ENVIRONMENT ASSISTED FRACTURE IN HIGH STRENGTH STEELS

Susceptibility to environmentally-assisted fracture at low stress levels is a characteristic of low alloy high-strength steels, such that the fracture toughness under sustained loading may be reduced to a fraction of the normal kic. While the phenomenon may be separately identified as stress-corrosion cracking or as hydrogen embrittlement, the mechanism is now thought to be the same in both cases and it is considered that the embrittling effect of hydrogen results from a weakening of the cohesive forces between atoms in the steel. The present work has established an empirical relationship between environmentally-assisted fracture toughness kiscg and kic so that kiscg may be estimated from the more readily determined kic. Furthermore environmentally-assisted fracture is not a serious problem when kic is greater than 0.001mnm. Where kic is lower, linear elastic fracture mechanics can be successfully applied to environment-assisted fracture in high-strength steels using kiscg as a design criterion. The factors which need to be considered in designing components to resist environmentally-enhanced fracture are discussed. (a). The number of the covering abstract of the conference is IRRD abstract no 213776. /TRRL/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Presented at the First Australian Conference on Engineering Materials.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of New South Wales

  School of Civil Engineering, Anzac Parade
  Kensington, New South Wales  Australia  2033
• Authors:
  • Bloomery, R I
  • Corderoy, DJH
  • Muir, H
• Publication Date: 0

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 16 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Brittleness; Corrosion; Cracking; Embrittlement; Environment; Environmental impacts; Failure; Fracture mechanics; High strength; High strength steel; Hydrogen; Loads; Low alloy steel; Steel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fracture
• ITRD Terms: 5900: Brittleness; 5252: Corrosion; 5211: Cracking; 5520: Failure; 5537: High strength; 7187: Hydrogen; 5567: Load; 4542: Steel
• Subject Areas: Environment; Geotechnology; Highways; Materials; I34: Steels and Metals;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00129583
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Conf Paper
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 7 1976 12:00AM