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Monel K-500 is a nickel-based alloy broadly used in several industries such as power generation, aerospace, marine and chemical processing for manufacturing several critical components. During hydraulic applications, the alloy is subjected to different degradation phenomena such as cavitation erosion, slurry erosion and corrosion. The current study assesses the potential of using two HVOF-sprayed nickel-based cermet coatings: WC-10Ni-5Cr and WC-18Hastelloy C to control the slurry erosion of Monel K-500. The coatings were subjected to slurry erosion tests for 90 min at normal (90°) and oblique (30°) impingement angles. It was observed that these coatings significantly reduced the erosive wear in Monel alloy. WC-10Ni-5Cr coating, having relatively better microhardness and fracture toughness has shown minimum erosion losses. At normal impact, WC-10Ni-5Cr coating and WC-18Hastelloy C coating reduced the erosion rate of Monel by 2.3 and 1.6 times, respectively. At oblique impact, WC-10Ni-5Cr coating and WC-18Hastelloy C coating reduced the erosion rate of Monel by 4.75 and 2.4 times, respectively. In-depth study of the erosion mechanism for the investigated materials was conducted using scanning electron microscopy. Ploughing and micro-cutting were the primary erosion mechanisms in Monel alloy, whereas coating spallation and crater formation were the primary erosion mechanisms in the coatings.

Understanding the evolution of dislocations and twinning at the crack front is critical for designing micro-mechanical systems with improved performance. In this work, the dislocation evolution at ...

The present work aims to investigate the role of hydrogen induced blisters cracking on degradation of tensile and fatigue properties of X65 pipeline steel. Both tensile and fatigue specimens were electrochemically charged with hydrogen at 20 mA/cm2 for a period of 4 h. Hydrogen charging resulted in hydrogen induced cracking (HIC) and blister formation throughout the specimen surface. Nearly all the blisters formed during hydrogen charging showed blister wall cracking (BWC). Inclusions mixed in Al-Si-O were found to be the potential sites for HIC and BWC. Slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) test followed by fractographic analysis confirmed significant hydrogen embrittlement (HE) susceptibility of X65 steel. Short fatigue crack growth framework, on the other hand, specifically highlighted the role of BWC on accelerated crack growth in the investigated material. Coalescence of propagating short fatigue crack with BWC resulted in rapid increase in the crack length and reduced the number of cycles for crack propagation to the equivalent crack length.

Short crack propagation under cyclic loading is compared experimentally in hydrogen charged and un-charged SA508 Gr. 3 Cl. I low alloy steel (LAS). This LAS is used in manufacturing of pressure vessels installed in nuclear power plants and is susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement (HE) during operation. Single edge notch tension (SENT) specimens with an initial notch of 85 μm–90 μm are used for this short fatigue crack propagation study. The short crack growth from the notch of SENT specimen subjected to cyclic loading is measured using moving digital microscope fitted on the servo-hydraulic fatigue testing machine. The short fatigue crack growth rate in hydrogen charged SA508 Gr. 3 Cl. I LAS is found to be one order higher as compared to the un-charged subject reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel. Both trans-granular and inter-granular crack propagation is observed in un-charged and hydrogen charged specimens. In un-charged specimens, inter-granular crack propagation along the prior austenite grain boundaries (PAGBs) occurred only when the short fatigue crack encounters the martensite/austenite (M/A) island present along the PAGB. Whereas, in hydrogen charged specimens, inter-granular crack propagation occurred along the PAGBs of large size prior austenite grains and trans-granular crack propagation through the small size prior austenite grains. Strong resistance to short fatigue crack propagation is provided by PAGBs in un-charged specimens whereas, these PAGBs offered negligible resistance to short fatigue crack growth in hydrogen charged subject RPV steel. A new perspective of studying HE in materials by conducting short fatigue crack growth experiments is demonstrated.

