suitable, functional coating as a solution to exploit the evident advantages a magnesium alloy exhibits. A substantial amount of research is required in order to reduce an existing knowledge gap that is the ongoing development in the search for a sufficient functional coating and adherence capability to the highly reactive substrate that is a magnesium alloy.   This industrial master thesis is an early stage investigation to evaluate how the currently used aluminium substrate with an electrodeposited coating relate and compares to a heat-treated electroless deposited coating through tribological and thermophysical induced stresses. These properties are tested with proven industrial standard methods resulted in a comprehensive conclusion and discussion regarding the feasibility of applying the coating onto a commercial magnesium alloy closely related to the Mg-alloy developed by Husqvarna and thereby contributing to technological advances to the highly relevant topic within product development in materials engineering.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In recent years, magnesium alloys, due to their high strength and biocompatibility, have attracted significant interest in medical applications, such as cardiovascular stents, orthopedic implants, and devices. To overcome the high corrosion rate of magnesium alloys, coatings have been developed on the alloy surface. Most coating methods, such as anodic oxidation, polymer coating and chemical conversion coating, cannot produce satisfactory coating to be used in human body environment. Recent studies demonstrate that micro-arc oxidation (MAO) technique can produce hard, dense, wear-resistant and well-adherent oxide coatings for light metals such as aluminum, magnesium, and titanium. Though there are many previous studies, the understanding of processing conditions on coating performance remains elusive. Moreover, previous tests were done in simulated body fluid. No test has been done in a cell culture medium, which is much closer to human body environment than simulated body fluid. In this study, the effect of MAO processing time (1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes) on the electrochemical behaviors of the coating in both conventional simulated body fluid and a cell culture medium has been investigated. Additionally a new electrolyte (12 g/L Na2SiO3, 4 g/L NaF and 4 ml/L C3H8O3) has been used in the MAO coating process. Electrochemical behaviors were measured by performing potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests. In addition to the tests in simulated body fluid, the MAO-coated and uncoated samples were immersed in a cell culture medium to investigate the corrosion behaviors and compare the difference in these two kinds of media. The results show that in the immersion tests in conventional simulated body fluid, the 20-minute MAO coated sample has the best resistance to corrosion due to the largest coating thickness. In contrast, in the cell culture medium, all MAO coated samples demonstrate a similar high corrosion resistance behavior, independent of MAO processing time. This is probably due to the organic passive layers formed on the coating surfaces. Additionally, a preliminary finite element model has been developed to simulate the immersion test of magnesium alloy in simulated body fluid. Comparison between the predicted corrosion current density and experimental data is discussed.