Stress Relief Cracking in Copper-Precipitation Strengthened HSLA-100 Steel
Abstract
The U.S. Navy is currently developing a new family of high-strength. low-alloy steels which derive a significant portion of their strength from copper precipitation. These highly weldable steels require little or no preheat, resulting in substantial cost savings. The first of these steels, HSLA-80, has been certified for ship construction, but recent studies have indicated some susceptibility to stress relief cracking in weldments. HSLA-100, modification of HSLA-80, is now being considered for several higher-strength naval structures. Stress-relief cracking has not been studied previously in this steel and is the subject of investigation in this work. The steel weldments were loaded below their yield strength, heated to temperature of 550 deg - 650 deg C, and permitted to stress relieve for one hour. At all temperatures, the steel exhibited susceptibility to stress relief cracking in certain stress ranges. Optical and scanning electron microscopy exhibited intergranular cracking which always traversed the coarse-grained region of the heat-affected zone. Stress relief cracking; HSLA-100 steel, Copper-precipitation strengthened steel.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA205936
Entities
People
- Steven A. Mcnutt
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School