Correlating hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon with the metallic microstructural features holds the key for developing metals resistant to hydrogen-based failures. In case of fatigue failure of hydrogen charged metals, in addition to the hydrogen-based failure mechanisms associated with monotonic loading such as HELP, HEDE etc., microstructural features such as grain size, type of grain boundary (special/random), fraction of special grain boundaries; their network and triple junctions can play a complex role. The probable sites for fatigue crack initiation in such metals can be identified as the sites of highest hydrogen concentration or accumulated plastic strain. To this end, we have developed an experimental framework based on in-situ fatigue crack initiation and propagation studies under scanning electron microscope (SEM) to identify the weakest link in the metallic microstructure leading to failure. In-situ fatigue experiments are performed on carefully designed polycrystalline nickel (99.95% pure) specimens (miniaturised, shallow-notched & electro-polished) using a 10 kN fatigue stage inside the SEM. Electron Back Scattering Diffraction (EBSD) map of the notched region surface helps identify the distribution of special/random grain boundaries, triple junctions and grain orientation. The specimen surface in the shallow notched region for both the hydrogen charged and un-charged specimens are then carefully studied to correlate the microstructural feature associated with fatigue crack initiation sites. Such correlation of the fatigue crack initiation site and microstructural feature is further corroborated with the knowledge of hydrogen trapping and grain’s elastic anisotropicity to be either the site of high hydrogen concentration, accumulated plastic slip or both.

Hydrogen Embrittlement (HE) leads to deterioration of the fracto-mechanical properties of metals. In spite of vast literature, it is still not clearly understood and demands significant research on this topic. For better understanding of the hydrogen effect on fatigue behaviour of metals, present work focuses on developing a computational framework for fatigue crack initiation studies in metals in the presence of hydrogen. The developed framework consists of a nonlocal crystal plasticity model coupled with hydrogen transport model to study the fatigue behaviour of hydrogen charged metals. The nonlocal crystal plasticity model accounts for the statistically stored dislocations (SSDs) and geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) in polycrytalline metal. Hydrogen transport model, on the other hand, accounts for diffusion and trapping behavior of hydrogen due to concentration gradient, pressure gradient, plastic strain-rate with dislocations as the only trapping sites along the slip systems. A polycrystalline representative volume element (RVE) with periodic boundary conditions is used in this study. Fatigue crack initiation criterion is proposed for the simulated RVE with controlled microstructure by considering a critical value of the fatigue indicator parameter (FIP). FIP is formulated based on the experimental observations of several crack initiation sites along the grain boundaries, their normal direction with respect to loading direction and the accumulated plastic strain in nickel polycrystalline samples. Developed simulation framework correctly accounts cyclic stress-strain behavior and multiple fatigue crack initiation sites observed experimentally in the presence of hydrogen.

The effect of hydrogen on short crack propagation under cyclic loading in SA508 Grade 3 Class I low alloy steel is investigated. This low alloy steel is used in manufacturing of pressure vessel installed in Indian nuclear power plants. During operation these pressure vessels are subjected to continuous supply of pressurized hot water at 600 K and hence are susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement. In past, research has been conducted on the effect of hydrogen embrittlement on long fatigue crack propagation in this material but, the mechanistic understanding and correlation of hydrogen embrittlement with microstructural features in the material can be understood well by studying the effect of hydrogen embrittlement on short fatigue crack propagation. Short fatigue cracks are of the order of 10 µm to 1 mm and unlike long cracks these short cracks strongly interact with the microstructural features in the material such as grain/phase boundaries. The effect of hydrogen embrittlement on short crack propagation is studied by artificial hydrogen charging of the material through electrochemical process. The single edge notch tension (SENT) specimens with an initial notch of the order of 85 to 90 µm are used to study the short crack propagation. The short cracks in hydrogen charged samples initiated from the notch at lower number of loading cycles as compared to the uncharged notched samples for the same value of applied stress range (Δσ). After initiation, the short fatigue crack in hydrogen charged samples propagated at higher rate as compared to uncharged samples. This dissimilarity in crack propagation behavior is due to the difference in the interaction of short fatigue crack with the microstructural features for a hydrogen charged and uncharged samples.

