j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3

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Temperature-dependent deformation and fracture

properties of low-carbon martensitic steel in
different stress states

€nemann a,
Zhen Zhang a, Fuhui Shen a,*, Hanqing Liu b, Markus Ko
a
Sebastian Münstermann
a
Integrity of Materials and Structures, Steel Institute, RWTH Aachen University, Intzestraße 1, 52072, Aachen,
Germany
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan

article info abstract

Article history: The temperature-dependent ductile-brittle transition (DBT) in low-carbon martensitic steel
Received 26 April 2023 is investigated in different stress states. To capture the effects of the stress state, tensile
Accepted 7 June 2023 tests have been performed with flat specimens and three-point bending tests have been
Available online 10 June 2023 conducted with Charpy specimens at dynamic (impact) and quasi-static loading rates,
covering a broad temperature range of 77 Ke423 K. The results reveal that ductile-brittle
Keywords: transition temperature (DBTT) is significantly affected by stress triaxiality, wherein the
Martensitic steel transition temperature in uniaxial tension is ~142 K lower than that in plane strain con-
Fracture dition of Charpy specimens. The energy absorption capacity in the ductile resistance
DBTT domain during three-point bending tests is sensitive to the loading rate. Moreover, dy-
Loading rate namic strain aging poses a decrease in ductile resistance upon quasi-static loading when
Stress state the temperature exceeds 323 K and thus without a specific upper shelf plateau. Tensile
strength and ductility tend to increase with decreasing temperature, and the associated
failure mode changes from shear-dominated to nearly pure tension due to the specific
discrepancy of temperature influence on the critical normal and shear strengths, wherein
the formation of shear bands that dominate the tensile deformation could be strictly
inhibited by the formation of nanoscale dislocation cells based on dislocation analysis. The
failure mechanisms in tensile tests correlate with the tensile specimens' macroscopic
fracture angle. In the end, a new local parameter is proposed for temperature-dependent
toughness estimation in tensile tests.
© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

martensitic steels used in developing energy-efficient and

1. Introduction wear-resistant structural components in the tool industry [1].
However, one of the long-standing issues in bcc metals is the
Strength and toughness are key mechanical properties of transition of deformation and fracture behaviors with
body-centered cubic (bcc) metals, especially for low-carbon

