Local plastic strain inhomogeneity in a ZEK100 Mg alloy

Magnesium alloys have great potential for lightweighting applications in the transportation industry. It is known, however, that Mg and Mg-alloys exhibit large plastic strain heterogeneity. Such heterogeneity is important both from the perspective of formability and fracture if such sheet materials are to be stamped. Also, such observations are important for our fundamental understanding of how plasticity spreads in such materials. In this work we have sought to couple together local plastic strain measurements using digital image correlation with full-field crystal plasticity simulations with the idea of identifying and quantifying the plastic strain heterogeneity. A recently developed ZEK-100 alloy has been studied, as this alloy has shown promise as a wrought sheet product.