In the NZ, intense plastic deformation and frictional heating during the FSW result in generation of a recrystallized fine-grained microstructure as shown in Fig. 9a. The particles are embedded in the matrix with a diameter of about 3–5 μm for Fe-rich particles and 6–10 μm for Mg2Si particles, respectively, both of which are apparently smaller than that in the TMAZ. Thus, it may be thought that the cracked particles were split into many individual small particles and dispersed into the matrix separately during the dynamically recrystallization process. The pre-existed cracks formed in plastic deformation disappeared in the NZ during recrystallization process and the ability to initiate a fatigue crack was weakened accordingly. Moreover, the Mg2Si particles in the NZ have a larger size than the Fe-rich particles, because the Fe-rich particles exhibited multiple cracks, which is much more serious than that of Mg2Si particles [25]. Generally, the defect size is the crucial factor to control the fatigue strength in the VHCF range for high strength steel with non-metallic inclusion, and the fatigue crack initiated from the inclusion with maximum diameter [31] and [32]. In this test, the intergranular particles in the NZ are supposed to play similar roles as the inclusions in high strength steel for the similar failure mechanisms as presented in Fig. 7. Therefore, the Mg2Si particle was observed to be the sole cause of fatigue crack initiation in these experiments as illustrated in Fig. 9b and c (a little blurry at the amplification of 5000× due to the capacity of SEM equipment).