Materials Science & Engineering A 712 (2018) 232–239

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Materials Science & Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Investigating of the tensile mechanical properties of structural steels at high T

strain rates
⁎
A.R. Khalifeha, A.Dehghan Banarakia, H. Danesh Manesha, , M.Dehghan Banarakib
a
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
b
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: St37 and St52 structural steel plates were tested in uniaxial tension at room temperature over various strain rates
Structural steels ranging from 0.001/s to 0.1/s. The yield stress, flow stress and fracture behavior of steels were analyzed. It was
High strain rates found that the strain rate has a strong effect on the tensile mechanical properties of St37 steel, while St52 has a
Deformation behavior less sensitive strain rate and that the yield strength of both steels exhibits a higher strain sensitivity rate than the
Constitutive modeling
other mechanical properties. An increase in the loading rate from 0.001/s to 0.1/s led to a %30 increase in the
lower yield strength of St37 steel and an increase of %6 for St52. The equations were derived to express the yield
stress behavior with the strain rate. The ductile dimple fracture was observed in static and dynamic conditions;
however, increasing the strain rate resulted in a pronounced cleavage-type fracture in both steels. The St37
fracture strain decreased considerably by increasing the strain rate.

1. Introduction
Due to low cost, excellent reliability and compatibility with most
manufacturing techniques, steel is one of the most widely used in-
dustrial materials [1]. Steel is employed for a wide variety of applica-
tions, including chemical and petrochemical plants, power transmission
components and structures [2,3]. Steel products may encounter high-
strain rate deformation conditions during their production and service
life [4–7]. Using the assumption of rate-independent plastic deforma-
tion in classical plasticity theories may not be appropriate in the design
and construction of elements that made by these materials. The per-
formance of steel moment resisting frames during the 1994 Northridge
and 1995 Kobe earthquakes raised the negative impacts of high-loading
rates on the mechanical behavior and highlighted deficiencies asso-
ciated with the design and construction of steel structures based on
static tensile tests [8–12]. The steel structures high-stressed regions, as
well as the deformed steel bars and wires of reinforced concrete
structures can receive a strain of 0.001/s to 0.1/s under seismic and
impulsive loads [13–15]. In the presence of cracks and stress con-
centration points strain rate can increase up to 1/s, being responsible
for a considerable reduction in the materials toughness [16]. The steel
yield stress and ultimate tensile strength, strains corresponding to these
stresses, and strain hardening rates will be affected by increasing the
strain rate [13,17–20]. Chang and Lee revealed that the annealed A36
structural steel at room temperature shows a 27% increase in lower
yield stress under the loading rate of 0.01/s [15]. Investigations by
Matos and Dodds demonstrated that this steel presents a 45% increase
of yield stress at a strain rate of 1/s and a 65% increase at a strain rate
of 10/s [16]. They found that higher strength steel structures such as
A572 present an increase of 40% in the yield strength at the strain rate
of 10/s [16]. Stainless steel structures have been considered for cor-
rosive elements in chemical plants. The impact and fracture response of
the AISI316L stainless steel subjected to high strain loading were stu-
died by Berling and Slot. Results showed that the flow stress-strain
response of the AISI316L stainless steel depends strongly on the applied
strain rate [21]. The brittle fracture mode was observed in 18Mn types
of steels by increasing in the strain rate of 0.27/s, which is unusual for
austenitic stainless steels [22]. Lee and Lin indicated that the
morphologies and characteristics of both dislocation and micro-
structures of AISI304L are sensitive to the loading rates changes. They
disclosed that increasing the loading rate increases the density of dis-
locations, thereby increasing the flow stress at a given strain rate [23].
In this study, the effects of static and earthquake-type dynamic
loadings on the tensile mechanical properties of a ductile structural
steel, St37, and a higher strength grade, namely St52 have been studied
to compare their responses at the loading rates. The relation of the
combined power law constitutive model was selected to describe the
material response to strain rate variations. The fractography of the
tested specimens under both static and dynamic loading conditions
have also been discussed. The topics could provide some important

