MECHANISM OF CRACK NUCLEATION AND PROPA- GATION OF FERRITE DUCTILE IRON DURING IMPACT FRACTURE UNDER LOW TEMPERATURES

Abstract

Due to its excellent ductility and moderate strength, QT400-18L ferrite ductile iron has been wide- ly used in producing core components of wind power equipment such as the hub of a wind turbine. Most of the re- searches have focused on the exploration of mechanical properties at low temperature, but none of them give the explanation on microcosmic mechanism of ductile iron during low temperature impact and the mechanism of crack nucleation and propagation of ferrite ductile iron during impact fracture has not been analyzed. In this work, the im- pact toughness of QT400-18L ferrite ductile iron was measured by V-notch Charpy impact test at different tempera- tures, the influence of low temperature impact toughness and the fracture behavior of ferrite ductile iron were dis- cussed. The results show that the cleavage fracture resistance of QT400-18L ferrite ductile iron is reduced with the decrease of impact temperatures. Above ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT), most of the total fracture en- ergies are expended during the crack propagation process. Below DBTT, both crack initiation energy and crack propagation energy decrease obviously. By using in situ fracture metallographic observation method, crack initia- tion and propagation of QT400-18L ferrite ductile iron under different temperatures were analyzed. Above DBTT,