Effects of Austenitic Grain Size & Other Factors on the Brittle Failure of Mild Steel

Abstract

The manifestation of rittle fracture in mild steel fabricated structures has been known for sometime but came into the lime-light following the failure during the last war, of all-welded American-built ships very often into two halves. In this short paper the importance of the subject has been stressed in relation to Indian conditions. Various factors which contribute to brittle fracture of mild steel have been reviewed and those which reduce the propensity towards brittle failure, like the austenitic grain size of steel and manganese carbon ratio, have been discussed at some length. The effects of stress raisers and constraint provided by the surrounding metal in developing triaxial, volumetric tensional stresses leading to brittle failure of mild steel have been out-lined.