Histidine is an essential α-amino acid that plays a crucial role in tissue development and helps in the transmission of metallic ions during biological events. However, an abnormal level of histidine in the body is associated with various physiological conditions such as arthritis, liver cirrhosis, kidney diseases, and asthma. Herein, a unique ratiometric fluorescence sensing system has been developed for the recognition of histidine. The sensing system was developed using carbon quantum dots (CQDs) as an energy donor and a rhodamine 6G derivative (HS30) as an energy acceptor unit. Interestingly, upon the addition of Fe(III) into the mixture of CQDs and HS30, the phenomenon of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was observed when excited at 350 nm. The emergence of a strong emission peak at 551 nm on the addition of Fe(III) suggested the formation of a ratiometric fluorescent complex “CQDs–Fe–HS30”. The ratiometric behavior of “CQDs–Fe–HS30” was studied by monitoring fluorescence emissions at 425 nm and 551 nm with an excitation wavelength of 350 nm. Furthermore, “CQDs–Fe–HS30” was employed for the recognition of histidine in an aqueous system. Due to the high affinity of histidine to Fe(III), the addition of histidine to an aqueous solution of “CQDs–Fe–HS30” resulted in the displacement of the Fe(III) cation from the complex, and the simultaneous quenching and enhancement of the emission peaks at 551 nm and 425 nm, respectively, was observed. The developed sensing system was successfully employed for a histidine recovery experiment in human urine samples with satisfactory results. Furthermore, the mixture of CQDs and HS30 was successfully utilized to implement an inhibit logic gate with Fe(III) and histidine as inputs and emission at 551 nm as output.

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an important examination in which around 1 million Indian engineering students register for seeking admission into renowned technical institutions of the country and for finding jobs in state-owned Public-Sector Undertakings (PSU). Through the application of learning analytics and educational data mining, a large dataset of 1039 students was analyzed to gain insights into factors leading to a successful examination.

Understanding hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon that leads to deterioration of mechanical properties of metallic components is vital for applications involving hydrogen environment. Among these, understanding the influence of hydrogen on the fatigue behaviour of metals is of great interest. Total fatigue life of a material can be divided into fatigue crack initiation and fatigue crack growth phase. While fatigue crack initiation can be linked with the propagation of short fatigue cracks, the size of which is of the order of grain size (few tens of microns), that are generally not detectable by conventional crack detection techniques applicable for the long fatigue crack growth behaviour using conventional CT specimens. Extensive literature is available on hydrogen effect on long fatigue crack growth behaviour of metals that leads to the change in crack growth rate and the threshold stress intensity factor range (ΔKth). However, it is the short fatigue crack growth behaviour that provides the fundamental understanding and correlation of the metallic microstructure with hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon. Short fatigue crack growth behaviour is characteristically different from long crack growth behaviour showing high propagation rate at much lower values than threshold stress intensity factor range as well as a strong dependency on the microstructural features such as grain boundaries, phase boundaries, and inclusions. To this end, a novel experimental framework is developed to investigate the short fatigue crack behaviour of hydrogen charged materials involving in-situ observation of propagating short cracks coupled with image processing to obtain their da/dN vs a curves. Various metallic materials ranging from austenitic stainless steel (AISI 316L) to reactor pressure vessel steel (SA508 Grade 3 Class I low alloy steel) and line pipe steels (API 5L X65 & X80) are studied in this work.

WC-NiCr and WC-Hastelloy C coatings were deposited on Monel K-500 substrate by HVOF-spray with an aim to enhance cavitation erosion resistance of the alloy. The cavitation tests were performed for 10 h following ASTM G32-10 standard. Both WC-NiCr as well as WC-Hastelloy C coatings successfully reduced the erosion volume loss of the alloy by 59% and 9% respectively. The relatively superior performance of WC-NiCr coating could be attributed to better combination of its microhardness and fracture toughness. Formation of craters, cavities, and debonding of splats were found to be the signatures of cavitation erosion in the coatings. Whereas, microplastic tearing and microcracks were observed as the primary erosion mechanism in Monel K-500.

