Nondestructive determination of tensile properties and fracture toughness of cold worked A36 steel

Tensile and fracture properties of ASTM grade A36 steel have been studied u sing nondestructive Stress-Strain Microprobe(TM) system (SSM), which is dev eloped on the basis of automated ball indentation (ABI) technique. Tests ha ve been carried out on as-received, and cold worked (4, 8 and 12%) material s at several temperatures in the range - 150 degrees C- + 200 degrees C at a constant strain rate. Tensile properties determined from ABI tests agreed well with the results from conventional tensile tests. The elastic-plastic fracture toughness parameter K-JC was estimated from the ABI data. As expe cted, cold working resulted in increase in strength, decrease in fracture t oughness and increase in ductile to brittle transition temperature. ABI is a reliable nondestructive technique for determining tensile and fracture pr operties of materials and has potential applications in the nuclear industr y particularly to determine toughness degradation due to aging in service. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.