Effect of prestrain on stretch-zone formation during ductile fracture of Cu-strengthened high-strength low-alloy steels

The effects of prestrain on the ductile fracture behavior of two varieties of Cu-strengthened high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels have been investigated through stretch-zone geometry measurements. It is noted that the ductile fracture-initiation toughness of both the steels remained unaltered up to prestrains of ∼2 pct, beyond which the toughness decreased sharply. A methodology for estimating the stretch-zone dimensions is proposed. Fracture-toughness estimations through stretch-zone width (SZW) and stretch-zone depth (SZD) measurements revealed that the nature of the variation of ductile fracture toughness with prestrain can be better predicted through SZD rather than the SZW measurements. However, for the specimen geometries and prestrain levels that were investigated, none of these methods were found suitable for quantifying the initiation fracture toughness.