Hydrogen is foreseen as a promising energy carrier that can control global warming by reducing CO2 emissions. However, hydrogen is associated with an embrittlement phenomenon that imparts substantial damage to the infrastructure by reducing the ductility, fracture strength, strength bearing capacity, etc., of metallic components. Therefore, understanding hydrogen-induced crack initiation mechanisms in metals are of prime importance. Greater insights into this critical phenomenon are expected if the hydrogen-induced crack initiation can be correlated with the local microstructure and corresponding stress-strain state towards their propensity for hydrogen accumulation. With this motivation, in this work, crack initiation is studied for the uncharged and hydrogen charged nickel specimens during in-situ tensile loading under the scanning electron microscope. By assuming the material to be elastic at low strains, a novel approach is implemented for generating the microstructural stress maps through strain and stiffness tensor extracted at each point in the region of interest on the specimen surface using high-resolution digital image correlation (HR-DIC) and Euler angles (given by electron backscattered diffraction data), respectively. Based on this analysis at low strain, the crack initiation sites for uncharged and hydrogen charged nickel specimens are correlated with microstructural maps of maximum Schmid factor, elastic modulus in the loading direction, hydrostatic stress, von Mises stress, and triaxiality factor. The analysis highlighted two independent factors responsible for hydrogen enhanced decohesion (HEDE) based intergranular failure observed only at the random grain boundaries, (i) strain localization due to hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity (HELP) mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement, and (ii) hydrostatic stress-based hydrogen diffusion to the crack initiation sites. These critical insights thus can help to design hydrogen embrittlement resistant metals. In addition, the novel experimental approach can be used to calibrate advance micromechanical models while providing quantitative estimate of the hydrogen distribution in realistic metallic microstructure responsible for hydrogen-assisted crack initiation with deformation.

Highly selective azophenol-based chromogenic probe was synthesized that gave sharp color change in presence of cyanide. Based on colorimetric response of probe, a simple and economic colorimetric device has also been developed. Recently smartphones were employed for colorimetric analysis however there are number of limitations associated with it. Therefore, colorimeter was built using color sensor (TCS3200) and Arduino microcontroller for quantification of analytes using sensor coated paper chip. Initial colorimetric experiments revealed that sensor coated paper chip gave most linear response for change in the intensity of green component with change in the concentration of the cyanide. Thus, the device was calibrated using sensor coated paper chip and known concentrations of cyanide. It produced a best linear response over the range of 0−20 μM concentration of cyanide with R2 value of 0.9858 and limit of detection was calculated to be 0.86 μM which is lesser than WHO’s permissible limit of 1.9 μM. Finally, the applicability of device was successfully evaluated for quantification of cyanide concentration in spiked river water and food samples. Thus, the device can be successfully calibrated and used for quantitative analysis of other hazardous analytes such as cyanide through colorimetric sensing chips.

Aim of the paper is to understand the effect of microstructural features of SA508 Grade 3 Class I low alloy steel (LAS) on short crack propagation rate under cyclic loading. The complex upper bainitic microstructure of this LAS consists of low angle bainitic ferrite lath boundaries and high angle prior austenite grain boundaries (PAGBs). Compared to bainitic ferrite lath boundaries, the PAGBs provided major hindrance to short fatigue crack propagation in the subject LAS. The high angle PAGBs strongly resist the dislocation motion ahead of the crack tip as the crack tip approaches the PAGBs compared to that of low angle bainitic ferrite lath boundaries. This restriction of dislocation motion ahead of the crack tip based on hindrance provided by PAGBs resulted in retardation in short fatigue crack propagation rate along the crack path. The short fatigue crack propagated at stress intensity factor (SIF) range ‘ Δ K ’ values lower than threshold SIF range ‘ Δ K t h ’ for the long cracks. The growth rate of short fatigue cracks cannot be predicted by Paris law which is applicable for long crack growth. This is due to the fact that crack growth rate undergoes acceleration and retardation in short crack regime because of microstructural effects.

Hydrogen deteriorates the fatigue behaviour of metals by attacking their microstructure in different ways. For better clarity about hydrogen-based degradation of metals, it is vital to identify the microstructural configurations that promote fatigue crack initiation (FCI) in the presence of hydrogen. Intergranular regions in polycrystalline metals are more prone to hydrogen attack due to the prevailing atomic structure, elastic anisotropy, and plastic inhomogeneities causing increased hydrogen accumulation in this region. In this work, FCI is studied in a model material nickel in the uncharged and hydrogen charged state during in-situ strain controlled low cycle fatigue (LCF) testing under a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Crack initiation sites are characterized by investigating the elastic modulus in the loading direction as well as the maximum Schmid factor of the crack neighbouring grains extracted through the electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) data. The crack frequency for the uncharged and hydrogen charged specimens is then analyzed using the difference in the elastic modulus ( Δ E ), the difference in the maximum Schmid factor ( Δ m ), and Δ E / Δ m ratio between the crack neighbouring grains. The comparison shows that for the hydrogen charged specimens, intergranular FCI sites show high values of Δ E / Δ m compared to the uncharged specimens. These findings provide a predictive model for hydrogen linked FCI in metals. In addition, the synergistic role of the Hydrogen Enhanced Local Plasticity (HELP) mediated Hydrogen Enhanced Decohesion (HEDE) mechanism responsible for FCI is also demonstrated.