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: daneshma@shirazu.ac.ir (H.D. Manesh).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2017.11.025
Received 20 August 2017; Received in revised form 30 October 2017; Accepted 8 November 2017
Available online 09 November 2017
0921-5093/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A.R. Khalifeh et al.
Table 1
The chemical composition of St37 and St52 steels.
Materials Chemical composition (%wt)
Fe C Mn Ni Cr Mo Si
St37 ball 0.131 0.321 < 0.005 0.044 0.005 0.155
St52 ball 0.206 1.36 < 0.005 0.003 0.005 0.485
insights on the structural applications of St37 and St52 steels under
earthquake loading conditions.
2. Experimental procedures
The St37 and St52 carbon steels investigated in the present study
were received in plate form with a thickness of 15 mm. Both steels were
supplied by Isfahan's Mobarake Steel Company (Iran). The chemical
composition of carbon steels has been presented in Table 1. The subsize
tensile specimens with 25-mm gauge length were prepared from hot-
rolled steel plates using wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM)
processes according to the ASTM E8 standard.
The samples were cut in the longitudinal rolling direction for the
evaluation of tensile mechanical properties variation at the static and
dynamic loadings. In order to analyze the anisotropy of the steel plates,
transverse tensile samples were also prepared for testing in the static
condition. The surfaces of each specimen were polished by sand papers
and any WEDM-induced defects were removed from the surfaces in
order to eliminate any potential source of stress concentrations during
the testing processes. In order to ensure the reliability of the test results,
three specimens of each steel were tested for each strain rate condition.
The Static [24] and earthquakes-type dynamic loading [14,15] ranging
from 0.001/s to 0.1/s were conducted using a servo hydraulic testing
machine with a 25 kN maximum load capacity (Instron8800). Micro-
structural evaluations were done utilizing an optical microscopy after
polishing and etching samples with a 2% Nital solution. Scanning
electron microscopy, SEM, was used for the fractography observation of
the failed specimens.
3. Results
3.1. Metallographic examination
The microstructures of the steels in the longitudinal rolling direction
were characterized by optical microscopy, as can be seen in Fig. 1.
Ferrites and pearlites are apparent in both St37 and St52 steels mi-
crostructures. Fig. 1a shows the optical micrograph of St37 carbon
steel. As can be seen, the microstructure of the St37 low-carbon steel
contains approximately 90 vol% ferrite and 10 vol% pearlite. The
average grain size is approximately 42 µm. The coarse grains produced
due to hot working processes can be seen in the metallographic images.
The optical micrograph of St52 carbon steel has been shown in Fig. 1b.
The microstructure contains fine ferrite and pearlite grains, about %70
ferrite and %30 pearlite, elongated in the direction of rolling processes.
The finer grains in St52 microstructure are result of production pro-
cesses [25]. The average grain size for St52 was about 17 µm. The
percentage of pearlite was much greater than that in St52 steel with
respect to St37.
3.2. Mechanical properties evaluation
Representative the engineering stress-strain curves up to fracture at
different strain rates have been plotted in Fig. 2a to demonstrate the
effect of the strain rate on the tensile mechanical properties of St37 and
St52 structural steels. The true stress and true strain were computed
based on the engineering stress, S, and engineering strain, e, of the
Materials Science & Engineering A 712 (2018) 232–239
(a)
P
0.015
0.014
Ferrites
Pearlites
100 μm
(b)
Ferrites
Pearlites
100 μm
Rolling
direction
Fig. 1. The microstructure of (a) St37 and (b) St52 steel.
tensile test as follows:
σ = S (1+e ) (1)
ε = Ln (1+e ) (2)
These expressions are valid only in uniform deformation area of the
engineering stress-strain curves or until the onset of necking [26,27].
The formation of a necked region introduces triaxial stresses, making it
difficult to determine the longitudinal tensile stress accurately [26].
Therefore, only this part of the true stress-strain curve has been con-
sidered, Fig. 2b. The average measured tensile properties have been
summarized in Table 2.
3.2.1. Mechanical properties in the static condition (ɛ̇ = 0.001/s)
Almost all samples show the yield-point phenomenon in which the
material exhibits a characteristic drop in the stress-strain curve at the
end of the elastic region. The upper yield strength, UYS, the lower yield
strength, LYS, and the ultimate tensile strength, UTS, for St37 in the
static loading were 240 MPa, 235 MPa and 387 MPa, respectively. The
yield ratio (LYS/UTS) was 0.61. The values of UYS, LYS and UTS for
St52 steel were obtained as 392, 390 and 613 MPa which are 63%, 66%
and 58% higher than those for St37 steel, respectively. The yield ratio
for St52 was computed as 0.64, which is higher than the value obtained
for St37 steel. The higher yield ratio of St52 permits more reliable
design of steel structures [2]. The static yield drops for St37 and St52
steels were observed as 2% and 0.5%, respectively. The relative yield
drop was followed by a region of almost constant nominal stress with
some fluctuations. Within this region of nearly constant stress, the
plastic deformations take place locally in deformation bands or Lüdders
band. The Lüdders band dimension is not noticeable in the static
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700 at the fracture surface of the specimens. The true fracture strain was
(a) calculated as [27]:

