An analysis of impact testing of high strength low-alloy steels used in ship construction

Abstract

Brittle damages have been examined widely since welding became common practice when it comes to carrying out robust structures. Welded structure of the ship hull has to be continuous. Brittle damages that occur on hull structures have always been examined thoroughly. Cracks are most commonly initiated at locations where stress concentrators exist. These concentrators can originate due to flaws that occur during the design phase or due to mistakes that occur during the assembly of the structure. When it comes to failures and damages that occur at ship structures, it has been noticed that damages due to brittleness practically always happen at low temperatures. Impact test analysis is significant due to the fact that it replicates the ductile to brittle transition of steel in practically identical range of temperatures for all ship structures. Impact of ductile-brittle transition temperature is an important factor especially because there have been many ship failures and damages in history. In ship structures made of welded joints of high strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels with their segments (parent metal, weld metal and heat-affected-zone), the toughness test determines the tendency of steel to brittle fracture, respectively the tendency to increase brittleness during exploitation. Parameters obtained by testing the properties of plasticity are the fundamental for the composition of ship structures with the aim of realize strengths under tested load. The test results of high strength low-alloy steel toughness assessment at different test temperatures show that temperature significantly affects the impact toughness of steels and their alloys.