You will find the figures mentioned in this article in the German issue of

ATZ 02I2007 beginning on page 182.

Betriebsfestigkeit von Getriebelagerungen

aus Magnesium-Pressgusslegierungen

Structural Durability of
Transmission Mountings from
Magnesium Squeeze Cast Alloys
For the first time new promising magnesium squeeze cast alloys were investigated at the Fraunhofer Institute for Struc-
tural Durability and System Reliability (LBF) according to the requirements of safety components under misuse, special
event and cyclic loading within the scope of an EU-project. This article summarises the results for structural durability
relevant characteristic values obtained from fatigue tests under constant and variable amplitude loading generated from
specimens and the demonstrator transmission mounting.

1 Introduction
The continuous rise in costs for row materi-
als and legal restraints with respect to detri-
mental effects on the environment acceler-
ates the current development in automotive
engineering aiming for a reduction of fuel
consumption and diminished pollution.
Thereby the major economic potential is
promised by light weight constructions. The
material magnesium is rediscovered as the
lightest metallic construction material with
a 35 % lower density versus aluminium.
However, applications nowadays are almost
always restricted to components inside a ve-
hicle. Because of the product liability for
safety components, like for example steering
and chassis components, Figure 1, today mul-
tifarious investigations are necessary in the
range of durability. Structural durability rel-
evant characteristic values, such as fatigue
life curves under constant and variable am-
Authors:
Christian Pohl, Jochen Laakmann,
Cetin Morris Sonsino, Rüdiger Heim
and Holger Hanselka
plitude loading, their scatter, the damage
accumulation, the influence of plastic pre-
deformations (special events) on the fatigue
strength under variable amplitude loading
and the fracture behaviour under impact
loading (misuse) are needed.
Within this article durability relevant
characteristic values are presented which
were generated both at specimens and at the
component transmission mounting the latter
serving as a demonstrator of the new magne-
sium cast alloys MRI-2, -3 and -4 (MRI = Magne-
sium Research Institute, Beer-Sheva, Israel).
The results of these investigations enlarge the
existing data base for a durability design of
magnesium cast components [1, 2, 3, 4].
2 Materials and Mechanical Properties
The transmission mountings (length x width
x height = 200 x 180 x 110 mm) of alloys MRI-
2, -3 and -4 were magnesium squeeze cast
components. Specimens with a circular cross
section were removed from the branch of
the transmission mounting and investigated
in tensile tests. Tests at –40 °C, ambient
temperature (RT) and +60 °C were carried
out at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufac-
turing and Advanced Materials (IFAM) in
Bremen. In the Table the mechanical proper-
ties of the three investigated materials are
summarised. Because of microstructural in-
homogeneities within the components/spec-
imens it seems that the ultimate tensile
strength Rm and the elongation at fracture e
are suboptimally qualified to characterise
the material behaviour whereas the specific
values of the yield strength Rp0.2 and the area
reduction at fracture A show a significant
lower scatter at each temperature level. As
expected the yield strength decreased with
increasing temperature whereas plastifica-
tion as constituted by the area of reduction
at fracture significantly improved.
Micrographs were taken at the Fraunhof-
er-LBF, Figure 2. All three alloys exhibit a scat-
ter in grain sizes and segregations (γ phase)
in the grain boundaries. Primary magnesi-
um and a lamellar eutectic phase are detect-
ed in the finally solidified zones for the alloy
MRI-4. The alloy MRI-3 exhibited the best me-
chanical properties.
3 Impact Tests at the Transmission
Mounting
The experimental simulation of a misuse
loading was realised by impact tests of the
components of the alloys MRI-2 to -4 by
means of a drop weight test rig. To achieve a
terminal velocity of the drop weight imme-
diate before contact of about 7 m/s (25 km/h)
the height of fall was selected to 2.65 m. The
mass of the cover was mc = 71.3 kg. Three
tests were performed at the temperature lev-
els of T = –40 °C, ambient temperature and

