Delayed Fracture Behavior of CrMo-Type High Strength Steel Containing Titanium

The delayed fracture behaviors of CrMo-type high strength steels containing different amount of titanium(0to 0.10%)were studied.The steels were quenched at 880℃ and tempered from 400℃ to 650℃,and a wide range of tensile strength was obtained.The sustained load tensile test was carried out by using notched tensile specimens in Walpole solution.The experimental results showed that with higher strength,the Ti-microalloyed steels show higher resistance to delayed fracture compared with non-microalloyed steel due to titanium beneficial role and microstructure changes.The undissolved TiC is uniformly distributed as strong hydrogen traps,retarding or preventing the diffusion and accumulation of hydrogen to lower-interaction energy sites,such as prior austenite and martensite lath boundaries in stress concentration area.Meanwhile,the grain refining effect of titanium is also an important factor to improve the delayed fracture resistance of Ti-microalloyed steels.The characteristics of delayed fracture remain nearly the same with titanium addition.

1300 MPa High Strength Steel for Bolt with Superior Delayed Fracture Resistance

By the increase in Mo content,the addition of microalloying elements V and Nb and by reducing the contents of Mn,P and S based on the composition of steel 42 CrMo,we have developed a 1 300 MPa-grade high strength steel(ADF1)for bolts.The sustained load bending test,sustained load tensile test and stress corrosion cracking test have been carried out to evaluate the delayed fracture resistance of steel ADFl and commercial steel 42 CrMo.The results showed that steel ADF1 has superior delayed fracture resistance to that of 42 CrMo steel.It's concluded that the superior delayed fracture resistance of ADF1 is mainly due to the increase of tempering temperature,fine homogeneously distributed MC carbide and fine prior austenite grain size.

Effect of Heat Treatment on Delayed Fracture Resistance of High Strength Steel 30CrMnSi2NiNb

The steel specimens of nominal composition 0.3C-1.0Cr-1.0Mn-2.0Si-1.0Ni-0.04 Nb were quenched and tempered or isothermally quenched from various temperatures.It is found that the steel quenched and tempered with a tensile strength of 1 500-1 600 MPa has a KISCC（critical stress intensity factor） value below 15.0 MPa · m1/2.The steel isothermally quenched with a tensile strength of 1 350-1 750 MPa has a KISCC value about 20.0 MPa·m1/2.In addition,with increase of isothermal quenching temperature,the tensile strength decreases greatly and KISCC value does not pronouncedly change.The microstructure of isothermally quenched specimens is composed of bainite and retained austenite.The delayed fracture resistance is dependent on the stability of austenite,which is in turn related to the retained austenite volume fraction and carbon content in austenite.

High-cycle Fatigue Fracture Behavior of Ultrahigh Strength Steels

The fatigue fracture behavior of four ultrahigh strength steels with different melting processes and therefore different inclusion sizes were studied by using a rotating bar two-point bending fatigue machine in the high-cycle regime up to 107 cycles of loading. The fracture surfaces were observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy （FESEM）. It was found that the size of inclusion has significant effect on the fatigue behavior. For AtSI 4340 steel in which the inclusion size is smaller than 5.5 μm, all the fatigue cracks except one did not initiated from inclusion but from specimen surface and conventional S-N curve exists. For 65Si2MnWE and Aermet 100 steels in which the average inclusion sizes are 12.2 and 14.9 μm, respectively, fatigue cracks initiated from inclusions at lower stress amplitudes and stepwise S-N curves were observed. The S-N curve displays a continuous decline and fatigue failures originated from large oxide inclusion for 60Si2CrVA steel in which the average inclusion size is 44.4 pro. In the case of internal inclusion-induced fractures at cycles beyond about 1×10^6 for 65Si2MnWE and 60Si2CrVA steels, inclusion was always found inside the fish-eye and a granular bright facet （GBF） was observed in the vicinity around the inclusion. The GBF sizes increase with increasing the number of cycles to failure Nf in the long-life regime. The values of stress intensity factor range at crack initiation site for the GBF are almost constant with Nf, and are almost equal to that for the surface inclusion and the internal inclusion at cycles lower than about 1×10^6. Neither fish-eye nor GBF was observed for Aermet 100 steel in the present study.