To understand hydrogen embrittlement and predict probable damage sites based on high hydrogen segregation, it is important to identify hydrogen distribution mechanisms in metallic microstructure with deformation. Hydrogen segregation in metals is affected by various factors such as grain-size, the character of grain boundaries (GBs), loading direction and strain-rate. To this end, a computational framework consisting of non-local dislocation density-based crystal plasticity model coupled with slip-rate based hydrogen transport model is presented to study the role of (i) grain-size, (ii) loading direction, (iii) strain-rate and (iv) GB character on hydrogen distribution and segregation in the pre-charged metallic microstructure. The computational framework is capable of accounting for the change in local hydrogen concentration due to prevailing hydrostatic pressure, trapping by dislocations, GB energetics and local slip-rates in the metallic microstructure. The difficulty in dislocation motion at the inter-granular regions of polycrystal due to high cross-hardening offered by geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) is incorporated in the model as additional isotropic hardening, whereas the back stress due to the GND pileups is included as a kinematic term in the flow rule. In addition, GNDs act as hydrogen trap sites leading to increased hydrogen concentration in the inter-granular regions. The strain-rate factor initially provided by Krom & Bakker (1999) is modified in the present work to make it compatible with the dislocation density-based coupled framework, which is able to calculate trapped hydrogen in dislocations along the slip systems. Plastically deformed polycrystals of various grain-sizes, along different directions, with varying strain rates and containing Σ 3 [ 1 1 ¯ 0 ] ( 111 ) and Σ5[001](210) GBs show that the gradients of hydrostatic pressure and GB character are major factors controlling hydrogen segregation in the microstructure.

Present work aims to unveil the mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) in SA508 Grade 3 Class I low alloy reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel. In-situ tensile and low cycle fatigue (LCF) tests are performed on specially designed specimens using tensile/fatigue testing stage under scanning electron microscope (SEM). Electrochemical hydrogen charging resulted in localized void formation at prior austenite grain boundaries (PAGBs) during tensile loading. Alongside the hydrogen induced weakening of PAGBs due to synergetic HELP (hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity) and HEDE (hydrogen enhanced decohesion) mechanisms of HE, fish-eyes formation around Al2O3–SiO2 type inclusions are the primary factors for hydrogen enhanced tensile properties degradation in subject RPV steel. During LCF loading, crack initiation and propagation is facilitated by long rod inter-lath cementite particles distributed along the bainitic ferrite lath boundaries in the un-charged specimen. In case of hydrogen charged specimen, the edge crack formed during LCF loading propagated through the specimen by cleavage. Predominantly plasticity (slip) driven transgranular crack propagation occurred in un-charged specimen. In contrary, hydrogen charging resulted in LCF crack to propagate in mixed intergranular and transgranular manner during early stages of propagation, whereas once the crack length exceeded 5 to 6 grains, cleavage type transgranular crack propagation was observed.

From thick to very thin specimens, fracture toughness of metallic materials peaks out before hitting much lower value compared to the constant plane strain fracture toughness value obtained using standard fracture mechanics testing of thick specimens. Understanding this behavior is essential for improving reliability of small-scale metallic devices currently being used for various critical applications. To understand this behavior, it is essential to study the process of dislocations emission and interaction at the crack front and its variation with specimen thickness. To this end, atomistic fracture simulations of pre-cracked single crystal FCC metal (Nickel) specimens representing both thick and thin specimens are performed. At first, stress-state dependent single crystal yield function based on the generalized Schmid-law is associated with the dislocation emission process at the crack front for both thin and thick specimens. Fracture simulations are then performed on single crystal specimens representing different thickness cases. Due to low stress triaxiality prevailing throughout the thickness of thin specimens, dislocation interaction with each other inside the specimen and then with the specimen surface leading to wedge-shaped groove formation on opposite surfaces at crack front is found to be the responsible mechanism of crack propagation in thin specimens. This mechanism provides enhanced fracture toughness to thin specimen compared to thick specimen in which crack propagation is based on high stress triaxiality at the core of the crack front making formation of microvoids and their coalescence as a dominant mechanism of crack propagation. The dislocation configurations generated at the crack front for thick and thin specimens are also studied and the mechanisms for dislocation multiplication in thin specimens compared to thick specimens are highlighted.