* Corresponding author. RWTH Aachen University, Germany

E-mail address: fuhui.shen@iehk.rwth-aachen.de (F. Shen).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2023.06.070
2238-7854/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1932 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3
temperature [2,3]. Below a critical temperature, referred to as
ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT), the energy
required to activate dislocation emission at the crack tip
manifests a sudden change from below the energy required
for cleavage to above that energy, resulting in a transition
from ductile deformation to brittle fracture [4e6]. This limits
the temperature window for the utilization of bcc metals to
some extent, and suggests that the temperature-dependent
ductile-brittle transition (DBT) can be traced back to
the dislocation activities. Since the substructures of
low-carbon martensitic steels are mainly dislocations, the
dislocation activities are more pronounced compared with
other bcc metals, but tend to be suppressed at lower temper-
atures [7,8].
Conventionally, the DBTT is evaluated by means of
impact tests with standard V-notch Charpy specimens
(55
10
10 mm3 in size) [9e12]. Moreover, the impact
toughness degradation can be reflected not only in an upward
shift of the transition temperature between brittle and ductile
domains but also in the decrease of crack resistance within
the ductile domain [13]. External conditions, likewise loading
rate, is a crucial factor affecting DBT. As the loading rate in-
creases, a high transition temperature can be expected, as
well as a high upper shelf plateau in the ductile domain
[14,15]. The effects of stress state on ductile fracture have been
intensively investigated for many engineering materials
[16e19]. At the temperature of liquid nitrogen, stress-state-
dependent DBT is also observed by Shen et al. [20,21], and
they concluded that the failure mode switches from cleavage
to shear with decreasing stress triaxiality. So far, the effect of
stress triaxiality on the temperature-dependent DBT of low-
carbon martensitic steels still remains elusive.
In addition to the primary mechanisms of void nucleation,
growth and coalescence, ductile fracture may also be facili-
tated by potential shear localization even with no shear
component in the remote loading when experiencing pure
tensile loading [22]. The shear localization leads to a self-
focusing concentration of plastic strain, giving rise to pre-
mature fracture [23]. On the other hand, cleavage fracture
surface, characterized by profuse facets, tends to be normal to
the maximum principal stress on a macroscopic scale. As
such, it can be expected that shear localization can be grad-
ually suppressed, accompanying the DBT until being roughly
eliminated. For instance, Ji et al. [24] reported that ductile
fracture is triggered by shear localization along the maximum
shear stress plane (45 ) at temperatures from 293 K to 123 K,
while cleavage fracture takes place along the maximum
normal stress plane (90 ) at 77 K. However, the fracture angle
mostly deviates from 45 when the ductile fracture occurs in a
localized shear deformation manner [25e27]. Jiang et al. [28]
studied the tensile properties of a medium-entropy alloy in a
temperature range of 298e1273 K and found that the fracture
angle could exceed 45 and varies with temperature, accom-
panied by the variation of microstructure. The macroscopic
fracture behavior is always sensitive to the underlying defor-
mation mechanism. To date, the DBT of low-carbon
martensitic steels has been well documented [5,29e34]. In
contrast, few insightful investigations address the relation-
ship between DBT and macroscopic fracture angle and un-
derlying microstructural variation.
In this work, tensile and three-point bending tests covering
a wide temperature range are carried out to understand DBTT
at low and high stress triaxiality conditions. The loading rate
effect on the transition temperature of low-carbon martens-
itic steel is investigated by comparing the experimental re-
sults implemented via three-point bending tests at different
loading rates. A fundamental understanding of the mecha-
nism dominating the DBT is involved in terms of fracture
angle, dimple fraction and dislocation activity, and the stress
state effect on the transition temperature is further discussed.
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. Material and specimen preparation
The as-received material utilized in this work is an 8 mm thick
martensitic steel plate. The plate was austenitized at 1223 K
for 15 min, followed by water quenched to room temperature
and subsequently tempered at 473 K for 60 min to eliminate
residual stress that developed during the quenching process.
The chemical composition (wt%) of the alloy determined by
wet chemical analysis is tabulated in Table 1.
At the position corresponding to the 1/3 of the thickness,
2 mm thick sheets were cut from the plate, from which flat
dog-bone-shaped tensile specimens with a gauge section of
50 mm in length, 12.5 mm in width, and 2 mm in thickness
were manufactured along the rolling direction (RD). Due to the
limited thickness of the plate, V-notch Charpy specimens (a
central 45 V-notch of 2 mm depth and a 0.25 mm notch root
radius) of a 55
10
7 mm3 in size were used for three-point
bending tests, and crack propagation direction was perpen-
dicular to the RD of the plate. In addition, all specimens were
extracted by wire-cut electrical discharge machining, and the
specimen surface was prepared by mechanical grinding (up to
1200 SiC grit sandpaper) to control the surface roughness.
2.2. Mechanical property tests
2.2.1. Tensile test
Uniaxial tension tests were carried out at various tempera-
tures (373 K, 297 K, 233 K, 193 K, 153 K, 133 K and 77 K) under
quasi-static loading (strain rate of 1.0
104 s1) by a universal
tensile machine (Zwick/Roell Z250) according to DIN EN ISO
6892-1/2/3 standards. The targeted temperature was achieved
with induction heating or liquid nitrogen cooling, and a
thermocouple was attached to the specimen to monitor the
surface temperature. For each temperature, at least two par-
allel tests were conducted. All specimens were immersed in
the targeted temperature environment for 15 min prior to the
experiment. An extensometer along the length direction was
applied to record the longitudinal strain during the tensile
deformation.
2.2.2. Three-point bending test
Dynamic three-point bending tests were conducted over a
temperature range of 133 Ke423 K at a loading rate of
3.3
105 mm/min by a pendulum impact testing machine
(PSW 15/30) with a 300 J capacity following the ASTM E23
standard. Quasi-static three-point bending tests were carried
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3 1933

Table 1 e Chemical composition of the martensitic steel, wt %.

