Brittle to Ductile Transition in Cleavage Fracture of Alpha-Iron: Experiments and Modeling of Mechanisms

Abstract : In this research the mechanisms of the brittle to dud tile transition of fracture initiated primarily by crack tip processes under both quasi-static as well as dynamic conditions was studied experimentally, and mechanistically modeled. Additional experiments and modeling included the role of grain boundaries in resisting cleavage cracking among grains in Fe-3%Si alloy, also associated with modeling.