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Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
Available
Available online
online at at www.sciencedirect.com
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Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect
Procedia Structural
Structural IntegrityIntegrity
Procedia1400(2019)
(2016)330–336
000–000
2nd International Conference on Structural Integrity and Exhibition 2018
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Fatigue Crack Growth

2nd International ConferenceRate Behaviour
on Structural Integrityof
andHSLA Steel
Exhibition 2018 at

Fatigue Crack GrowthVaryingRateLoadBehaviour

Amplitudes of HSLA Steel at
XV Portuguese Conference on Fracture, PCF 2016, 10-12 February 2016, Paço de Arcos, Portugal
Sachin Bandgara, Varying Loadb, Amplitudes
Chiradeep Gupta Gaurav Raoa, Pranshu Malik c,
Thermo-mechanical modeling
R.N.Singh
Sachin Bandgara, Chiradeep
bof a high
andb,K.
Gupta
pressure
Sridhar
Gaurav
a turbine blade of an
Raoa, Pranshu Malik c,
a airplaneBARC,
NMRL,DRDO,Ambernath-421506,India; gas turbine engine
b Trombay-400085; Western
b
a Naval Command, Indian Navy
c
R.N.Singh and K. Sridhar
a
a
P. Brandãob BARC,
NMRL,DRDO,Ambernath-421506,India; Infanteb, A.M.
, V. Trombay-400085; c
Deus
Western
c
Naval*Command, Indian Navy
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
Abstract Portugal
b
IDMEC, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa,
Steels for ship building applications has to possess adequate resistance
Abstract
Portugalto propagation of fatigue cracks, as majority of the failures
c
CeFEMA,
in service are Department of Mechanical
due to metal fatigue. In Engineering, Instituto
this work, the fatigueSuperior
crack Técnico,
growth Universidade
rate (FCGR)debehaviour
Lisboa, Av.within
Rovisco
thePais, 1, 1049-001
Paris regime ofLisboa,
two
high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels were studied. In particular Portugal
the experiments were directed to reveal the effect of load
Steels for ship building applications has to possess adequate resistance to propagation of fatigue cracks, as majority of the failures
ratio(R)
in service(Tension-Tension) on the Paris
are due to metal fatigue. In thislaw work, constants
the fatigue for the
cracktwo grades
growth rateof (FCGR)
HSLA steels.
behaviourResults indicated
within the Paris that thereofistwo
regime an
increase
high in Paris slope 'm' and decrease in Y intercept 'C' with increase in load ratio for
strength low alloy (HSLA) steels were studied. In particular the experiments were directed to reveal the effect of loadboth the steels. Fractography study was
Abstract
carried
ratio(R)out using SEM at locations
(Tension-Tension) on thecorresponding
Paris law constants to various for values
the two of grades
stress intensity
of HSLA factor in order
steels. to reveal
Results possible
indicated that reasons
there is for
an
acceleration
increase
Duringintheir of crack growth
Parisoperation,
slope 'm' and with
modern change
decrease in R
in Yengine
aircraft ratio
intercept from 0.1 to 0.5.
'C' with increase
components It was found
in load ratio
are subjected that secondary cracks
for both thedemanding
to increasingly are predominant
steels. Fractography
operating study in Steel
was
conditions,
A at a load
carried out ratio
especially the of
using highR=0.1
SEM as compared
pressure turbine
at locations to R=0.5.
(HPT)
corresponding blades.However for Steelof
Such conditions
to various values B,cause
secondary
stress these cracks
parts
intensity towere in found
undergo
factor order at reveal
bothtypes
different
to the load ratios. From
of time-dependent
possible reasons for
the plot of
degradation, crackonegrowth
of 'a'
which vs
is no. of
creep. cycles
A model 'N', it
using became
the evident,
finite elementthe number
method of
(FEM) cycles
was
acceleration of crack growth with change in R ratio from 0.1 to 0.5. It was found that secondary cracks are predominant in Steel for the
developed,same inrange
order of
to crack
be able length
to is
predict
lesser
the for
creepR=0.1 than
behaviour that
of for
HPT R=0.5 for
blades. both
Flight Steel
data A and Steel
records B.
(FDR) Limiting
for a values
specific of ‘∆K’
aircraft,
A at a load ratio of R=0.1 as compared to R=0.5. However for Steel B, secondary cracks were found at both the load ratios. From and ‘K’
provided maxby has
a been obtained
commercial for
aviation
variousplotcrack
thecompany, growth
were
of crack rates
used
growth to'a'‘da/dN’
obtain atofdifferent
vs no.thermal cycles load
and'N', it ratio
mechanical
became for data
steel A and
for
evident, thesteel
three B. of flight
different
number cyclescycles.
for theInsameorder to create
range of crackthe length
3D model is
needed for the FEM analysis, a HPT blade scrap was
lesser for R=0.1 than that for R=0.5 for both Steel A and Steel B. Limiting values scanned, and its chemical composition
of ‘∆K’ and ‘K’and maxmaterial
has beenproperties
obtained for were
obtained.
various crack The data that
growth rateswas gathered
‘da/dN’ was fedload
at different intoratio
the FEM model
for steel A and andsteel
different
B. simulations were run, first with a simplified 3D
rectangular block shape, in order to better establish the model, and then with the real 3D mesh obtained from the blade scrap. The
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
© overall
2019 Theexpected
Authors.behaviour
Published by in Elsevier
terms ofB.V. displacement was observed, in particular at the trailing edge of the blade. Therefore such a
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
model
This is an can
openbeaccess
useful in the
article goalthe
under ofCCpredicting
BY-NC-ND turbine
licenseblade life, given a set of FDR data.
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection
© 2018 The
Selection andAuthors.
and peer-review
peer-review under
Published
under responsibility
by ElsevierofB.V.
responsibility of Peer-review
Peer-review under responsibility
under responsibility of the SICE of the
2018SICE 2018 organizers.
organizers.
This is an The
© 2016 openAuthors.
access article underbythe
Published CC BY-NC-ND
Elsevier B.V. license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Keywords: FCGR; Paris region; HSLA steel; load ratio; Stress intensity factor.
Peer-review
Selection under responsibility
and peer-review of the Scientific
under responsibility Committeeunder
of Peer-review of PCF 2016.
responsibility of the SICE 2018 organizers.