C Mn Si Cr Al Ni Ti Nb P Fe
0.173 1.420 0.407 0.347 0.041 0.029 0.027 0.013 0.012 Bal.

out on a 400 kN Instron servohydraulic tester at the same
temperatures, and a prescribed cross-head speed of 0.1 mm/
min was applied. Charpy specimens for dynamic and quasi-
static tests were held in a thermal insulation chamber for
15 min in advance. Experiments were performed three times
for each testing condition to ensure accuracy.
2.3. Microstructure characterization
Rolling-transverse plane of the specimens was ground,
polished, and etched with Nital reagent (3 wt% HNO3, 97 wt%
ethanol). Metallic microstructure observation and
fractographic analysis were conducted with a scanning
electron microscope (SEM, Carl Zeiss Microscopy Gmbh). An
orientation map was collected using the SEM equipped with
a Channel 5 electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)
system with a step length of 150 nm at 20 kV. Element
identification of the inclusion was executed by an Oxford
Instruments energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detector.
To unravel the deformation mechanism, microstructures
neighboring to the fracture surface of broken tensile speci-
mens were analyzed with a transmission electron micro-
scope (TEM, FEI Talos F200X) operated at an accelerating
voltage of 200 kV.
3. Results
3.1. Microstructures
The as-received low-carbon (<0.6 wt%) martensitic steel has a
typical fine lath substructure of the sub-millimeter scale, as
shown in Fig. 1a and b. Pole figure (PF) in Fig. 1c shows that
there is no pronounced crystallographic texture in the inves-
tigated material. Fig. 1d depicts a general view of kernel
average misorientation (KAM) map with a striking feature that
rich coarse-lath domains exhibiting relatively lower KAM
values are separated from the matrix. Besides, the coarse-lath
domain is softer than the surroundings due to its less dis-
facets located, larger size and higher auto-tempering [35].

Fig. 1 e Microstructure of the material characterized by SEM and EBSD analysis: (a) lath martensitic microstructure; (b) IPF
orientation map; (c) (001), (110) and (111) PFs; (d) KAM map. RD and TD are rolling direction and transverse direction,
respectively.
1934 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3

Fig. 2 e Uniaxial tensile engineering stress-strain curves (a) and corresponding fracture angle (b) of the material tested at
373 K, 297 K, 233 K, 193 K, 153 K, 133 K and 77 K.

3.2. Tensile properties and fracture angle denotes a better toughness [37,38]. However, as listed in Table
2, the UTS
TE product of the material increases with
The engineering stress-strain curves of as-received low-car- decreasing temperature, which contradicts the well-
bon martensitic steel across a wide temperature range of understood DBT phenomena in bcc steels [2,33]. Therefore,
77e373 K are illustrated in Fig. 2a. The tensile properties, the macroscopic indicator (UTS
TE) is not a suitable variable
including yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), to describe the temperature-dependent fracture resistance of
uniform elongation (UE) and total elongation (TE), are sum- the material.
marized in Table 2. As shown in Fig. 2a, all curves exhibit high The fracture angle q between the tensile direction and the
elastic limit, continuous yielding and weak strain hardening. fracture plane was examined for all tensile specimens at room
Both strength and uniform elongation are temperature- and cryogenic temperatures. The variation of fracture angle
dependent and tend to increase with decreasing tempera- with temperature is presented in Fig. 2b, along with the
ture, which is in alignment with the experimental findings in representative macroscopic failure modes of tensile samples.
other tempered martensitic steels [13,29,30]. When the testing It is depicted that the specimens tested at temperatures of
temperature decreases from 373 K to 77 K, the YS and the UTS 297 K, 233 K, 193 K and 153 K ruptured by shearing at different
are increased by 27.1% and 23.4%, respectively. The TE is fracture angles of about 65 , 67 , 68.5 and 70 , respectively,
progressively increased from 5.7% to 10.8% as the temperature rather than the maximum shear stress direction (45 ). This
drops from 373 K to 133 K. At 77 K, the TE is declined slightly to implies that both normal stress and shear stress affect the
9.9%. Therefore, no clear evidence of DBT is observed in the fracture behaviors in these cases, and with decreasing tem-
martensitic steel when only the tensile ductility is considered. perature, the normal stress effect is enhanced since the de-
It is also worth noting that the serrated stress-strain curve at viation of the fracture angle from 45 becomes larger.
373 K demonstrates the advent of the dynamic strain aging Furthermore, at temperatures of 133 K and 77 K, the fracture
(DSA) phenomenon, which is prevailing in alloys containing a plane is almost perpendicular to the tensile direction with
low concentration of carbon in the temperature range of fracture angles of about 89.5 and 89 , respectively. This in-
approximately 373 Ke573 K [36]. The toughness of sheet dicates that the tension (mode I), instead of the shear (mode
metals can be represented by a combination of tensile II), dominates the specimen rupture. However, due to the
strength and total elongation, and a larger product of UTS
TE significant plastic deformation and slight shear localization, a
small deviation from 90 exists in the fracture angle at 133 K
and 77 K, which can be attributed to the difference of local
deformation behavior such as necking. Additionally, the shear
Table 2 e Mechanical properties of the investigated
material at different temperatures. trace marked with a black dashed line on the specimen at
133 K in Fig. 2b further corroborates the existence of the
Temperature, K YS, MPa UTS, MPa UE, % TE, % UTS
TE,
competition between normal stress and shear stress during
GPa‧%
tensile deformation until fracture. Accordingly, the transition
373 1194 1372 3.3 5.7 7.8
of failure mode from shear-to tension-dominated can be well
297 1240 1411 3.7 7.3 10.3
233 1287 1447 4.0 8.4 12.2
captured by the change in fracture angle of tensile specimens
193 1297 1458 4.6 8.9 13.0 with decreasing temperature. The correlation with underlying
153 1348 1483 4.8 9.5 14.1 failure mechanisms will be discussed in the following. Note
133 1371 1498 5.1 10.8 16.2 that, due to the DSA effect at 373 K, the shear trace along the
77 1518 1693 5.7 9.9 16.8 thickness direction is also visible in Fig. 2b. The detailed and
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3 1935

