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Fe-based oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels are oriented to applications where high operating temperatures and good corrosion resistance is paramount. However, their use is compromised by their fracture toughness, which is lower than other competing ferritic-martenstic steels. In addition, the route required in manufacturing these alloys generates texture in the material, which induces a strong anisotropy in properties. The V-notched Charpy tests carried out on these alloys, to evaluate their impact toughness, reveal that delaminations do not follow the path that would be expected. There are many hypotheses about what triggers these delaminations, but the most accepted is that the joint action of particles in the grain boundaries, texture induced in the manufacturing process, and the actual microstructure of these alloys are responsible. In this paper we focused on the actual role of crystallographic texture on impact toughness in these materials. A finite elements simulation is carried out to solely analyze the role of texture and eliminate other factors, such as grain boundaries and the dispersed particles. The work allows us to conclude that crystallographic texture plays an important role in the distribution of stresses in the Charpy specimens. The observed delaminations might be explained on the basis that the crack in the grain, causing the delamination, is directly related to the shear stresses T12 on both sides of the grain boundary, while the main crack propagation is a consequence of the normal stress to the crack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to analyse the effect of adding Al on the non-steady pearlite growth occurring in a Fe-C-Mn system. The results are discussed in terms of the partitioning of elements across the austenite/ferrite and austenite/cementite interfaces, and the modification of the pearlite driving force related to the change in carbon activity in austenite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ductile-to-brittle transition (DBT) behavior of two similar Fe-Cr-Al oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) stainless steels was analyzed following the Cottrell-Petch model. Both alloys were manufactured by mechanical alloying (MA) but by different forming routes. One was manufactured as hot rolled tube, and the other in the form of hot extruded bar. The two hot forming routes considered do not significantly influence the microstructure, but cause differences in the texture and the distribution of oxide particles. These have little influence on tensile properties; however, the DBT temperature and the upper shelf energy (USE) are significantly affected because of delamination orientation with regard to the notch plane. Whereas in hot rolled material the delaminations are parallel to the rolling surface, in the hot extruded material, they are randomly oriented because the material is transversally isotropic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]