Effect of Tempering and Rolling on Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior of Modified 9Cr-1Mo Steel

In the present work, fatigue crack growth (FCG) behavior of modified 9Cr-1Mo steel has been investigated near fatigue threshold and Paris regime at room temperature (RT) and 650 degrees C. The modified 9Cr-1Mo steel was subjected to normalizing at 1050 degrees C followed by tempering (650-750 degrees C) and warm rolling at 550 degrees C followed by tempering in order to improve its precipitation state and refine microstructure. The microstructural parameters such as grain size, block size, lath width and precipitate size were examined and correlated with FCG and tensile properties of investigated samples. The results showed that decreasing tempering temperature significantly reduces the fatigue threshold at RT while increases the yield strength at elevated temperature (i.e., 650 degrees C). Increase in fatigue threshold is found to increase with the increase in block size, whereas high density of fine precipitates contributed the high temperature strength. The FCG rate in Paris regime was less affected by heat treatment and rolling process at RT. However, rolled sample tested at 650 degrees C shows a decrease in FCG rate as compared to heat-treated samples. In terms of higher FCG resistance and yield strength, warm rolling followed by tempering at low temperature (i.e., 700 degrees C) can be considered optimum. For the numerical simulation of FCG behavior, extended finite element method (XFEM) along with Paris law has been implemented in ABAQUS using python script. The simulated FCG behavior is found in good agreement with the experimental results.