Fig. 3 e Force-displacement curves (upper) and energy absorption (lower) of dynamic (a, c) and quasi-static (b, d) three-point
bending tests covering the temperature range from 133 K to 423 K.

systematic investigation of this unique spatial failure mode is
not carried out as the macroscopic failure modes at elevated
temperatures are beyond the scope of this study.
3.3. Three-point bending properties and energy
absorption
Representative force-displacement curves of three-point
bending tests performed at dynamic and quasi-static loading
rates are shown in Fig. 3a and b. Regarding the V-notch Charpy
specimen, one criterion for distinguishing brittle and ductile
fracture from the force-displacement curve is whether the
force reversal site occurs, i.e., the point where dF=ds ¼ 0 (dF
and ds are the increments of force and displacement,
respectively) [39]. For dynamic tests, the specimens exhibit no
significant plastic deformation up to 273 K and rupture
abruptly, showing a brittle fracture behavior without a force
reversal site. As the temperature rises to 297 K, the curve
preceding an abrupt drop in force depicts a nonlinear ten-
dency, which implies the fact that the specimen deforms into
the ductile domain, and the DBTT range should be between
273 and 297 K. For quasi-static tests, a pronounced bending
curve at 273 K suggests enhanced plastic deformation of the
specimen. According to the same criterion, the DBTT under
1936 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3
quasi-static loading is also preliminarily determined to be
273e297 K. In addition, insets a1 and b1 indicate the force
required for crack propagation reaches its peak value at
temperatures close to the transition temperature domain. To
the best of the authors’ knowledge, increasing loading rates
can significantly shift the DBTT toward higher values
[14,40,41]. However, no drastic effect of the loading rate on the
DBTT is found in the investigated material, which may be
ascribed to the weak strain rate sensitivity on failure mecha-
nisms of the full lath martensite structure. Further fracture
morphology inspection will be presented in section 3.4 to gain
a better insight into the transition temperature.
An important perspective in evaluating the macroscopic
mechanical properties of steels is energy absorption. On the
basis of the maximum force, fracture total energy (Et ) can be
divided into two parts, fracture initiation energy (Ei ) and
fracture propagation energy (Ep ), which are calculated by
integrating the areas under the force-displacement curves
up to the maximum force and from the maximum force to
failure, respectively. The obtained energy absorption at
different temperatures is reported in Fig. 3c and d. The ratios
of Ei =Et and Ep =Et are also shown for different temperatures
under both loading conditions. Apparently, well-defined
lower and upper shelf plateaus and a transition tempera-
ture range are observed at the dynamic loading rate. With
raising temperature, Et and Ep increase, while Ei = Et ratio
decreases. Under quasi-static loading, the transition tem-
perature range is ambiguous from the viewpoint of energy
absorption. Additionally, it is to be expected that a lower
upper shelf plateau shall be obtained in comparison with the
dynamic loading case. However, no specific upper shelf
plateau is observed here because of the decrease in Et at
temperatures above 323 K. This is mainly associated with the
occurrence of DSA at elevated temperatures, rendering the
progressive embrittlement of the material [42]. Specifically,
in Fig. 3d, Ep value increases and then decreases, whilst Ei = Et
ratio declines from 1 to 0.61 as the temperature increases
from 133 K to 323 K, and then gradually increases to 0.82
when the temperature further increases to 423 K, indicating
that the DSA effect accelerates the crack propagation and
eventually deteriorates the impact toughness. The higher
crack propagation velocity is actually caused by the deteri-
oration of the average dislocation slip rate owing to the
interaction of mobile dislocations with C atoms in a highly
dynamic way in the DSA domain [43]. Noteworthy, the
peculiar feature of DSA is high temperature and negative
strain rate sensitivities, and this is the reason why the DSA
effect is pronounced at temperatures above 323 K and pretty
feeble under dynamic loading in this study.
3.4. Fracture morphologies
To determine the DBTT of low-carbon martensitic steel in
terms of failure mechanisms, SEM fractographs of tensile
specimens tested over a wide temperature range of
297 Ke77 K are reported in Fig. 4aef. At each temperature,
high-magnification images are taken from different positions
(1 and 2), where position 1 is in the vicinity of the crack initi-
ation site, as indicated by the white circles in Fig. 4. Both shear
dimples and equiaxed dimples are observed in tensile
specimens in Fig. 4aec, and as the temperature decreases
from 297 K to 193 K, the equiaxed dimples decrease in size.
Note that the shear dimples are generally regarded as evi-
dence of shear fracture [22]. In the more cryogenic case
(Fig. 4d), the fracture surface is mainly characterized by dim-
ples, while a small number of cleavage facets are also visible.
In contrast, at 133 K in Fig. 4e, the fracture surface is domi-
nated by equiaxed dimples and numerous cleavage facets.
