Anisotropy and Sulfide Inclusion Effects on Tensile Properties And
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A Thesis entitled Anisotropy and Sulfide Inclusion Effects on Tensile Properties and Fatigue Behavior of Steels by Nisha S. Cyril Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering Advisor: Dr. Ali Fatemi Graduate School The University of Toledo December 2007 The University of Toledo College of Engineering I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Nisha S. Cyril ENTITLED Anisotropy and Sulfide Inclusion Effects on Tensile Properties and Fatigue Behavior of Steels BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering Thesis Advisor: Dr. Ali Fatemi Recommendation concurred by Committee Dr. Sarit Bhaduri on Final Examination Dr. Mohammad Elahinia Dean, College of Engineering An Abstract of Anisotropy and Sulfide Inclusion Effects on Tensile Properties and Fatigue Behavior of Steels Nisha S. Cyril Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering The University of Toledo December 2007 During metal forming processes such as rolling and forging, deformable sul- fide inclusions become elongated. Such elongated inclusions can have considerable adverse effects on mechanical properties, if the inclusions are not aligned with the loading direction. The objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare fatigue, monotonic tensile and CVN impact behavior of SAE 4140 steel with high (0.077% S), low (0.012% S) and ultra low (0.004% S) sulfur contents at two hardness levels (approximately 43 HRC and 52 HRC). The longitudinally oriented samples at 40 HRC, where sulfide inclusions were oriented along the loading direction, did not ex- hibit any significant sensitivity of tensile or fatigue properties to the sulfur content. For the transversely oriented samples, however, the tensile ductility and the impact toughness of the high sulfur material was very low at either hardness level while the yield strength of the materials did not differ significantly with the sulfur content at either hardness level. Based on strain-life curves at 52 HRC, there was about a factor of 8 difference in fatigue life in the low cycle fatigue regime and more than an order iii of magnitude difference in the high cycle regime between the high S and the low S transverse materials. This difference was about a factor of 30 in the low cycle regime and about two orders of magnitude in the high cycle regime between the high S and the ultra low S materials. At 43 HRC, there was about a factor of 40 difference in short life and about one order of magnitude difference at long life between the high S and the ultra low S materials in the transverse direction. At 43 HRC, for which case longitudinal direction data were also available, little difference was noted between the low S, the ultra low S and the longitudinal materials. At 52 HRC, the high S material had a 27% lower fatigue limit than the ultra low S material under transverse loading. At 43 HRC, this reduction was 18%. SEM inspection of failed fatigue test specimens revealed that the fracture surfaces of the high S material were very rough and jagged, indicating several cracks originating from MnS inclusions at either hardness level. For the higher amplitude strain-controlled fatigue tests at both hardness levels, surface cracks that did not result in failure were found for all transverse materials indicating that the cracks initiated very early in the fatigue life. The ratios of predicted fatigue √ limit values using the area parameter model proposed by Murakami et al based on inclusion inspection, to the experimental values, ranged between 0.84 and 1.29. The variations of the fatigue and tensile properties were plotted against the sulfur content and relations were obtained for the fatigue constants as functions of sulfur. 0 The relations for the fatigue strength and ductility coefficients and exponents (f , b and c) were expressed as functions of sulfur in the Roessle-Fatemi equation which is used to predict the strain-life curve of a steel based on only the hardness, in order to incorporate the effects of sulfur under transverse loading. iv Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Ali Fatemi, for his constant guidance and support over the last two years. I would like to thank Dr. Sarit Bhaduri and Dr. Mohammad Elahinia for serving on my master’s thesis committee. Special thanks are due to Mr. Bob Cryderman from Macsteel, Monroe division for providing the test material, the CVN test results and the inclusions characterization for this study and also for his time and help with the SEM work in this thesis. The support offered by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and Macsteel Inc. are greatly appreciated. