Based on results of fractographic analysis, it has been confirmed that all the fatigue cracks are initiated from the particles, regardless of where the crack are located (NZ or TMAZ). Meanwhile, it seems that the particles influence the fatigue resistance in different ways for the NZ and TMAZ, because the fatigue failure induced by particles in the NZ could only be obtained in the VHCF. In this section, discussion on fatigue crack initiation mechanisms in different subzones will be carried out with the consideration of the severe plastic deformation in the FSW process.
Fig. 8a is an electron backscatter SEM image, where two types of inclusions are presented: Fe-rich intermetallic compounds and Mg2Si-based particles, both of which have distinguishable characteristics. The Mg2Si particles have dark equiaxed shapes and the Fe-rich particles have gray and irregular forms. The maximum length of Fe-rich particles vary in the range of 10–25 μm and the elastic modulus is approximately 135 GPa as measured by nano-indentation [24]. The maximum size of Mg2Si particles are about 10–20 μm n length, and have a modulus of approximately 50 GPa. So the Fe-rich particles are harder than the matrix of AA 7075 (72 GPa), while the Mg2Si particles are softer. During the FSW process, the matrix embedded with particles in the TMAZ underwent intense plastic deformation, recrystallization did not occur in this zone due to insufficient deformation strain. According to the research on the damage of aluminum alloy in tensile test [25] and [26], the failure process in ductile materials is associated with local failure of second phase particles. In this test, a crack within the Mg2Si particle is also clearly observed, and the Fe-rich compounds consist of many scattered small particles as presented in Fig. 8a. It can be inferred that the intermetallic particles were crushed during the intense plastic deformation, and the cracks had already been initiated within the particles before any loading was applied, so the FSW process led to large numbers of micro cracks distributed in the TMAZ. It should be noted that the pre-existed micro cracks in the matrix seem to have limited influence on the tensile and low cycle fatigue behaviors, in which the HAZ has the lowest strength due to significantly coarsened precipitates and the development of the free precipitate zones [4]. In the VHCF, the applied stress is much lower than the yield strength, and the plastic deformation features cannot be observed even in the softest zone (HAZ). In this case, micro defects dominate the failure mechanisms for that the fatigue crack generally initiated from the defects [27] and [28]. During the fatigue test, the cracked particles gave rise to a crack in the surrounding matrix [29], and eventually led to the final fatigue failure as shown in Fig. 8b–d. Therefore, most of full specimens failed closed to the boundary between the TMAZ and NZ, where the elongated grains deformed most seriously in an upward flowing pattern around the NZ. As a result of that, the subzone specimens of the TMAZ on the advancing side have the lowest fatigue strength accordingly. Moreover, the cracks in the particles result in stress concentration and shorten the fatigue initiation process greatly, which is consistent with the effect of sharp notches on the VHCF behaviors of metallic materials [30]. Thus, the S–N curve of the TMAZ has a point of deflection at 2 × 106 cycles and a horizontal line in the VHCF range, which means a conventional fatigue limit as presented in Fig. 5.