600 εf = Ln (A○ / Af ) (3)

where εf is the true strain at fracture, A○ and Af are the initial area and
500 area at the fracture, respectively.
The obtained results have been presented in Table 2. As can be seen,
the fracture strain for St52 steel is smaller than St37 in static condition.
Stress,MPa

400 In order to evaluate the anisotropy of the rolled-plate products, the

tensile tests were also done on the transverse rolling specimens. Data on
300 the transverse tensile test for St37 and St52 steels in the static condition
has been given in Table 2. The results show no significant difference
St52,0.1/s
between UYS, LYS and UTS of transverse and longitudinal specimens.
St52,0.01/s
200
St52,0.001/s
3.2.2. Influence of dynamic loadings on mechanical properties
St37,0.1/s
Fig. 2 shows the engineering and true stress–strain curves obtained
100 St37,0.01/s for St37 and St52 steels at three strain rates of 0.001/s, 0.01/s and 0.1/
St37,0.001/s s. The results reveal that these steels follow the same general trend. By
0 increasing strain rate, the yield point, tensile strength and flow stress of
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 the steels increase. The most dramatic changes are evident in the yields
Strain points. For the clarification of this phenomenon, the variation of LYS
and UYS of St37 and St52 carbon steels at different strain rates from
800
(b) 0.001/s to 0.1/s have been compared in Fig. 3. Increasing the LYS and
UYS of both steels by increasing the strain rate is clearly visible. It can
700 be seen in Fig. 3, that the effects of the strain rate on the LYS of St37 are
more considerable than those of St52 steel. Considering this figure, the
600 sharpest variation for both steels is seen at the strain rate of 0.1/s in
which the LYS of St37 and St52 presents a 30% and a 6%increase, re-
spectively.
True stress,MPa

500
Another way to express the effect of the strain rate on the yield
behavior of structural steels is the ratio of the yield strength in the
400 dynamic static
dynamic-to-static condition. The ratio of σ LYS /σ LYS for St37 and St52
steels at different strain rates has been plotted in Fig. 4. The results
300 St52,0.1/s
revealed that the lower strength material (St37) has more strain rate
St52,0.01/s
St52,0.001/s
sensitivity than the higher strength grade (St52). The equations which
200 are useful for the predicting of the LYS of steels over dynamic loadings
St37,0.1/s
St37,0.01/s extracted through the fitting of the power law equation on the tensile
100 St37,0.001/s tests data at different strain rates:
For St37 steel:
0 dynamic static
σ LYS /σ LYS = 33.01ɛ̇2 − 1.0659ɛ̇+1.0441 (4)
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3
True strain And for St52 steel:
dynamic static
Fig. 2. The engineering (a) and true (b) stress-strain curve of St37 and St52 at different σ LYS /σ LYS = 0.3931ɛ̇2+0.3924ɛ̇ + 1.0057 (5)
strain rates. dynamic
In which and
σ LYS σ static
denotes dynamic and static lower yield
LYS
stress at room temperature respectively, and ɛ̇ refers to the test strain
condition. The uniform elongation starts at the end of the Lüdders rate.
bands and continues up to the ultimate strength. The stress related to The strain rate effects on UYS of St37 and St52 steels have been
this region is known as flow stress which is higher in all ranges of plotted in Fig. 3. The variations for UYS with the strain rate are more
strains for St52 than St37 steel. Necking started after the σmax and noticeable and show a 46% increase for St37 at the loading rate of 0.1/
during a non-uniform elongation region continued up to the breaking s. Increasing UYS for St52 is much lower and only 15% increase was
point or fracture strain. The fracture strain was determined by direct observed during the dynamic loading of 0.1/s. The upper yield point is
measurement of the initial cross-sectional area and cross-sectional area sensitive to alignment of the specimens in the tensile test [28] and

Table 2
The yield strength, tensile strength, yield ratio, fracture strain of St37 and St52 structural steels at various strain rates.

