When materials and structures are subject to a cyclic
stress with non-zero mean stress, a cyclic accumulation of
inelastic deformation will occur (yielding occurs), which is
called ratchetting or the ratchetting effect (cyclic creep).
Uniaxial ratchetting effect means the accumulation of cy-
clic strain occur in the mean stress direction and the stress-
strain hysteresis loops are not closed. The accumulation of
ratchetting strain can damage the material and lead to
reduction of fatigue life. Hence, the effects of ratchetting on
the safe design of the structure and the fatigue life pre-
diction of materials are significant. In the last 20 years,
many scholars have done much research on the ratchetting
behaviour of metals and alloys [1–13]. For example, Yang
[1] studied the ratchetting effect and fatigue properties of
45 carbon steel. Kang et al. [3] studied the ratchetting effect
and fatigue behaviour of SS304 steel, and found that the
ratchetting behaviour of metal materials depends on the
stress amplitude, mean stress, loading history and loading
rate. Chen et al. [5] studied the uniaxial and multiaxial
ratchetting of 63Sn-37Pb at room temperature. Their re-
sults show that the ratchetting strain of this material
gradually increases at a relatively high ratchetting strain
rate because of the cyclic softening of the material, which is
different from metal materials. Lin et al. [6] studied the
uniaxial ratchetting and low-cycle fatigue failure behaviour
of AZ91 magnesium alloys, and they developed the
stress-based fatigue life prediction models to evaluate the
low-cycle fatigue failure life of the studied alloys under
cyclic tension deformation. Their innovative work is very
important for the reliability design of magnesium alloy
components.