Abstract
Abstract— The work described in this paper characterizes short fatigue crack growth behaviour of Q2N steel having a complex microstructure and designated for pressure vessel and offshore structure applications. Short and long fatigue crack growth tests for this steel were conducted under three point bend loading conditions. It was found that, in the initial stages of growth, short cracks propagate much faster than those of long cracks when correlated with the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) parameter ΔK. A period of crack growth retardation was observed at crack lengths of approx 50 μm. The theory of the interaction between short cracks and grain boundaries fails to predict the occurrence of this deceleration minima. A new short crack deceleration mechanism is proposed based on experimental observation. Observation of the characteristic behaviour of short cracks allowed the development of a short crack growth model based on microstructural fracture mechanics analyses.
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