Characterization of heat affected zones produced by thermal cutting processes by means of Small Punch tests

Paper Info

Revista

Materials Characterization

Año de publicación

2016

Tematica

Materiales metálicos

Small punch

Análisis microestructural

Characterization of heat affected zones produced by thermal cutting processes by means of Small Punch tests

Andrés Álvarez, David | García Pemán, Tiberio | Cicero González, Sergio | Lacalle Calderón, Roberto | Álvarez Laso, José Alberto | Martín Meizoso, Antonio | Aldazabal Mensa, Javier | Bannister, Adam | Klimpel, Andrzej |

Abstract

Thermal cutting processes introduce changes in the heat affected zone (HAZ), which can lead to a significant reduction of the service life of components. In order to assess their influence, different cutting processes have been analysed on a structural steel. The characterization of the reduced volumes of HAZ posed a major challenge, since conventional techniques require greater pieces of material. Alternative miniature techniques had to be applied, such as Small Punch tests and microhardness measurements, from which the material tensile properties and fracture toughness values have been obtained. Results show that oxyfuel HAZ exhibit minor alterations of the material, while plasma cutting seems to improve the material tensile properties and fracture toughness. Besides, the suitability and accuracy of the Small Punch technique for similar applications can be derived from this work, turning it into a promising candidate to perform integrity assessments of actual components.

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