The fracture surface at 77 K is composed of almost entirely
cleavage facets (Fig. 4f), despite that a large amount of plastic
flow occurs at this extremely low temperature. In light of the
fractography studies, pure cleavage fracture occurs at 77 K,
and pure ductile fracture occurs at temperatures above 193 K.
133 K and 153 K are located within the DBTT domain in tensile
tests. The observed change in macroscopic shear to tension
failure modes, characterized by the fracture angle as depicted
in Fig. 2b, is consistent with the transition of underlying fail-
ure mechanisms. Hence, instead of relying on tensile ductility,
the macroscopic fracture angle is a simple and reliable indi-
cator revealing the temperature-dependent failure mecha-
nisms in tensile tests.
In the case of the Charpy specimens ruptured under dy-
namic and quasi-static loadings, the insets in Fig. 5aeh shows
the overview fractographs of specimens ruptured at different
temperatures. Fig. 5a and e exhibit ductile fracture with deep
dimples at 373 K, whilst the specimens tested at 297 K mainly
show ductile fracture with shallow dimples in Fig. 5b and f.
Besides, the fractographs of the specimens tested at 273 K and
133 K for both loading conditions are similar, showing brittle
fracture with cleavage facets surrounded by tear ridges with
different lengths (Fig. 5c, d, g and h). It is known that the
deeper or larger the dimple, the more energy is consumed
during fracture, which suggests better toughness. Thus, as can
be seen in Fig. 5a and e, the toughness under dynamic loading
is superior to that under quasi-static loading because deeper
and larger dimples are observed in the former case, which can
be attributed to the synergistic effects of loading rate and DSA
at elevated temperatures. Note that a low loading rate can
weaken ductile resistance capacity in the upper shelf plateau
domain, and DSA has a negative influence on toughness
properties at temperatures above 323 K. In Fig. 5c, an isolated
dimple region surrounded by profuse cleavage facets is trig-
gered by a small globular inclusion. Further analysis by EDS
measurement reveals that the inclusion combines two oxides
(Al2O3, MgO2) and a sulfide (CaS), as demonstrated in Fig. 5i,
indicating that such inclusions in the investigated material
are active sites for void nucleation below the transition tem-
perature. Based on the variation of fracture morphology, the
DBTT of the investigated material in Charpy specimens is
further confirmed between 273 K and 297 K, regardless of the
loading rate.
3.5. Microstructural variation
Post-mortem TEM foils were extracted near the fracture sur-
faces to study the microstructural variation of the tensile
specimens at different temperatures. Fig. 6a shows a typical
bright-field (BF) TEM lath martensite structure with a low
dislocation density of the specimen tensile deformed at 297 K.
A well-defined narrow shear band with ~660 nm in width is
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3
Fig. 4 e SEM images of tensile specimen ruptured at (a) 297 K, (b) 233 K, (c) 193 K, (d) 153 K, (e) 133 K and (f) 77 K. Images in (1)
and (2) are the corresponding regions at a high magnification.
also visible along the direction inclined to the lath boundaries,
as marked by the parallel white dashed line in Fig. 6b. The
formation of the shear band traverses the original lath
martensite structure, introducing a significant heterogeneity
within the associated martensite colony by generating a high
density of dislocations around the shear band (Fig. 6b). This
will, in turn, induce the building of large strain gradients along
the shear band and the vindicated domains against further
deformation, giving rise to the formation of strain localization
and thus the catastrophic shear fracture [44]. When the tem-
perature drops to 193 K, as indicated in Fig. 6c, the lath
structure is still discernible, with extensive dislocation pile-
ups at lath boundaries. Furthermore, to accommodate the
plastic deformation, intersecting shear bands are observed in
Fig. 6d, resulting in a kinked section with ~1000 nm in length
at the intersection domain length. At 133 K, most of the lath
boundaries become fuzzy and cannot be distinguished from
the inner tangled dislocations and dislocation cells, as shown
in Fig. 6e and f. A further decrease in temperature to 77 K could
result in a change in dislocation morphology by generating
1937
profuse dislocation cells with hundreds of nanometers in
Fig. 6g, and the dislocation cells present a homogeneous dis-
tribution over the entire area, which is similar to the other
observations [45,46]. It is evident from Fig. 6h that the dislo-
cation cell is characterized by a cell interior with a low dislo-
cation density, whereas a cell wall is piled up with plentiful
dislocations. Also, one can observe Moire  fringes with sharp
interfaces tangential to the dislocation cell, as marked by the
red dashed lines, which demonstrates local translational and
rotational changes of the lattice fringes during the formation
of the dislocation cell [47].
4. Discussion
4.1. Temperature dependence of fracture properties
The true fracture strain (εf ), derived from the area reduction at
fracture can be evaluated according to Eq. (1) for all the flat
tensile specimens,
1938 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3

