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R-Curve Approach to Describe the Fracture Resistance of Tool Steels

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Abstract

This work addresses the events involved in the fracture of tool steels, aiming to understand the effect of primary carbides, inclusions, and the metallic matrix on their effective fracture toughness and strength. Microstructurally different steels were investigated. It is found that cracks nucleate on carbides or inclusions at stress values lower than the fracture resistance. It is experimentally evidenced that such cracks exhibit an increasing growth resistance as they progressively extend, i.e., R-curve behavior. Ingot cast steels present a rising R-curve, which implies that the effective toughness developed by small cracks is lower than that determined with long artificial cracks. On the other hand, cracks grow steadily in the powder metallurgy tool steel, yielding as a result a flat R-curve. Accordingly, effective toughness for this material is mostly independent of the crack size. Thus, differences in fracture toughness values measured using short and long cracks must be considered when assessing fracture resistance of tool steels, especially when tool performance is controlled by short cracks. Hence, material selection for tools or development of new steel grades should take into consideration R-curve concepts, in order to avoid unexpected tool failures or to optimize microstructural design of tool steels, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been partially funded by ACC1Ó (Grants TECRD12-1-0012 and TECCTA-13-1-0005) and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Grant MAT2012-34602). The authors would like to express their gratitude to Professor Jean Steinmetz, at Jean Lamour Institute (France), for the in-depth analysis of carbides in K360 tool steel.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fundació CTM - Centre Tecnològic, Plaça de la Ciència 2, 08243, Manresa, Spain

    Ingrid Picas (R&D Manager) & Daniel Casellas (Director of Materials Technology Area)

  2. CIEFMA - Departament de Ciència dels Materials i Enginyeria Metal·lúrgica, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, ETSEIB, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Luis Llanes (Professor)

  3. ICL-Iberia, Afores s/n, 08260, Súria, Spain

    Ingrid Picas (R&D Manager)

Authors
  1. Ingrid Picas
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  2. Daniel Casellas
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  3. Luis Llanes
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Correspondence to Daniel Casellas.

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Manuscript submitted September 9, 2015.

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Picas, I., Casellas, D. & Llanes, L. R-Curve Approach to Describe the Fracture Resistance of Tool Steels. Metall Mater Trans A 47, 2739–2754 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-016-3455-1

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