FCGR;
Keywords:
Keywords: High Paris region;
Pressure HSLA
Turbine steel;Creep;
Blade; load ratio;
FiniteStress intensity
Element factor.
Method; 3D Model; Simulation.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 7387116029
Email address: svbandgar123@gmail.com

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 7387116029

Email address: svbandgar123@gmail.com
2452-3216 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Peer-review under responsibility of the SICE 2018 organizers.
2452-3216 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection and peer-review
* Corresponding under
author. Tel.: +351responsibility
218419991. of Peer-review under responsibility of the SICE 2018 organizers.
E-mail address: amd@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

2452-3216 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PCF 2016.
2452-3216  2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Peer-review under responsibility of the SICE 2018 organizers.
10.1016/j.prostr.2019.05.041
 Sachin Bandgar et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 330–336 331
2 Sachin V Bandgar/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

1. Introduction

Ship hull structures and their integrity are of paramount importance for ship building industries as these materials
are subjected to high fatigue loading during operational conditions. This is particularly true for high strength low
alloy steels which are being used nowadays for hulls and superstructures due to their enhanced properties and lower-
cost fabrication practices [Czyryca EJ. (1990)]. High Strength Low Alloy steel (HSLA) or mircoalloyed steel have
properties of plain carbon steel as well as high tensile steels with better mechanical properties, higher load carrying
capacity, lighter weight(High strength to load ratio) and good resistance to corrosion than plain carbon steels. Due to
these factors, HSLA steels are used in heavy constructions like ship building, oil and gas transmission lines, and
offshore drilling platforms. But, majority of HSLA steels are prone to fatigue failure in service [Htayaung (2007)].
Also, it is reported that 90% of mechanical failure is due to metal fatigue.
The fatigue properties of a high strength low alloy steel are governed by its chemical composition, processing
history, microstructural features, nature of loading and the test environment to which they are exposed to in service.
Hence the fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) behaviour in air of two different HSLA steels (with varying
microstructures) at different load ratios are studied in this paper. Of the two HSLA steels, steel A has Ferrite-
pearlite microstructure and steel B has Tempered martensite. The chemical composition of steel A and steel B is
mentioned in table1 and 2.Mechanical properties are mentioned in table 3.