Materials ɛ̇(1/s) Test Direction UYS(MPa) LYS(MPa) UTS(MPa) LYS/UTS εf

St37 0.001 Longitudinal 240 235 387 0.61 1.12

Transverse 252 249 393 0.63 1.06
0.01 … 266 252 401 0.63 1.05
0.1 … 350 306 422 0.73 0.88
St52 0.001 Longitudinal 392 390 613 0.64 0.92
Transverse 405 396 624 0.63 0.90
0.01 … 398 395 614 0.64 0.86
0.1 … 450 413 627 0.66 0.81

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A.R. Khalifeh et al. Materials Science & Engineering A 712 (2018) 232–239

700 6.7
R² = 1.00
600 6.5

500
6.3
R² = 1.00

Ln true stress
Stress(MPa)

400
6.1

300
5.9 St52
200 UTS St52 St37
UYS St52
UTS St37
5.7 Linear (St52)
100 LYS St52 Linear (St37)
UYS St37
LYS St37 5.5
0 -3.5 -3.2 -2.9 -2.6 -2.3 -2 -1.7 -1.4
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 Ln true strain
Strain rate(1/s) Fig. 5. The linear least-squares curve fitting scheme to determine K and n values for St37
and St52 steels.
Fig. 3. The variation of LYS, UYS and UTS of St37 and St52 steels by the strain rate.

1.40 6.7
R² = 0.9953
6.6
1.30
6.5
1.20 St52
LYS(dynamic)/LYS(stac)

6.4 St37
Linear (St52)
Ln stress

1.10 6.3
Linear (St37)

1.00 6.2
St37
St52 6.1 R² = 0.9149
0.90
6
0.80
5.9
-7.5 -6.5 -5.5 -4.5 -3.5 -2.5
0.70 Ln(strain rate)
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
Fig. 6. The log–log plot of stress versus strain rate (m extracted equal 0.021 and 0.015 at
Strain rate(1/s) strain of 0.15 for St37 and St52, respectively).
Fig. 4. The effects of strain rate on the lower yield stress of St37 and St52 steels.

3.2.3. The effect of the strain rate on flow stress

therefore the lower yield point is a more important factor in the design
and construction of steel structures.
The variation of UTS for St37 and St52 steel with the strain rate has
been shown in Fig. 3. Increasing in UTS is seen by increasing the strain
rate but the amount of variations is not as considerable as that of LYS.
UTS increases by 9% and 2% for St37 and St52, respectively by in-
creasing the strain rate from 0.001/s to 0.1/s. Considering the results,
the UTS has a less strain rate sensitivity than the yield strength for both
steels.
Results on the yield ratio in dynamic conditions for St37 and St52
steels have been given in Table 2. It can be seen from the data that by
increasing the strain rate from 0.001/s to 0.1/s the yield ratio increases
from 0.61 to 0.73 and from 0.64 to 0.66 for St37 and St52 steels, re-
spectively. The effects of strain rate on the yield ratio of St37 steel are
more considerable than those related to St52.
Fig. 2b shows the true stress-strain curves of St37and St52 steels at
different strain rates. The graph reveals that the flow stress of St37 steel
is strongly dependent on the strain rate during the tensile processes,
while St52 has less strain rate sensitivity. The flow stress of both steels
increases by increasing the strain rate. The uniform ductility for St37 is
similar in all loading conditions. This is the balance of the higher work
hardening rate and Lüdering at higher strain rates. Higher work hard-
ening tends to increase the uniform ductility, whereas extended Lü-
dering reduces the uniform elongation. For St52 increasing in strain
rate results in reduction of uniform elongation. Lüdering is not con-
siderable for St52 steel.
A suitable constitutive equation, capable of accurately describing
the flow behavior of materials, is a suitable tool for the engineering
design of steel structures. Thus, the combined power law constitutive
equation fitted on the tensile test data of the St37 and St52 structural

