Fracture Characterization of Steels by Means of the Small Punch Test

A hot rolled API X-70 steel plate and its heat-affected zone (the region with the maximum hardness and lowest toughness of the welded joint made using this steel) were employed to obtain the material's room temperature elasto-plastic fracture toughness, J(Ic), by means of small punch tests (SPTs) using both conventional un-notched samples and longitudinally-notched SPT specimens. In the latter case, the notches were manufactured by micromachining different notch depth-to-thickness ratios (a/t = 0.3 and 0.4). The representative toughness parameter used with the conventional SPT tests was the maximum strain measured directly in the failed region, while in the case of the notched samples, the consumed energy until the initiation of a crack from the tip of the notch was considered the most useful parameter of choice. The onset of crack initiation was determined directly from the load-displacement plot of each test with the aid of scanning electron microscope observations performed on different samples over which interrupted tests had been conducted. These tests were interrupted at different percentages of the maximum registered load. A simple correlation between the energy consumed until the initiation of crack growth in the notched SPT sample and the critical J value obtained using standard tests (J-R curves) was determined, defining an easy and promising way to derive fracture toughness from miniature SPT tests.