Table 1. Composition of Steel A

Composition C S P Mn Si Cr Ni
Steel A 0.09 0.004 0.004 1.45 0.38 0.07 0.072

Table 2. Composition of Steel B

Composition C S P Mo Si Cr Ni
Steel B 0.073 0.01 0.02 0.28 0.28 0.45 1.88

Fig 1. (a) Steel A-Ferrite+ pearlite ; (b) Steel B-Tempered martensite

Table 3. Mechanical properties of Steel A and Steel B

Material YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) %EI

Steel A 450 + 10 520 + 20 25 + 10

Steel B 655 + 10 720 + 20 15 + 10

332 Sachin Bandgar et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 330–336
Sachin V Bandgar/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 3

There are three basic factors necessary to cause fatigue: a maximum tensile stress of sufficiently high value, a large
enough variation or fluctuation in the applied stress and a sufficiently large number of cycles of the applied stress.
The process of fatigue consists of three stages:
 Initial fatigue damage (stress concentrations) leading to crack nucleation and crack initiation.
 Progressive cyclic growth of a crack (Crack propagation) until the uncracked cross section of a part
becomes too weak to sustain the loads imposed.
 Final, sudden fracture of remaining cross section.

2. Experimental Procedure

ASTM E647 standard is followed to perform FCGR test. The testing was done on make: MTS 100KN machine.
The Compact Tension (CT) specimen is used for FCGR tests as shown in Fig 2. Precracking and actual FCGR test
of the CT sample was done at 10 Hz. The maximum load for all specimens kept constant i.e. 12 KN with different
load ratio 'R'.

Fig 2. CT sample drawing

3. Results and discussion

3.1. FCGR at load ratio of 0.1

FCGR test of steel A was conducted at constant load corresponding to ∆K value of 27 MPa*m0.5with a load ratio
of 0.1. The data obtained from COD gauge and load cell were processed with available post processing software to
generate da/dN vs ∆K. The plotted data of da/dN vs ∆K is shown in Fig 3. The data obtained was smoothened by
sixth order polynomial and then fitted by power law to obtain 'm' and 'C' values. The 'm' and 'C' values are calculated
from the graph is mentioned in the table 6. Similar procedure was followed for obtaining FCGR of steel B with a
load ratio of 0.1. From the table it is evident that there is marginal change in the value of 'm' for steel A and steel B
at load ratio of 0.1, whereas the value of intercept 'C' increased considerably for steel B. The FCGR at R=0.1 is
higher in steel A than steel B for almost same value of crack length at different ∆K, which is shown in table 4 and 5.
Similarly for R=0.5, FCGR for steel A is higher than steel B at different ∆K.
Table 4. Steel A at R=0.1

∆K 30 35 40 45 50

da/dN(mm/cycle) 2.04 x 10-4 3.06x 10-4 4.35 x 10-4 5.96 x 10-4 7.38 x 10-4
a(mm) 16.99 19.978 22.43 24.47 26.12
 Sachin Bandgar et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 330–336 333
4 Sachin V Bandgar/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

Table 5. Steel B at R=0.1

∆K 30 35 40 45 50

da/dN(mm/cycle) 1.25 x 10 -4
3.04x 10 -4
2.79 x 10 -4
4.67 x 10 -4
4.38 x 10-4
a(mm) 17.01 19.97 22.41 24.43 26.16

3.2. FCGR at load ratio of 0.5

FCGR test of steel A was conducted at constant load corresponding to ∆K value of 15 MPa*m0.5 with a load ratio
of 0.5. The plotted data of da/dN vs ∆K is shown in Fig 4. The scatter data obtained smoothened by sixth order
polynomial and then fitted by power law to obtain 'm' and 'C' values. Similar procedure was followed for obtaining
FCGR of steel B with a load ratio of 0.5. From the table it is evident that there is decrease in the value of 'm' for steel
B than steel A at load ratio of 0.5.Whereas the value of intercept 'C' increased by one order of magnitude
considerably for steel B.

