Fracture Toughness Determinations of A-302B and Ni-Mo-V Steels With Various Size Specimens

Abstract

Fracture tests were conducted on three steels obtained from heavy-section pieces over a range of test temperatures using single-edge notched (SEN) specimens under tensile loading and notched-bar (NB) specimens in bending. The SEN tests were performed on specimens 0.125 and 0.4 in. thick plus a few specimens 0.020 in. thick. In the NB series Charpy-sized specimens (0.4 in. square) were tested at various temperatures with additional tests on smaller and larger specimens up to 6 in. square at selected temperatures. All specimens were provided with a fatigue precrack at the tip of the notch. The tests were conducted to determine the capability of various size specimens for providing valid plane-strain fracture toughness (GIc or KIc ) values at various temperatures for these steels. At very low temperatures all specimens gave similar KIc values. With increasing temperature, KIc values obtained from the larger specimens remained relatively constant and then increased rapidly. At higher temperatures within this range, valid KIc values could not be measured with small specimens. Two possible methods of estimating KIc at these temperatures from small specimen data are discussed. One of these involves a correlation between fracture toughness and shear-lip thickness. The second makes use of a relation between bend angle, crack-opening-displacement, and fracture toughness. The test results are analyzed to show that both methods can be very useful.