Premium
Influence of sintered stainless steel microstructure on fatigue crack paths
Author(s) -
IACOVIELLO F.,
DI COCCO V.,
CAVALLINI M.,
MARCU T.,
MOLINARI A.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
fatigue and fracture of engineering materials and structures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1460-2695
pISSN - 8756-758X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-2695.2005.00836.x
Subject(s) - materials science , microstructure , metallurgy , austenite , sintering , scanning electron microscope , austenitic stainless steel , optical microscope , intergranular corrosion , fracture (geology) , fracture mechanics , corrosion , composite material
ABSTRACT Stainless steels are attractive materials for many applications (e.g. petrochemical industry, chemical and nuclear plants, marine environment, desalination, etc.). They are sometimes characterized by considerable difficulties from the manufacturing point of view, and powder metallurgy offers an excellent alternative to produce these steels. Sintered stainless steels are characterized by the presence of micropores and by different microstructures that depend on the sintering procedures (powders, sintering temperature and duration, etc.). In the present work we consider five different sintered stainless steels, characterized by different microstructures: fully ferritic, fully austenitic, ferritic–austenitic, ferritic–austenitic–martensitic (two different volume fractions). Their fatigue crack propagation resistance is investigated by means of fatigue crack growth tests according to ASTM E647 standard, considering a stress ratio value ( R = K min / K max ) equal to 0.1. Crack propagation micromechanisms are examined through both fracture surface analyses (by means of a scanning electron microscope) and crack path profile analyses (by means of an optical microscope).