Relief of Residual Stresses in 800 MPa Grade High Strength Steel Weldments by Explosion Treatment and its Effect on Mechanical Properties

The explosion treatment technique has been used in the relief of residual stresses in 800 MPa grade high strength steel manual welded joints. The residual stresses on surface and through thickness of the weldment were measured for both as-welded and explosion-treated sample, the mechanical properties of welded joints under different conditions were also tested. The effect of explosion treatment on the fracture toughness of materials with a residual defect was investigated by crack opening displacement （COD） test. The results show that explosion treatment can reduce not only the surface residual stress but also the residual stress through thickness in the welded joints. The effect of explosion treatment on the mechanical properties and a residual defect in welded joint were inconspicuous.

Effect of shot peening on hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steel

The effect of shot peening（SP） on hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steel was investigated by electrochemical hydrogen charging, slow strain rate tensile tests, and hydrogen permeation tests. Microstructure observation, microhardness, and X-ray diffraction residual stress studies were also conducted on the steel. The results show that the shot peening specimens exhibit a higher resistance to hydrogen embrittlement in comparison with the no shot peening（NSP） specimens under the same hydrogen-charging current density. In addition, SP treatment sharply decreases the apparent hydrogen diffusivity and increases the subsurface hydrogen concentration. These findings are attributed to the changes in microstructure and compressive residual stress in the surface layer by SP. Scanning electron microscope fractographs reveal that the fracture surface of the NSP specimen exhibits the intergranular and quasi-cleavage mixed fracture modes, whereas the SP specimen shows only the quasi-cleavage fractures under the same hydrogen charging conditions, implying that the SP treatment delays the onset of intergranular fracture.

Strength evaluation of ultra-high strength steels and spot weld of automotive bodies

Cockcrofi-Latham fracture criterion was applied to predict the fracture of high strength steels. A Marciniak-type biaxial stretching test of the four classes of high strength steels was carried out to measure the material damage limit of Cockcrofi-Latham fracture criterion. Furthermore, in order to improve the simulation accuracy, the local anisotropic parameters depending on the plastic strain （strain dependent model of anisotropy ） were measured by digital image correlation method and incorporated into Hill＇ s anisotropic yield condition by authors. To confirm the validity of Cockcrofi-Latham fracture criterion, the uniaxial tensile tests based on JIS No. 5 tensile specimen were performed. The force-displacement history and fracture happening strokes were predicted with high accuracy. Then, Cockcrofi-Latham fracture criterion was applied to predict the failure of four types of spot welded joints. To simulate the local bending and warping deformations around the heataffected zone, the discrete Kirchhoff triangle element was adapted. FEM results for four classes of high strength steels and four types of spot welded joints had a good correlation with experimental ones.

Shear Fracture of Advanced High Strength Steels

Failure experiments were carried out through a stretch-bending test system for advanced high strength steels, i.e. dual-phase （DP） steels and martensitic steels （MS）. The die radius in this system was designed from 1 to 15 mm to investigate the failure mode under different geometries. Two failure modes were observed during the ex- periments. As a result, critical relative radii （the ratio of inner bending radius R to sheet thickness t） for DP590 and DP780 steels were obtained. The stretch-bending tests of DP980 display some trends unlike DP590 and DP780 steels, and curve of DP980 in different thicknesses does not coincide well. High blank holder force exhibits more possibility of shear fracture tendency than low blank holder force. The unique character of high strength martensitic steel （1500MS） is that no shear fracture is found especially over small bending radius （R =2 mm） under the same experi- mental conditions. Microstructure analysis indicates that there are obviously elongated grains on shear fracture sur- face. It shows smaller diameter and shallower depth of the dimples than the necking failure.

Fracture Morphologies of Advanced High Strength Steel During Deformation

The fracture morphologies of several advanced high-strength steels （DP590, DP780, DP980, Ml180, and M1300） formed in uniaxial tension and piercing were observed by scanning electron microscope, and then quantitatively analyzed by image processing technique. The tension-induced fractographs are dominated by obvious uniform or bimodal size dimples, while shearing-induced fractographs have smooth surfaces and few dimples. The fracture zone of higher grade DP steels is smoother. As for M1180 and M1300, the fracture zones consist of very small dimples and smooth brittle surfaces. The dimple size of M1300（ ,- 1.2 tm） is smaller than that of M1180（ 1.6 tm）. Moreover, in the tensile fracture, the quantitative correlation between average dimple diameter （d） and tensile strength （a） can be represented by d = 10,502.32a-121. However, the relation between dimple density and tensile strength is not monotonic due to the appearance of bimodal size dimples with increase of tensile strength. For shearing-induced fracture during piercing, the fitted empirical model between the percentage of burnish zone （f） and tensile strength can be described asf --- 239.9a-＇36.