Fig. 5 e SEM images of Charpy specimens tested under (a)e(d) dynamic and (e)e(h) quasi-static loadings at 373 K, 297 K,
273 K and 133 K, respectively; (i) EDS analysis of the inclusions in the area enclosed by the red dashed line in (c).


 et al. [48] proposed that the sf can be obtained by extrapolating

A0 w0 ,t0
εf ¼ ln ¼ ln
Af wf ,tf
where A0 and Af are the tensile specimen cross-section areas
before and after testing, w0 and t0 are the initial width and
thickness of the gauge section, and wf and tf are the specimen
width and thickness at fracture, respectively. To compensate
for the necking effects, the tf is obtained by a multiple-
thickness approach according to the ASTM E8 standard. The
averaged εf value at each temperature is listed in Table 3. It is
found that true fracture strain decreases with decreasing
temperature because of the lessening of the shear localiza-
tion, which is a trend opposite to that of the global parameter,
total elongation, in Table 2. This suggests the material tends to
deform more uniformly with decreasing temperature.
At such a large true fracture strain, it is inaccurate to obtain
the fracture strength (sf ) by dividing the fracture load by the
final cross-section area (Af ) due to necking. Hence, Kamaya
(1) the flow curve for before-necking strain with the Swift strain
hardening law of sðεp Þ ¼ Aðεp þ ε0 Þn . The symbols sðεp Þ, A, εp ,
ε0 and n denote true stress, strengthening coefficient, true
strain, material constant and strain hardening exponent,
respectively. Fig. 7aef displays the experimental results and
the true strain-stress curves up to fracture strain extrapolated
by the Swift strain hardening law upon different tempera-
tures. The calibrated parameters A, ε0 and n are given in Fig. 7.
Both A and n increase with declining temperature, while ε0
keeps constant. Accordingly, the sf can be obtained and is also
summarized in Table 3.
Within the temperature range of 77 Ke297 K, the fracture
angles are in the range between 45 and 90 . Following the
Ellipse criterion proposed by Zhang et al. [49], macroscopic
failure modes of high-strength materials (bulk metallic
glasses, steels and nanostructured materials) can be described
[25,26,50e52], which is expressed as
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3 1939