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. Atousa Plaseied for helping me learn to use the material testing machines and procedures. I express my thanks to my colleagues in the fatigue lab for their help and friendship over the years. The timely service of Mr. John Jaegly, Mr. Tim Grivanos and Mr. Randall S. Reihing from the machine shop are highly appreciated. Special thanks are due to Dr. Michael Dowd for his help with formatting this thesis in Latex. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my parents, Rani and S. Cyril and my brother Leon Cyril. They have supported me in infinite ways over the years and have made many sacrifices for my education. Without their support, my masters would not have been possible. v Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements v Contents vi List of Tables ix List of Figures xii Abbreviations xxi Nomenclature xxii 1 Introduction 1 2 A Literature Review 5 2.1 Effects of Inclusions on Fatigue Behavior and Anisotropy . 5 √ 2.1.1 The area parameter model for fatigue limit estimation . 7 2.1.2 Crack initiation, growth, and anisotropy in fatigue properties as a result of inclusions . 12 vi 2.1.3 Inclusion shape control to reduce anisotropy . 24 2.1.4 Structural changes around inclusions . 25 √ 2.1.5 Modification of the area parameter model for elliptical inclu- sions . 27 2.2 Microstructural and Crystallographic Effects on the Fatigue and Me- chanical Anisotropy of Steels . 30 2.3 The Change in Anisotropy with Hardness . 37 2.4 Summary . 39 3 Experimental Procedures and Results 87 3.1 Material . 87 3.2 Specimen Preparation, Heat-Treatment and Residual Stress . 89 3.3 Inclusion Inspection and Microstructure . 92 3.4 Experimental Procedures and Equipment . 94 3.5 Monotonic Tension Tests and Properties . 96 3.6 Constant Amplitude Axial Fatigue Tests and Results . 99 3.7 Charpy V - Notch Tests and Results . 111 4 Fractography 146 4.1 Surface Cracks . 146 4.2 Sub-Surface Failures at 52 HRC . 147 4.3 High Sulfur Materials . 149 4.4 Ultra Low and Low Sulfur Materials . 150 4.5 Summary . 151 vii 5 Analysis of Experimental Results 161 5.1 Variation of Properties with Sulfur Content . 161 5.2 Predicting Strain-Life Curves under Transverse Loading . 168 √ 5.3 Predicting Fatigue Limits by area Parameter Method . 175 6 Summary and Conclusions 199 References 204 viii List of Tables 2.1 Size and location of inclusions at fatigue fracture origin and the fatigue limit predicted by Equations 2.2 and 2.3 (Murakami et al, 1988). 42 2.2 Mid-value and standard deviation for fatigue limits of LS (0.004% S) and HS (0.042% S) steel under longitudinal and transverse loading conditions (Temmel et al, 2006). 42 2.3 Results of inclusion inspection and fatigue tests by Furuya et al (2004). 43 2.4 Mechanical tensile properties and the fatigue limit in each direction specimen of rolled low carbon steel plate (Kage and Nisitani, 1972). 43 2.5 Bending fatigue limit of notched specimens in rolled low carbon steel plate comparing rolling direction to thickness direction (Kage and Nisi- tani, 1972). 44 2.6 Results of low-cycle push-pull fatigue of rolled low carbon steel plate by Kage and Nisitani (1977). 44 2.7 Tensile and fatigue test results of pre-strained low carbon steel speci- mens subjected to rotating bending tests by Kage and Nisitani (1977). 44 2.8 Mechanical properties of anisotropic rolled low carbon steel in each direction (Kage and Nisitani, 1978). 45 2.9 Comparison of the effect of circular shaped and bar shaped inclusions in each direction specimen on a low carbon steel bar (Kage and Nisitani, 1978). ................................... 45 2.10 Inclusion type at fracture origin of 0.35% low carbon alloy steel (JIS SCM435) at three different rolling ratios under longitudinal and trans- verse loading (Makino, 2006). 45 2.11 Tensile test results for EM 14462 duplex stainless steel as a function of specimen orientation (Mateo et al, 2003). 46 ix 2.12 Measured residual micro and macro stresses in SAF 2304 steel (Mover- are and Oden, 2002). 46 2.13 Effect of loading mode and specimen orientation on the fatigue life of super duplex stainless steel 2507 (Stolarz, 2006). 46 2.14 Tensile properties of a micro-alloyed steel with ferrite-pearlite struc- tures (Suzuki, 1991). 47 2.15 Mechanical properties of a low carbon rolled steel with remarkable anisotropic laminated ferrite-pearlite micro-structure (Nisitani and Kage, 1984). ................................... 47 3.1 Chemical compositions of the SAE 4140 steels with high, low and ultra low sulfur content (courtesy of Macsteel, Monroe Division). 113 3.2 Residual stress summary (courtesy of Cummins Engines). 113 3.3 Microstructural properties of transverse sample 4140 steel (courtesy of Macsteel, Monroe Division). 114 3.4 Monotonic properties of SAE 4140 steel with different sulfur levels, at different hardnesses, and in different directions.