235
A.R. Khalifeh et al.
Fig. 7. Comparison between experiments and the combined power law model at (a) strain rate = 0.001/s, (b) strain rate =0.01/s and (c) strain rate = 0.1/s for St37 steel.
steels toward the strain rate as follows [27]:
σ= C′ɛnɛ̇m
where σ and ε are the true stress and true plastic strain, respectively, n
is the strain hardening exponent, C′ is the strength coefficient, ɛ̇ is the
strain rate and m is the strain rate sensitivity.
A linear least-squares curve fitting scheme was used to determine
constants from the tensile tests, as can be observed in Fig. 5. C′ and n
values of St37 steel for this equation are 870 and 0.3 and those for St52
are1300 and 0.29, respectively. The strain rate sensitivity, m, of the
tested specimens was calculated from the true stress-strain curves at the
strain of 0.15. Fig. 6 shows a log–log plot of the stress versus strain rate.
The slopes of the linear fits give m = 0.021 and m=0.015 for the St37
and St52 steels, respectively.
The comparisons of model fitted to tests data and experiments at
three strain rates of 0.001/s, 0.01/s and 0.1/s have been shown in Fig. 7
for St37 and those for St52 in Fig. 8. The results reveal good agreement
between experiments and the constitutive power law model for St37
and St52 steels. Maximum error observed is less than 5%.
3.2.4. The effect of the strain rate on fracture behavior
The macroscopic images of the failed tensile specimens of St37 and
St52, were tested at three strain rates of 0.001/s, 0.01/s and 0.1/s, have
Materials Science & Engineering A 712 (2018) 232–239
been shown in Fig. 9a–f. Fracture in all specimens is preceded by a
localized reduction in the cross-section that called necking. The longer
(6)
crack path in the static condition, Fig. 9a and d, and the shorter crack
path during the dynamic loading scenario, Fig. 9c and f for St52 and
St37 were seen, respectively. These results depict that the damage of
these structural steels depends on the loading rate.
The fracture surfaces of specimens failed at three strain rates of
0.001/s, 0.01/s and 0.1/s are shown in Fig. 9g–i and j–l for St37 and
St52, respectively. Considering these figures, it is obvious that by in-
creasing the strain rate the fracture surfaces Af of specimens of both
steels were increased. The fracture strain ε f at different strain rates
computed based on the initial cross-section A○ and fracture surfaces at
necking Af using Eq. (3). The obtained results are given in Table 2. The
fracture strain decreases from 1.12 to 0.88 and from 0.92 to 0.81 for
St52 steel by increasing the strain rate from 0.001/s to 0.1/s.
The SEM fracture surfaces of three samples of St37 and St52 at three
different strain rates have been shown in Fig. 10. As can be observed,
the ductile fracture with small and elongated dimples take place in the
St37 specimens deformed by the strain rates of 0.001/s and 0.01/s
(Fig. 10a and b). During the low strain rate loading, the microvoids
were nucleated at the center of the neck, elongated under continued
straining and coalesced to form a central crack [29]. This crack grows in
a direction perpendicular to the axis of the specimen until it approaches
236
A.R. Khalifeh et al.
Fig. 8. Comparison between experiments and the combined power law model at (a) strain rate = 0.001/s, (b) strain rate = 0.01/s and (c) strain rate = 0.1/s for St52 steel.
the surface of the specimen [26]. Fig. 10c shows the fracture surface of
the specimen loaded at the 0.1/s strain rate. Larger dimples and clea-
vage-type fracture surfaces are evident on the fracture surfaces. These
results demonstrate that the fracture mode of St37 steel is highly sen-
sitive to the strain rate. Fig. 10(d–f) shows the fracture surfaces of St52
steel at different strain rates from 0.001/s to 0.1/s. For this steel, the
ductile dimple fracture occurs
due to tensile loadings; however, the amount of plastic deformation
decreases by increasing the strain rate. The SEM micrographs shows
that as compared to St37 steel, the size of ductile dimples of St52 be-
comes larger and narrower during all strain rates, Fig. 10(a–c) versus
Fig. 10(d–f). The micrographs depict that less plastic deformation take
place in the tensile test for this steel in comparison with St37 steel.
Higher values of C and Mn in St52 steel improve the tensile properties
of St52, while this increase trend to cleavage-type fracture modes of the
steel [30].
Considering macroscopic observations, fracture strain calculation
and fractography by SEM, the ductility of both steels decreases with
increasing the strain rate of tensile test. The amount of this reduction is
higher for St37, as compared to St52. The results demonstrate that St37
is more ductile than St52 and the amount of absorbed energy in the
static loading scenario is higher than the dynamic loading condition for
both types of steels.
237
Materials Science & Engineering A 712 (2018) 232–239
4. Discussion
St52 steel shows higher yield values and flow stress under static and
