Fracture-Induced Acoustic Emission during Slow Bend Tests of A533B Steel

摘要

The acoustic emission (AE) behavior of A533B steel during fracture testing was investigated. Slow-bend tests were performed using quenched or quenched and tempered Charpy V-notch samples. Tests were also interrupted so as to isolate the fracture processes. From AE measurements and post-test fractographic analysis, the AE signals associated with various fracture mechanisms were classified on the basis of peak amplitude. Tear and shear fractures and dimple formation by microvoid coalescence generated low-amplitude AE events with peak amplitudes typically below 47 dB in reference to 1 uV at the preamplifier input. Quasi-cleavage and cleavage fractures emitted events with a broad range of amplitudes, especially those intense events above 54 dB. Decohesion of MnS inclusions generated AE events with peak amplitudes up to 54 dB and the amplitude distributions showed the characteristic Weibull distribution.