A coupled framework of extended finite element method (XFEM) and crystal plasticity (CP) is proposed for investigating the effect of crystal orientation on Mode I stress intensity factor (SIF) in pre-cracked single crystals. While XFEM is used to evaluate the local displacement fields in front of the crack tip, CP provides anisotropic material response in front of the crack tip. Three different orientations of single crystal nickel with and without crack having Euler angles (0°, 0°, 0°), (30°, 0°, 0°) and (45°, 0°, 0°) are investigated using the proposed framework. The lattice orientation highly influences the activation of slip system, which consequently results in the change in cumulative plastic slip. Under the action of similar applied displacement loading, higher stresses are observed in (45°, 0°, 0°) oriented cracked and uncracked single nickel crystal followed by (30°, 0°, 0°) and (0°, 0°, 0°) lattice orientations. The proposed framework can be extended to study the short fatigue crack propagation in polycrystalline metals which is highly influenced by local microstructural features such as grain orientation, grain boundaries, phase difference and inclusions.

The ductile versus brittle fracture in crystalline materials depends on the relative values of K Ic and K Ie as defined by well-known Rice theory, where K Ic and K Ie are the critical values of stress intensity factor corresponding to cleavage and dislocation emission, respectively. For K Ic < K Ie , the brittle fracture (or cleavage) takes place in atomically sharp pre-cracked crystal subjected to Mode I loading. For K Ie < K IC , the dislocations are emitted from the crack front resulting in ductile fracture. To this end, molecular static simulations are used to explain the crystal orientation dependent fracture behaviour of FCC single crystal and its contradiction with respect to Rice theory based on stress triaxiality at the crack front. The stress triaxiality at crack front changes with crystal orientation due to transformation of stiffness tensor C ijkl . It is shown that high stress triaxiality suppressed the dislocation initiation leading to cleavage failure even for the case when K Ie < K Ic .

cited By 8; International audience; Physical ageing of amorphous polymers well below their glass transition temperature leads to changes in almost all physical properties. Of particular interest is the increase in yield stress and post-yield strain softening that accompanies ageing of these materials. Moreover, at larger strain polymers seem to rejuvenate, i.e. aged and non-aged samples have identical stressstrain responses. Also, plastically deforming an aged sample seems to rejuvenate the polymer. In this work we use molecular dynamic simulations with a detailed force field suitable for macromolecular ensembles to simulate and understand the effects of ageing on the mechanical response of these materials. We show that within the timescales of these simulations it is possible to simulate both ageing and rejuvenation. The short range potentials play an important role in ageing and rejuvenation. A typical yield drop exhibited by glassy polymers is a manifestation of a sudden relaxation in the short range structure of an aged polymer. Moreover, the aged polymers are known to be brittle. We show that this is intimately related to its typical stressstrain response which allows it to carry arbitrarily large mean stresses ahead of a notch. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations offer an interesting route to simulating deformation and fracture behavior of amorphous glassy polymers. However, MD simulations are performed at extremely high rates and on very small samples (though periodic boundary conditions are routinely used) containing at most hundreds of chains which are much shorter than in real life. In this work, we try to assess the extent to which MD simulations produce physically realistic stress–strain responses and identify aspects of the simulation procedure that can be controlled closely in order to avoid numerical artifacts. We show that, when an appropriate protocol for sample generation and simulation of deformation is followed, in spite of the obvious constraints imposed by the simulation technique, MD simulations have the capability to generate realistic stress–strain curves and reproduce many experimental trends pertaining to them.

