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Stress Corrosion Cracking of a Maraging Steel Shear Bolt Used in the Interstage Structure of a Satellite Launch Vehicle

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Abstract

M250 grade maraging steel is used widely in satellite launch vehicle structures due to its excellent combination of strength and toughness. One of the maraging steel bolts used in interstage structures was found broken during the visual inspection of the hardware. The failed bolt was in assembled condition for several months. The bolt has failed at the stepped region before the start of threads. Crack initiated at the corrosion pits located at the stepped region and propagated inward in an intergranular mode. Fractography revealed brittle intergranular features and corrosion products were noticed on the outer periphery of the fracture surface. EDS analysis of the corrosion products near the fracture edge indicated the presence of chlorine. However, at the center of the bolt, the fractographic features correspond to transgranular mode of failure. Based on detailed metallurgical analysis, the failure of the bolt was attributed to ‘stress corrosion cracking.’

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Acknowledgments

Authors wish to thank Director, VSSC for his constant encouragement and for permission to publish this work. They wish to sincerely thank the reviewers for their constructive criticism to improve the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials and Mechanical Entity, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum, 695 022, India

    Sushant K. Manwatkar, S. V. S. Narayana Murty, P. Ramesh Narayanan, S. C. Sharma & P. V. Venkitakrishnan

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  1. Sushant K. Manwatkar
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  2. S. V. S. Narayana Murty
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  3. P. Ramesh Narayanan
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  5. P. V. Venkitakrishnan
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Correspondence to S. V. S. Narayana Murty.

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Manwatkar, S.K., Narayana Murty, S.V.S., Ramesh Narayanan, P. et al. Stress Corrosion Cracking of a Maraging Steel Shear Bolt Used in the Interstage Structure of a Satellite Launch Vehicle. Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. 5, 411–420 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13632-016-0303-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13632-016-0303-z

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