Effect of Boron on Delayed Fracture Resistance of Medium-Carbon High Strength Spring Steel

The delayed fracture behavior of medium carbon high strength spring steel containing different amounts of boron （0. 000 5%, 0. 001 6 %） was studied using sustained load delayed fracture test. The results show that delayed fracture resistance of boron containing steels is higher than that of conventional steel 60Si2MnA at the same strength level and it increases with the increase of boron eontent from 0. 000 5% to 0. 001 6%. The delayed fracture mode is mainly intergranular in the boron containing steels tempered at 350℃, which indicates that the addition of boron does not change the fracture character. However, the increase of boron content enlarges the size of the crack initia tion area. Further study of phase analysis indicates that most boron is in solid solution, and only a very small quantity of boron is in the M3 （C, B） phase.

Effect of Plastic Deformation and H_2S on Dynamic Fracture Toughness of High Strength Casing Steel

The effects of plastic deformation and H2 S on fracture toughness of high strength casing steel（C110 steel） were investigated. The studied casing specimens are as follows： original casing, plastic deformation（PD） casing and PD casing after being immersed in NACE A solution saturated with H2S（PD＋H2S）. Instrumented impact method was employed to evaluate the impact behaviors of the specimens, meanwhile, dynamic fracture toughness（JId） was calculated by using Rice model and Schindler model. The experimental results show that dynamic fracture toughness of the casing decreases after plastic deformation. Compared with that of the original casing and PD casing, the dynamic fracture toughness decreases further when the PD casing immersed in H2 S, moreover, there are ridge-shaped feature and many secondary cracks present on the fracture surface of the specimens. Impact fracture mechanism of the casing is proposed as follows： the plastic deformation results in the increase of defect density of materials where the atomic hydrogen can accumulate in reversible or irreversible traps and even recombine to form molecular hydrogen, subsequently, the casing material toughness decreases greatly.

Thermal Activation Analyses of Dynamic FractureToughness of High Strength Low Alloy Steels

A formula is derived for determining the influence of temperature and loading rate on dynamic fracture toughness of a high strength low alloy steel (HQ785C) from thermal activation analysis of the experimental results of three-point bend specimens as well as introducing an Arrhenius formula. It is shown that the results obtained by the given formula are in good agreement with the experimental ones in the thermal activation region. The present method is also valuable to describe the relationship between dynamic fracture toughness and temperature and loading rate of other high strength low alloy steels.

Whole Field Strain Measurement of High Strength Steel Under Plain Strain Condition

Sheet metal undergoes different strain conditions during different forming processes.The investigation of mechanical properties under these conditions is very important in the forming techniques.Sheet metal is particularly liable to failure under plain strain state.Measure and investigate the necking strain under plane strain condition is a particularly important study for sheet formability forecasting.In this study,material behavior of DP780 high strength steel sheet under plain strain condition was studied.Conventional plane strain tensile tests were carried out on the MTS testing machine with a special designed specimen.A digital image correlation system was employed to measure the full-field strain distribution during plain strain tensile test.The strain evolution during deformation was obtained and investigated.The capability of the specimen for plane strain test was validated from the strain distributions.The necking strain and fracture strain of DP780 high strength steel sheet were determined from the strain field and strain history results.

Seismic performance of steel reinforced ultra high-strength concrete composite frame joints

To investigate the seismic performance of a composite frame comprised of steel reinforced ultra high-strength concrete （SRUHSC） columns and steel reinforced concrete （SRC） beams, six interior frame joint specimens were designed and tested under low cyclically lateral load. The effects of the axial load ratio and volumetric stirrup ratio were studied on the characteristics of the frame joint performance including crack pattern, failure mode, ductility, energy dissipation capacity, strength degradation and rigidity degradation. It was found that all joint specimens behaved in a ductile manner with flexural-shear failure in the joint core region while plastic hinges appeared at the beam ends. The ductility and energy absorption capacity of joints increased as the axial load ratio decreased and the volumetric stirIup ratio increased. The displacement ductility coefficient and equivalent damping coefficient of the joints fell between the corresponding coefficients of the steel reinforced concrete （SRC） frame joint and RC frame joint. The axial load ratio and volumetric stirrup ratio have less influence on the strength degradation and more influence on the stiffness degradation. The stiffness of the joint degrades more significantly for a low volumetric stirrup ratio and high axial load ratio. The characteristics obtained from the SRUHSC composite frame joint specimens with better seismic performance may be a useful reference in future engineering applications.

DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES OF HIGH-STRENGTH STEEL WELDING

Composition and service properties of high - strength low-alloyed steels with 590-980 MPa yield strength,which find an application in Russia, Belorus,Ukraine and other countries of the former USSR in manufacture of welded structures of a powerful mining and transport machinery, are given. Electrodes and wires for main processes of arc welding of these steels have been devel- oped on the basis of a rational use of different systems of alloying (08KhN2GM,08KhNG2M, and also economical systems of type 10G25, ect. ). Main approaches to the technological provess- es of manufacture of structures of high - strength steels are formulated.They are mainly directed to the weakening of de offect of the factors which contribute to a delayed fracture of joints (diffusive hydrogen,unfavourable rates of cooling,level of residual stresses). When there are no stress concentrators (and at a low level of residual stresses) the welded joints of these steels have a good resistance to fatigue and brittle fractures.As a rule, they are prevented with the help of the known approaches.It is shown that in addition to them and due to a proper selection of conditions of welding the life of welded joints of the high - strength steels can be 1. 2 - 1. 4 times in- creased.

Delayed fracture of tensile strength 980 MPa grade steels for automotive applications

Three different types of tensile strength （TS） 980 MPa grade advanced high-strength steels used in automotive applications, namely, 980MS （ martensite steel ）, 980DP （ dual phase ） and 980QP （ quenching and partitioning） steels were examined. The delayed fracture resistance of the steels was evaluated using a U-bend test, slow strain rate test（SSRT） and a constant load tensile test. The results indicated that all the steels could pass the 300 h HC1 solution immersion test and none of the U-bend specimens was fractured in the test. However,the steels exhibited different susceptibilities to delayed fracture under SSRT and the constant load tensile tests. 980DP exhibited the highest resistance to delayed fracture among all the samples, while 980MS was found to be the most susceptible to delayed fracture.

Experimental study on the seismic behavior of high strength concrete fi lled double-tube columns

To study the seismic behavior of high strength concrete fi lled double-tube(CFDT) columns,each consisting of an external square steel tube and an internal circular steel tube,quasi-static tests on eight CFDT column specimens were conducted.The test variables included the width-to-thickness ratio(β1) and the area ratio(β2) of the square steel tube,the wall thickness of the circular steel tube,and the axial force(or the axial force ratio) applied to the CFDT columns.The test results indicate that for CFDT columns with a square steel tube with β1 of 50.1 and 24.5,local buckling of the specimen was found at a drift ratio of 1/150 and 1/50,respectively.The lateral force-displacement hysteretic loops of all specimens were plump and stable.Reducing the width-to-thickness ratio of the square steel tube,increasing its area ratio,or increasing the wall thickness of the internal circular steel tube,led to an increased fl exural strength and deformation capacity of the specimens.Increasing the design value of the axial force ratio from 0.8 to 1.0 may increase the fl exural strength of the specimens,while it may also decrease the ultimate deformation capacity of the specimen with β1 of 50.1.

Effect of Notch Location on Fatigue Life Prediction of Strength Mismatched HSLA Steel Weldments

Welding of high strength low alloy steels (HSLA) involves usage of low, even and high strength filler materials (electrodes) than the parent material depending on the application of the welded structures and the availability of the filler material. In the present investigation, the fatigue crack growth behaviour of weld metal (WM) and heat affected zone (HAZ) regions of under matched (UM), equal matched (EM) and over matched (OM) joints has been studied. The base material used in this investigation is HSLA-80 steel of weldable grade. Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process has been used to fabricate the butt joints. Centre cracked tension (CCT) specimen has been used to evaluate the fatigue crack growth behaviour of the welded joints. Fatigue crack growth experiments have been conducted using servo hydraulic controlled fatigue testing machine at constant amplitude loading (R=0).A method has been proposed to predict the fatigue life of HSLA steel welds using fracture mechanics approach by incorporating influences of mismatch ratio (MMR) and notch location.

Mechanism of Annealing Softening of Rolled or Forged Tool Steel

The steel specimens of nominal composition 0.3C-1.0Cr-1.0Mn-2.0Si-1.0Ni- 0.04 Nb were quenched and tempered or isothermally quenched from various temperatures. It is found that the steel quenched and tempered with a tensile strength of 1 500-1 600 MPa has a K ISCC (critical stress intensity factor) value below 15.0 MPa·m 1/2 . The steel isothermally quenched with a tensile strength of 1 350-1 750 MPa has a K ISCC value about 20.0 MPa·m 1/2 . In addition, with increase of isothermal quenching temperature, the tensile strength decreases greatly and K ISCC value does not pronouncedly change. The microstructure of isothermally quenched specimens is composed of bainite and retained austenite. The delayed fracture resistance is dependent on the stability of austenite, which is in turn related to the retained austenite volume fraction and carbon content in austenite.