Influence of sulfide inclusion on ductility and fracture behavior of resulfurized HY-80 steel

The influence of sulfide inclusions on the ductile fracture process of experimental HY-80 steels having graded sulfur levels from 50 to 500 ppm and heat-treated to different strength levels was studied with respect to mechanical properties, namely, tensile ductility and Charpy impact en-ergy. Sulfide inclusions are found to have deleterious effect on both axisymmetric ductility and Charpy impact properties, whereas the plane strain ductility was found to be less sensitive to sulfide inclusions. The effect of interaction between the inclusion and the matrix and the as-sociated stress strain distribution at the void nucleating sites, which control the fracture process by microvoid coalescence, were discussed in the light of various models to suggest a micro-mechanism of fracture. Other toughness parameters obtained from instrumented impact tests were evaluated and discussed as a function of sulfur content.