Fracture toughness of the lean duplex stainless steel LDX 2101

Fracture toughness testing was performed on the recently developed lean duplex stainless steel LDX 2101 (EN 1.4162, UNS S32101). The results were evaluated by master curve analysis, including deriving a reference temperature. The master curve approach, originally developed for ferritic steels, has been used successfully. The reference temperature corresponds to a fracture toughness of 100 MPa√m, which characterizes the onset of cleavage cracking at elastic or elastic-plastic instabilities. The reference temperature, T ₀, was −112 °C and −92 °C for the base and weld materials, respectively. In addition, the fracture toughness is compared with impact toughness results. Complementary crack tip opening displacements (CTODs) have also been calculated. The toughness properties found in traditional duplex stainless steels (DSS) are generally good. The current study verifies a high fracture toughness for both base and weld materials and for the low alloyed grade LDX 2101. Even though the fracture toughness was somewhat lower than for duplex stainless steel 2205, it is still sufficiently high for most low-temperature applications.