Fig. 6 e BF-TEM images showing the microstructural variation: (a) lath martensite structure with low dislocation density and
(b) shear band formed at 297 K; (c) lath martensite structure with high dislocation density and (d) intersecting shear bands
formed at 193 K; (e)e(f) ambiguous lath boundaries and dense dislocation tangles formed at 133 K; (g) dislocation cells and
 fringes deformed at 77 K.
(h) a typical dislocation cell with Moire

remarkably. The results revealed in Figs. 2 and 8 are also

2
2 illustrated schematically in the first quadrant in the inset of
s t
þ ¼1 (2) Fig. 8a for clarity, elucidating the evolution of the Mohr's circle
s0 t0
(blue circles) and the Ellipse fracture locus (solid curve), i.e.,
where s0 and t0 are the critical normal and shear stresses, and Eq. (2), with decreasing temperature under uniaxial tension.
s and t are the normal and shear stresses on the fracture For instance, the Mohr's circle touches the right boundary of
plane. Considering the uniaxial tension condition, the critical the Ellipse fracture locus at low temperature (at T3), while the
fracture condition assumed by the Ellipse criterion is that the failure point is more close to the shear stress axis at high
Mohr's circle touches the fracture locus in the first quadrant. temperature (at T1). As the discrepancy between s0 and t0
Thus, the critical Mohr's circle can be formulated as decreases with decreasing temperature, the continuously
 2 enhanced normal stress sensitivity leads to a shift of the
s ¼ sf sin q (3) macroscopic failure modes from the shear fracture to tension
t ¼ sf sin q cos q
fracture.
In addition, the failure mode factor is defined as a ¼ t0 =s0 .
Combining Eqs. (2) and (3), a can be deduced as a function of 4.2. Temperature dependence of deformation
fracture angle q and critical shear stress t0 is related to sf and mechanisms and failure modes
a,
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Temperature has an essential effect on the failure mode. In
1 
the present work, the ductile fracture in low-carbon
a¼ 1  cot2 q (4)
2
martensitic steel is promoted by shear localization
sf
t0 ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (5)
2 1  a2
In light of the measured fracture angle q (Fig. 2b) and Table 3 e True fracture strain and stress of the tensile
calculated tensile fracture strength sf (Fig. 7), the change in a specimens upon different temperatures.
with temperature is shown in Fig. 8a. Note that the value of a Fracture strain and stress Temperature, K
becomes significantly large below the transition point (153 K).
297 233 193 153 133 77
The variation of s0 and t0 as a function of temperature is
further plotted in Fig. 8b. It is explicit that s0 and t0 exhibit the εf , - 0.885 0.852 0.804 0.760 0.603 0.501
sf , MPa 1610 1670 1706 1735 1753 1998
same trend, and below 153 K, both s0 and t0 increase
1940 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3
Fig. 7 e Experimental true stress-strain curves of the material and fitted curves (by Swift strain hardening law) at different
temperatures: (a) 297 K, (b) 233 K, (c) 193 K, (d) 153 K, (e) 133 K and (f) 77 K.
associated with shear bands (Fig. 6b and d). Martensite has
an inherently high ratio of ~18% of mobile screw dislocations
from displacive transformations [53]. In Fig. 6, the absence of
the lath feature indicates that the catastrophic release and
movement of screw dislocations in the dislocation sub-
structures from the lath walls lead to the complete collapse
and break of the original lath boundaries and eventually
refine the martensitic laths into the stable dislocation
cells at 77 K for minimizing the total system energy.
Prior studies have revealed that dislocation activity is
sensitive to temperature, and the stable dislocation cell is a
result of the balance between dislocation nucleation and
dislocation movement at lower temperatures [54,55].
From the current results, these changes within the micro-
structure can restrict the effect of shear instability on the
failure of the investigated material, rendering a failure mode
from shear to tension, i.e., the advent of DBT with decreasing
temperature.
4.3. Stress-state-dependent transition of failure
mechanisms
The change in area fraction of ductile domain with tempera-
ture under different testing configurations is further quanti-
tatively analyzed in Fig. 9a. The DBTT can be determined by
the temperature at which the dimple area occupies 50% of the
fracture surface [56]. Therefore, the DBTT is approximately
determined as 140 K in tensile tests, while the DBTT is 282 K in
three-point bending tests. At temperatures above 323 K, the
fracture total energy shows a clear difference between
dynamic and quasi-static bending loadings due to the loading
rate and DSA effects. However, the transition of underlying
failure mechanisms in Fig. 9a exhibits a weak strain rate
sensitivity. Likewise, the void-controlled ductile fracture re-
mains the dominant failure mechanism even with super-
imposed DSA effects. The significant difference in the
transition temperature between tensile and bending tests is
thus ascribed to the specimens with distinguished intrinsic
stress states.
The stress state has a significant impact on the fracture
properties of steels. In this study, compared with the uniaxial
tension (h ¼ 0:33), the thicker V-notch Charpy specimen has
plane strain condition with a much higher stress triaxiality
(h ¼ 1:48) [20], which can greatly restrict the plastic defor-
mation at the crack tip, inducing the higher local principal
tensile stress. Therefore, the DBT in Charpy specimens shifts
upward to a higher temperature. However, for quantitatively
shedding light on the relationship between stress triaxiality
and DBTT, more specimens with various geometries need to
be involved, which is the subject of our ongoing research.
4.4. Toughness indicators under uniaxial tension
It is known that global tensile ductility (uniform elongation or
total elongation) is not a reliable index for toughness assess-
ment because the toughness primarily depends on the local
fracture resistance. Since the UTS
TE product mentioned in
section 3.2 is derived from global tensile properties, it is
also not a good indicator to evaluate the toughness. Some
investigations suggested that the true fracture strain obtained
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3 1941