38 ATZ 02I2007 Volume 109

 Materials R E S E AR C H

+60 °C for all investigated materials. The ob-
jective of this investigation was the determi-
nation of values like the maximum rupture
load Fmax and the energy absorption at frac-
ture Ef, both depending on the geometry of
the component.
Figure 3, left, represents the fracture posi-
tions of the MRI-3-components at different
temperatures. Two different fracture posi-
tions were detected: the fracture position 1,
Figure 3, middle, and the fracture position 2,
Figure 3, right. A correlation between the
temperature and the fracture position was
not found. An analysis of the fracture sur-
faces at MRI-2 components generated the fol-
lowing results: At –40 °C intergranular frac-
tures were found; at ambient temperature
there was a mixture of flat dimples and brit-
tle cleavage fracture. At +60 °C the fraction
of the flat dimples increased.
Investigating the fracture surfaces of all
tested materials the reason for the different
fracture positions became clear: The compo-
nent failed at fracture position 1 in the case
of curved shrinkage holes at the changeover
between the inner and outer strengthening
rib. At shrinkage holes in the area of the
outer strengthening rib and within the pan-
el surrounded by the strengthening ribs the
component failed at fracture position 2. The
test results, Figure 4, were gained from com-
ponents that failed at fracture position 1. An
influence of the temperature on the achieved
test results can significantly be seen: With
increasing temperature the maximum rup-
ture load Fmax decreases, simultaneously the
energy absorption at fracture Ef increases.
Exceptions are the energy absorption at am-
bient temperature of the alloys MRI-2 and -4.
Significant differences within the specific
values were detected. Test results of compo-
nents failing at fracture position 2 showed a
deviation ±15 % in comparison to test results
of components failing at fracture position 1
depending on the size of the shrinkage
holes.
4 Results of the Fatigue Strength
In the following, fatigue strength specific
values are presented, which were derived
from strain-controlled tests with speci-
mens removed from components and from
load-controlled tests with components.
Additionally, damage accumulation and
the influence of a plastic pre-deformation
on fatigue strength of components are in-
vestigated.
4.1 Fatigue Strength Specific Values
from Strain-controlled Tests with
Specimens Removed from Components
Strain-controlled fatigue strength tests
were performed with frequencies of f = 0.1
to 12 Hz and a strain ratio of Rε = –1. The
unnotched specimens (Kt = 1.0; rectangular
cross section of testing of 5 x 3 x 10 mm;
removed casting skin, Rz = 4.0 μm) were cut
from the components transmission mount-
ing according to the specimens being used
as in the monotonic tensile tests. The mo-
notonic and cyclic stress-strain-curves and
the strain-controlled Woehler curves were
determined for the investigated alloys. The
monotonic curves were recorded at the be-
ginning of the strain-controlled tests. The
specific values characterising the elastic-
plastic material behaviour are summarised
in the Table, bottom.
The three alloys exhibit a significant
cyclic hardening effect during elastic-plas-
tic loading. At a fatigue life to crack initia-
tion at N = 1 · 106 cycles the alloys MRI-2 and
-4 are able to endure a strain amplitude
which is about 60 and 86 % higher com-
pared to that of alloy MRI-3. For the investi-
gated alloys, cracks always emerge from
microstructure inhomogeneities near the
surface. The fatigue fractured surface
showed transgranular features, whereas
the residual fractured surface presented
flat dimples which are characteristic for
ductile materials.
4.2 Fatigue Strength Specific Values from
Load-controlled Tests with Components
The uni-axial fatigue tests of the component
transmission mounting were performed
with a load ratio of RF = –1. Tests under con-
stant amplitude loading were conducted
with a test frequency of fca = 7 Hz, those un-
der variable amplitude loading with fva = 2 –
17 Hz and a load sequence with a Gauss’ian
amplitude part distribution with a part
length of Ls = 5 · 104 cycles; the irregularity
factor was I = 0.99. From each alloy one com-
ponent was subjected to a strain analysis for
determining the local strains.
The initial crack was detected at the same
position for all materials. It occurred at the
interior of the inner strengthening rib near
the change-over to the screwing section, Fig-
ure 5. Thus the crack due to cyclic loading
was situated in another section of the com-
ponent than the fracture positions for im-
pact loading. The technical crack (a ≈ 1 mm)
was reproducibly determined by the de-
crease of the recorded stiffness during the
component testing.
The Woehler and Gassner curves for crack
initiation are presented in Figure 6 to Figure 8.
The strain amplitudes of the strain-control-
led recorded crack initiation specimen Woeh-
ler curve were multiplied by the Young’s
Modulus to derive a stress Woehler curve.
Having a normalised Woehler curve in mind,
for a standardised evaluation of the speci-
men tests a knee point at N = 1 · 105 cycles was
fixed and a decrease of the fatigue strength
beyond this knee point of 5 % per decade,
which means a slope of k = 45. This defini-
tion is consistent with other test results ob-
tained from tests with magnesium die-cast
specimens [3]. Because of the low number of
test results an uniform scatter band of Tσ = 1
: 1.3 was taken as a basis, which is typical for
magnesium cast materials. The component
Woehler curve is represented by a dashed
line, the component Gassner curve for crack
initiation position by a line drawn through.

Properties T Rp0,2 in MPa R‘p0,2 in MPa Rm in MPa e in % A in % E in GPa HBW 2.5/31.25/20

Table: Monotonic and
MRI-2 –40 °C 115.4 – 153.1 1.6 2.3 – –
cyclic material data of
RT 85.5 121.0 164.4 3.5 – 45 53
+60°C 93.1 – 164.0 3.8 5.9 45.7 – the magnesium
MRI-3 –40 °C 120.9 – 203.7 3.4 2.3 – – squeeze cast alloys
RT 102.1 135.0 147.4 1.7 – 45 58 MRI-2, -3 and -4
+60 °C 95.1 – 162.6 2.9 6.4 50.7 –
MRI-4 –40 °C 100.2 – 165.8 2.7 2.3 – –
RT 93.5 120.0 156.1 2.5 – 45 55
+60 °C 89.8 – 167.2 4.2 6.2 51.3 –

Properties Cyclic Stress-strain Curve Strain-controlled Woehler Curve for Crack Initiation (Rε = –1)
K‘ in MPa n‘ σ‘f in MPa ε‘f b c
MRI-2 250.9 0.1171 241.6 1.927 –0.07695 –0.8725
MRI-3 280.0 0.1172 607.3 9.433 –0.1716 –1.024
MRI-4 263.0 0.1261 365.5 0.0385 –0.09844 –0.4247

ATZ 02I2007 Volume 109 39