Environment-sensitive fracture

From studies of service behavior and from extensive laboratory investigations, the well-established terms stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) and corrosion fatigue have been shown to relate to a continuum of failure modes classified as environment-sensitive fracture. In many environments, the addition of stress, with associated strains, introduces a variable that can result in brittle failure in the sense of very limited plastic flow in otherwise ductile materials such as the stainless steels. Environment-sensitive fractures propagate at an advancing crack tip at which, simultaneously, the local stresses can influence the corrosion processes, and the corrosion can influence the crack-opening processes. Since these processes proceed by kinetic mechanisms, they are time and stress dependent with the result that the crack propagation rate can become very sensitive to the stress application rates. Conventional SCC usually has been associated with static stress, but this is seldom realized 

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Silcock, J. M. and Swann, P. R., from Environment-Sensitive Fracture of Engineering Materials, Edited by Z. A. Foroulis, TMS-AIME, Warrendale, Pa, 133 (1979)... 

Pao, P. S., Wei, W. and Wei, R. P., Effect of frequency on fatigue crack growth response of AISl 4340 steel in water vapour , Proc. of Environment Sensitive Fracture of Engineering Materials, 24-26 Oct. 1977, Chicago, USA, The Metallurgical Society of the AIME, pp. 565-580 (1977)... 

Spcidcl, M. O., Design against environment sensitive fracture , Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, Cambridge, UK, 20-24 Aug. 1979, Vol. l,pp. 109-37, Pergamon Press (1980)... 

The activities of the Working Parties cover corrosion topics associated with inhibition, education, reinforcement in concrete, microbial effects, hot gases and combustion productions, environment sensitive fracture, marine environments, refineries, surface science, physico-chemical methods of measurement, the nuclear industry, the automotive industry, computer based information systems, coatings, tribo-corrosion and the oil and gas industry. Working Parties and Task Forces on other topics are established as required. 

Magnin, T., Combrade, P., Environment Sensitive Fracture, in Materials Science and Technology, Corrosion and Environmental Degradation, Vol. 1, M. Schutze (ed.), Wiley-VCH, pp. 207-263 216-318, 2000. 

Parkins, R.N., Prevention of Environment Sensitive Fracture by Inhibition, in Embrittlement by the Local Crack Environment, R.P. Gangloff (ed.), The Metallurgical Society, p. 385, 1984. 

Birnbaum, H.K., Environment Sensitive Fracture of Engineering Materials, Z.A. Foroulis (ed.), American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Warrendale, PA, pp. 326-357, 1979. 

Application of Fracture Mechanics to the Evaluation of Environment-Sensitive Fracture... 

F.P. Ford, Current Understanding of the Mechanisms of Stress Corrosion and Corrosion Fatigue, Environment-Sensitive Fracture Evaluation and Comparison of Test Methods, STP 821, S.W. Dean, E.N. Pugh, and G.M. Ugiansky, Ed., ASTM, 1984, p 32-51... 

Williams, III, D. P., Pao, P. S., and Wei, R. P., The Combined Influence of Chemical, Metallurgical and Mechanical Factors on Environment Assisted Cracking, in Environment Sensitive Fracture of Engineering Materials, Z. A. Foroulis, ed., The Minerals, Metals, and Masterials Society-American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (TMS-AIME) (1979), 3-15. 

Khobaib, M. and Lynch, C. T., Slow-Strain-Rate Testing of A17075-T6 in Controlled Atmospheres, Environment-Sensitive Fracture Evaluation and Comparison of Test Methods, ASTM STP 821, ASTM Intemationtil, West Conshohocken, PA, pp. 242-255. 

Proceedings of the Conference on Low Frequency Cyclic Loading Effects in Environment Sensitive Fracture, Corrosion Science, Vol. 23, No. 6, Peigamon Press, Oxford, U.K., 1983. 

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