Fig. 8 e (a) Failure mode factor a versus temperature; (b) critical normal stress s0 and critical shear stress t0 versus
temperature.

Fig. 9 e (a) Change in area fraction of ductile domain versus temperature under different testing configurations; (b) Change
in normalized energy absorption versus temperature under different stress states.

from tensile specimens can be used as an index for toughness

estimation [57,58]. However, the true fracture strain only 5. Conclusions
considers the local ductility while overlooking the aspects of
strength and energy absorption capacity. Thus, from the en- The deformation and fracture behaviors of a low-carbon
ergy absorption viewpoint, the local fracture energy El can be martensitic steel were multiscale studied. The effects of
Rε loading rate and stress state on the DBTT were clarified. The
defined as El ¼ 0 f st dε, where εf , st and dε are true fracture
main conclusions can be summarized as follows.
strain, true stress and the increment of true strain, respec-
tively. The temperature dependence of the normalized tensile
 Both tensile strength and ductility of the low-carbon
energy is shown in Fig. 9b, which is calculated by taking El at
martensitic steel are improved with a decrease in testing
RT as reference. It is clear that the local fracture energy
temperature from 373 K to 77 K.
parameter captures the temperature dependence of the
 The deformation mechanisms show a clear
toughness. When compared with the normalized energy ab-
temperature dependence, which is reflected in
sorption in Charpy specimens under dynamic loading, the
microstructural variation from the formation of shear
pronounced stress state dependence of the DBTT is also
bands to stable dislocation cells with decreasing temper-
observed. In summary, the macroscopic fracture angle, the
ature. The change in defect structures is correlated to the
area fraction of dimples/facets on the fracture surface, and the
transition of macroscopic failure mode from shear to
proposed local fracture energy are all efficient indicators to
tension.
describe the toughness properties under uniaxial tension.
1942 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 3 ; 2 5 : 1 9 3 1 e1 9 4 3
 Toughness cannot be directly inferred from tensile tests
by means of the conventional global indicator (UTS
TE),
whilst the local fracture energy can capture the
temperature-dependent toughness properties. Furthermore,
the macroscopic fracture angle is proven efficient in
revealing the underlying failure mechanisms in tensile tests.
 The activation of the DSA at elevated temperatures has a
negative influence on energy absorption in quasi-static
three-point bending tests, rendering a decrease in energy
absorption with increasing temperature and thus without
an upper shelf plateau.
 The DBTT is significantly affected by stress states, while
the strain rate effect is weak. The transition temperature
is shifted toward higher values with increasing stress
triaxiality.
Author contributions
Zhen Zhang: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation,
Methodology, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing e
original draft.
Fuhui Shen: Conceptualization, Supervision, Project
administration, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation,
Visualization, Writing e review & editing.
Hanqing Liu: Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation,
Visualization, Writing e review & editing.
Markus Ko € nemann: Resources, Funding acquisition,
Writing e review & editing.
Sebastian Münstermann: Supervision, Resources, Funding
acquisition, Writing e review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
The financial support for the project (IGF.-Nr. 21094N/FOSTA
P1359) by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs
and Energy based on a decision taken by the German Bun-
destag is greatly acknowledged. The authors would like to
thank the “Forschungsvereinigung Stahlanwendung e.V.
(FOSTA)” and the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller For-
schungsvereinigungen e.V.” for their support. Z. Zhang would
like to acknowledge the financial support from China Schol-
arship Council (Grant No. 202006240048).
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