Abstract
Two steels with different contents of carbon and impurity elements are heat treated to produce various ferrite grain sizes. Four-point-bend (4PB) tests of specimens are carried out at low temperatures. Microscopic observations of metallographic sections and fracture surfaces combined with finite-element model (FEM) calculations are made in detail. Results of the investigation reveal that the critical event for cleavage fracture changes from a crack-propagation-controlling model to a crack-nucleation-controlling model with increasing grain sizes to very large ones and decreasing carbon and impurity element contents. The cleavage initiation sites also move closer to notch roots, which in the case of fine grains locate around the positions where the peak tensile stresses are reached. The mechanism of changes of critical events and the cleavage initiation sites are analyzed.
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Chen, J.H., Wang, G.Z. & Wang, Q. Change of critical events of cleavage fracture with variation of microscopic features of low-alloy steels. Metall Mater Trans A 33, 3393–3402 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-002-0327-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-002-0327-7