SEM In Situ Investigation on Fatigue Cracking Behavior of X80 Pipeline Steel with Inclusions

2011 ◽  
Vol 284-286 ◽  
pp. 1096-1100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Tong ◽  
Yan Ping Zeng ◽  
Xin Li Han ◽  
Yao Rong Feng ◽  
Xiao Dong He

The micro-mechanical behavior of inclusions in X80 pipeline steel under fatigue loading was investigated by means of SEM in situ observation. The influence of sizes and shapes of inclusion on crack initiation and propagation was analyzed. The result shows that for large-size single-particle inclusion, cracks initiate from the interior under the fatigue loading. When a certain circulation cycles are reached, cracks initiate at the matrix near the sharp corner of the inclusion. The cracks extend at the matrix during the stable extension period and unstable extension period following the crack initiation, until fracture occurred. For chain inclusion, cracks first initiate at the interface between inclusion and matrix within the chain area, and the circulation cycles needed for initiation are far less than single inclusion. Cracks steadily extend after the initiation, and then fracture after very short circulation cycles. A chain of inclusion with the shape corners is serious harmful to the fatigue properties.

Author(s):  
Kyono Yasuda ◽  
Nobuyuki Ishikawa ◽  
Yutaka Matsui ◽  
Daisuke Mizuno ◽  
Tomoyuki Yokota

Hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) occurs by the poisoning effect of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) which promotes hydrogen absorption and entry at steel surface. Therefore, it is important for linepipe steels to have sufficient HIC resistance in sour environments. The HIC resistance is usually evaluated by measuring cracks after the standardized immersion test such as NACE TM0284. However, the general evaluation method cannot investigate HIC initiation and propagation behavior separately. It is necessary to understand the effect of metallurgical factors on the cracking behavior of sour service linepipe. In this study, in-situ ultrasonic inspection equipment was applied to the HIC test for the several linepipe steels with bainitic microstructure in order to clarify crack initiation and propagation behavior quantitatively. The three dimensional (3-D) distribution of cracks in the specimen was successfully captured as time sequence, and the temporal change of the crack area ratio (CAR) was investigated. It was revealed that the CAR-time curves are consist of four stages with different CAR increment rate. The first stage is the incubation of crack initiation. In the second stage, cracks occur and grow, and adjacent cracks coalesced rapidly. Regarding the first and second stages, sensitivity for the HIC initiation was well correlated with the hydrogen diffusion coefficient and the density of crack initiation site, such as MnS and Nb inclusions. In the third stage, the coalesced cracks propagate along the center segregation region. From the investigation of individual crack behavior, the crack along harder region showed higher propagation rate. In the fourth stage, the crack propagation rate was decreased to be in stasis. It can be stated that crack growth in the final stage is strongly affected by the hardness of base material and the crack easily propagate when HIC occurs in high strength steels.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Li ◽  
Zhiming Shi ◽  
Xiufeng Wu ◽  
Huhe Wang ◽  
Yubao Liu

In this work, the microstructure of Al-5Fe-1.5Er alloy was characterized and analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. The effect of microstructure on the behavior of crack initiation and propagation was investigated using in situ tensile testing. The results showed that when 1.5 wt.% Er was added in the Al-5Fe alloy, the microstructure consisted of α-Al matrix, Al3Fe, Al4Er, and Al3Fe + Al4Er eutectic phases. The twin structure of Al3Fe phase was observed, and the twin plane was {001}. Moreover, a continuous concave and convex interface structure of Al4Er was observed. Furthermore, Al3Fe was in the form of a sheet with a clear gap inside. In situ tensile tests of the alloy at room temperature showed that the crack initiation mainly occurred in the Al3Fe phase, and that the crack propagation modes included intergranular and trans-granular expansions. The crack trans-granular expansion was due to the strong binding between Al4Er phases and surrounding organization, whereas the continuous concave and convex interface structure of Al4Er provided a significant meshing effect on the matrix and the eutectic structure.


Author(s):  
Sheng Bao ◽  
Shengnan Hu ◽  
Meili Fu ◽  
Huangjie Lou

The objective of this work is to explore the relationship between the progressive material degradation process of fatigue and the evolution of the piezomagnetic field surrounding a ferromagnetic sample. The continuous examination of changes in the magnetomechanical behavior during a series of strain-controlled fatigue tests was performed on X80 pipeline steel samples. Analysis of the data obtained allowed the division of the fatigue life of the investigated steel into three stages: incipient stage, steady stage and terminal stage. Furthermore, the piezomagnetic field evolution demonstrates conspicuous changes in the initial stage of fatigue loading, then reverts to a relatively stable phase, and finally, drastic variations appear again before terminal failure. The progressive degradation of the steel under cyclic loading can therefore be tracked by following the evolution of the piezomagnetic field. The characteristics of the evolution of the piezomagnetic responses are also discussed in terms of the mechanical and microstructural condition of the steel during the fatigue process.


2012 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 798-801
Author(s):  
Yu Rong Jiang ◽  
Mei Bao Chen

It is impossible to keep pipelines free from defects in the manufacturing, installation and servicing processes. In this paper, pre-tension deformation of X60 pipeline steel was employed to experimentally simulate the influence of dents and the mechanism of fatigue crack initiation of X60 pipeline steel after per-tension deformation under cyclic loading were investigated. The results indicate that the mechanism of fatigue crack initiation is the typical cleavage fracture characteristics and the cracks mainly initiates from the non-metallic inclusions which was the local brittle fracture materials such as MnS inclusion. With the pre-tension deformation increase, the yield strength of the matrix was increased and the toughness decreased due to the work-hardening effect. With the effects of the non-metallic inclusions larger, the fatigue cracks initiated from the non-metallic inclusions easier.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document