The influence of tensile stress states on the failure of HY-100 steel

The failure of an HY-100 steel plate has been examined as a function of stress state using notched and un-notched axisymmetric tensile specimens. The results show that increasing stress triaxiality leads to a rapid decrease in failure strains in a manner that is exponentially dependent on the degree of triaxiality. Two ductile failure mechanisms are identified: a void coalescence process, in which relatively equiaxed voids grow to impingement, and a void-sheet process, which links by a shear instability process large, elongated inclusion-initiated voids. The void-sheet mechanism intervenes and limits ductility at high-stress triaxialities in transversely oriented HY steel plate material, whereas the former process controls failure in longitudinally oriented material. These orientation effects are related to the morphology and alignment of the nonmetallic inclusion stringers that act as the primary Void nucleation sites. Calcium treatments for inclusion shape control improve ductility, especially at intermediate-stress triaxialities, primarily by suppressing the local conditions which give rise to the void-sheet instability process.