dynamic loading conditions, as compared to St37. There are many
mechanisms attributed to improving the mechanical properties of St52
in comparison to St37 structural steel. Firstly, as can be seen from the
microstructure of two steels (Fig. 1), St52 contains finer grains of ferrite
and pearlites than St37 steel. Increasing the yield stress by decreasing
the grain size is consistent with the Hall-Petch relationship (σy = σo +
kd−1/2), and grain boundary strengthening mechanism [27,31]. This
dependence can be explained in terms of dislocation pile-up at grain
boundaries [27]. The number of dislocations in these pile-ups is pro-
portional to the grain size, d. By increasing the grain size, the number of
dislocations pile-ups increases and hence the stress concentration in the
grain across the boundaries increases. Therefore, with a larger grain
size, a lower applied stress is required for the slip [27]. Second, in-
creasing the yield and ultimate strength of St52 is attributed into the
solid solution role of carbon [32]. St52 contains a higher amount of
Carbon, 0.2%C versus 0.13% of St37. Increasing the carbon content in
steels decreases the mean free path of dislocations, and therefore the
yield and ultimate strength which is dependent on the dislocation path
increases [32].
To explain the effect of the strain rate on the strength, the
A.R. Khalifeh et al.
Fig. 9. The macroscopic images of tested tensile samples (a-f) and tensile fracture surfaces (g-l) of St37 and St52 samples failed at different strain rates.
dependency of the dislocation motion on the strain rate is considered as
shown in Eq. (7) [33].
ɛ̇ = ρbv
where ρ is the density of mobile dislocations, v is the average dis-
location velocity and b is the burger's vector [33]. The dislocation
density increases with strain and v strongly depends on the flow stress
as
v ∝ τm
where τ is the resolved shear stress and m is a constant (m = 35 for
iron).
For carbon steels in which the dislocations can be strongly pinned
by carbon and nitrogen atmosphere [33], the only way that ρbv can be
matched with the imposed strain rate is an increase in the average
velocity, v , yet according to Eq. (8), this can only be achieved at higher
stress levels. Therefore, at high strain-rate loadings the upper yield
point must be increased to compensate for an increase in the imposed
strain rate [33].
The dislocations movement results in a possible quick multiplication
and an increase in their density. This introduces some work hardening
in spite of a drop in average velocity and therefore the flow stress
dominates the flow behavior. This will led to a yield drop and lower
Materials Science & Engineering A 712 (2018) 232–239
yield the point phenomenon [26]. Thus, the stress required to deform
the specimen will be reduced once the yielding begins, i.e. the yield
drop.
(7)
5. Conclusions
The tensile mechanical properties of St37 and St52 structural steels
at room temperature under static and dynamic loadings were examined.
(8) The results obtained can be summarized as follows:
1. The upper yields and lower yield points of both steels are more
strain sensitive than the other tensile properties. The St37 steel are
strongly affected by strain rates where 46% and 30% increase in
UYS and LYS observed with a change in the strain rate from 0.001/s
to 0.1/s, respectively. The increases obtained in UYS and LYS for the
St52 steel are15% and 6%, respectively.
2. From the extensive data extracted from tests on St37 and St52 steels,
equations have been developed which can accounts for predicting
the dynamic loading effects on the lower yield strength of materials.
3. The flow stress of St37 and St52 increase with increasing the loading
rate. Since a constitutive description of structural steels is required
to simulate the flow stress of the material, the relation of combined
238
A.R. Khalifeh et al.
Fig. 10. The SEM images of the fracture surfaces of the failed specimens at different strain rates (a–c) St37 and (d–e) St52.
power law constitutive model was selected to describe the material
response.
4. The fracture strain of St37 and St52 steels decreased by increasing
the loading rate. The amounts of reduction are more pronounced for
St37.
5. The fractography on the fracture surfaces indicated a ductile frac-
ture with small and elongated dimples occurring at St37 specimens
deformed under low strain rates. The larger dimples and cleavage-
type fracture surface were evident for the specimens failed at high
loading conditions. As compared to St37 steel, the size of ductile
dimples at St52 becomes larger and narrower during all strain rates.
Acknowledgment
The present study was supported by Material Science and
Engineering Department of Shiraz University, Iran. The fracture ana-
lyses of specimen were performed at the Razi Center Laboratory. The
collaboration of Material Science and Engineering Department and Razi
Center Laboratory is highly acknowledged.
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