Assessing the Effect of Intrinsic Microscale Heterogeneity on Brittle Fracture of a Ferritic Steel

Brittle fracture can have potentially catastrophic consequences on the safety and integrity of engineering components. For this reason, the accurate prediction of cleavage failure probability is of importance in assessing the defect tolerance of high-integrity ferritic steel components, given the possibility of operation in the presence of significant loads at temperatures in the ductile-brittle transition range. In current safety assessments, fracture mechanics treats polycrystalline steels as homogeneous continua. In reality, deformation is heterogeneous, due to the elastic and plastic anisotropy of their constituent (often randomly orientated) grains. Heterogeneity at the micro (grain) scale is currently not considered by conventional fracture mechanics. This paper describes the initial results of a programme of work on a 22NiMoCr37 steel forging to assess the effect of micro-scale heterogeneity on cleavage fracture probability using an adaptation of the Beremin local approach model. The results of cleavage fracture modelling allowing for the effects of micro-scale heterogeneity are compared with the results of modelling based on the assumption of homogeneous materials behaviour. Application of the micro-scale heterogeneity model is providing some new insights into the prediction of cleavage fracture probability.