Fig 3.da/dN vs ∆K (a) SteelA R=0.1; (b) Steel A R=0.5

Fig 4.da/dN vs ∆K (a) Steel B R=0.1; (b) Steel B R=0.5

3.3. Effect of load ratio

In case of Steel A, FCGR test at R= 0.1 and 0.5 reveals that the value of Paris slope 'm' increases with increase in
'R' ratio. Similar behaviour is found in the case of steel B. However, the increase in the absolute value of 'm' was
found to be higher (around 70% more than that of R=0.1) for steel A which has Ferrite-pearlite microstructure.
Whereas in the case of steel B, the increase in 'm' value was around 50% more than that of R=0.1 which has
334 Sachin Bandgar et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 330–336
Sachin V Bandgar/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 5

Tempered martensite microstructure. As regards it was found that the decrease in intercept 'C' when load ratio was
increase to 0.5 is significant in case of steel A than steel B. This indicates that effect of 'R' ratio is significant for
steel A than steel B.
Table 6. 'm' and 'C' values

Material  Load  Paris  Y intercept(C)

ratio slope(m)
Steel A  R=0.1 2.353 8.59E‐8
Steel A  R=0.5 4.008 5.39E‐10
Steel B  R=0.1 2.223 1.03E‐7
  Steel B  R=0.5 3.363 2.28E‐9

Fig 5.a vs N (a) Steel A at R=0.1 &R=0.5; (b) Steel B at R=0.1 &R=0.5

Fig 6. ΔK vs Kmax (a) Steel A at R=0.1 & R=0.5; (b) Steel B at R=0.1& R=0.5

3.4. Effect of Kmax

In the conventional approach, for a fatigue crack growth to propagate, ΔK is often identified as effective driving
force representing intrinsic material behaviour. However in an Unified Approach, proposed by Sadananda and
Vasudevan [K. Sadananda (2004)], both parameters Kmax and ΔK are considered and they contribute to two crack
tip driving forces . It must be noted that both Kmax and ΔK has a threshold value which must be met for the crack to
grow. From this it can be further deduced that in the case of Paris region, for crack to grow at a given growth rate, a
 Sachin Bandgar et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 330–336 335
6 Sachin V Bandgar/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

limiting value of both Kmax and ΔK must be met as per the stated unified approach. Hence based on the results and
the range of data obtained in our work, plots of two significant parameters ΔK vs Kmax was plotted for various
crack growth da/dN for Steel A and Steel B Fig. 6.
From the plot in Fig.6 (a), in the case of steel A, it is evident that limiting Kmax value for crack to grow at da/dN
= 2x 10-4 mm/c with a load ratio of R=0.1 is 33.06 MPam1/2 and R=0.5 is 50.834 MPam1/2. This indicates the
limiting value of Kmax significantly increases with increasing R ratio. From the experimental results, limiting Kmax
values for other crack growth rates viz. 3x 10-4 mm/c and 4x 10-4 mm/c are also shown in the fig.6. Similar
behaviour of increased Kmax with increasing R-ratio has been observed for Steel B as well.

3.5 Fractographic analysis

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of fractured surface is done at different ∆K to study the effect of stress
intensity factor on crack morphology. It was found that secondary cracks are predominant in steel A at a load ratio
of R=0.1 as compared to R=0.5. However for steel B, secondary cracks were found at both the load ratios. A
representative fractograph of steel A and steel B at ∆K of 35 MPa*m0.5 is shown in Fig 7 and 8.

Fig 7. (a) Steel A at R=0.1at ∆K=35 MPa*m0.5; (b) R=0.5 at ∆K=35 MPa*m0.5

Fig 8. (a) Steel B at R=0.1 for ∆K=35 MPa*m0.5; (b) at R=0.5 for ∆K=35 MPa*m0.5

4. Conclusion

 Results indicated that there was increase in Paris slope 'm' and decrease in Y intercept 'C' with increase in load
ratio for both steel A and B.
 In respect of fracture mechanics parameters, the value of 'm' was 70% more and around 50% more than that of
336 Sachin Bandgar et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 330–336
Sachin V Bandgar/ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 7

R=0.1 in case of steel A and steel B respectively.

 In the case of intercept 'C', it was found that the decrease in intercept 'C' when load ratio was increase to 0.5 is
significant in case of steel A than steel B.
 Limiting values of Kmax and ∆K for various crack growth rates has been found for steel A and steel B.
 From fractography study, it was found that secondary cracks are predominant in steel A at a load ratio of R=0.1
as compared to R=0.5. However for steel B, secondary cracks were found at both the load ratios.
 Number of cycles for a given crack length was found to be lesser for R=0.1 than that of R=0.5 for both steel A
and steel B.
 Fatigue crack growth rate was found to be higher for steel A than steel B at both load ratio R=0.1 and 0.5.

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