Influence of gaseous environments on rates of near-threshold fatigue crack propagation in nicrmov steel

Abstract

The influence of hydrogen environment (448 kPa) on near-threshold fatigue crack propagation rates was examined in a 779 MPa yield strength NiCrMoV steel at 93 °C. An automatically decreasing and increasing stress intensity technique was employed to generate crack growth rates at three load ratios(R = 0.1, 0.5, and 0.8). Results show that the crack propagation rates in hydrogen are slower than those in air for levels of stress intensity range, ΔK, below about 12 MPa√m. The crack closure concept does not explain the slower crack growth rates in hydrogen than in air. Near-threshold growth rates appear to be controlled by the levels of residual moisture in the environments. In argon and air, the fracture morphology is transgranular, while in H2 the amount of intergranularity varies with ΔK and achieves a maximum when the cyclic plastic zone is approximately equal to the prior austenite grain size.