Stress Corrosion Cracking of Progressively Cold-Drawn Pearlitic Steels: From Tintoretto to Picasso

Abstract

Progressive cold drawing in eutectoid steels produces a preferential orientation of the pearlitic microstructure in the wire axis or drawing direction. This affects the posterior behaviour of the steels under conditions of stress corrosion cracking (SCC). The experimental results show that cold drawing induces strength anisotropy in the steel, and thus the resistance to SCC is a directional property that depends on the angle in relation to the drawing direction. Therefore, an initial transverse crack changes its propagation direction to approach that of the wire axis, thus producing mixed mode propagation, the deflection angle being an increasing function of the cold drawing degree. This experimental result may be explained by micro-mechanical considerations on the basis of the lamellar microstructure of the steels. A relationship is established between the microstructural angles and the deflection angles of the macroscopic SCC crack, thus providing a materials science type relationship between the microstructure and the macroscopic crack paths with regard to hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC) associated with the cathodic regime and in the matter of localised anodic dissolution (LAD) linked to the anodic regime. Whereas in hot rolled (not cold drawn at all) and slightly drawn steels the phenomenon of SCC develops in mode I, i.e., the SCC crack is a straight line linked with the classical linear perspective painting by Tintoretto, in the case of heavily drawn steels, the SCC deflected crack is a polygonal line associated with the multi-perspective cubist painting by Picasso, these conclusions being valid for both HAC and LAD.