Short fatigue cracks, having dimension less than 1 mm, propagate at much faster rates (da/dN) even at lower stress intensity factor range (da/dN) as compared to the threshold stress intensity factor range obtained from long fatigue crack growth studies. These short cracks originate at the sub-grain level and some of them ultimately transit into critical long cracks over time. Therefore, designing the components subjected to fatigue loading merely on the long crack growth data and neglecting the short crack growth behavior can overestimate the component’s life. This aspect of short fatigue cracks become even more critical for materials used for safety critical applications such as reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel in nuclear plants. In this work, the transition behaviour of short fatigue crack gowth into long fatigue crack is studied in SA508 Grade 3 Class I low alloy steel used in RPVs. In-situ characterization of initiation, propagation and transition of short fatigue cracks is performed using fatigue stage for Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in addition to digital microscopes fitted over a servo-hydraulic fatigue machine and correlated with the microtructural information obtained using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). SA508 steel having an upper bainitic microstructure have several microstructural interfaces such as phase and grain boundaries that play a significant role in controlling the short fatigue crack propagation. Specially designed and prepared short fatigue specimens (eletro-polished) with varying initial crack lengths of the order of tens of microns are used in this study. The transition of such short initial cracks into long cracks is then tracked to give detailed insight into the role of each phase and phase/grain boundary with an objective of establishing Kitagawa-Takahashi diagram for the given RPV steel. The behavior of the transited long cracks is then compared with the crack propagation behavior obtained using conventional CT specimens. The outcome of this research will enhance information on the integrity of the components made from RPV steel used in Indian nuclear power plants.

Mechanisms leading to initiation of crazing type failure in a glassy polymer are not clearly understood. This is mainly due to the difficulty in characterizing the stress state and polymer configuration sufficiently locally at the craze initiation site. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we have now been able to access this information and have shown that the local heterogeneous deformation leads to craze initiation in glassy polymers. We found that zones of high plastic activity are constrained by their neighborhood and become unstable, initiating crazing from these sites. Furthermore, based on the constant flow stresses observed in the unstable zones, we conclude that microcavitation is the essential local deformation mode to trigger crazing in glassy polymers. Our results demonstrate the basic difference in the local deformation mode as well as the conditions that lead to either shear-yielding or crazing type failures in glassy polymers. We anticipate our paper to help in devising a new criterion for craze initiation that not only considers the stress state, but also considers local deformation heterogeneities that form the necessary condition for crazing in glassy polymers.

Cavitation in glassy polymers is known to result from highly triaxial states of local stress and the presence of impurities. Understanding of cavitation, particularly void nucleation, is important as cavities are precursors to crazes, which in turn lead to fracture. In this work we study the early stages of void nucleation in glassy amorphous polymers by imposing, in well designed molecular dynamics simulations, highly triaxial states of stress on ensembles of entangled linear macromolecular chains and monitoring the evolution of the entanglement network. Our results demonstrate that deformation induced disentanglement and rearrangement of topological constraints along individual chains play an important role in the early stages of void nucleation. Even in the glassy state, deformation causes significant changes in the rheological constraints on a chain though the number of interchain binary contacts may not change much.

Simulation of the deformation of polymers below their glass transition through molecular dynamics provides an useful route to correlate their molecular architecture to deformation behavior. However, present computational capabilities severely restrict the time and length scales that can be simulated when detailed models of these macromolecules are used. Coarse-graining techniques for macromolecular structures intend to make bigger and longer simulations possible by grouping atoms into superatoms and devising ways of determining reasonable force fields for the superatoms in a manner that retains essential macromolecular features relevant to the process under study but jettisons unnecessary details. In this work we systematically develop a coarse-graining scheme aimed at simulating uniaxial stress-strain behavior of polymers below their glass transition. The scheme involves a two step process of obtaining the coarse grained force field parameters above glass transition. This seems to be enough to obtain "faithful" stress-strain responses after quenching to below the glass transition temperature. We apply the scheme developed to a commercially important polymer polystyrene, derive its complete force field parameters and thus demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique.

Many engineering challenges occur on multiple interacting length scales, e.g. during fracture atoms separate on the atomic scale while plasticity develops on the micrometer scale. To investigate the details of these events, a concurrent multiscale model is required which studies the problem at appropriate length- and time-scales: the atomistic scale and the dislocation dynamics scale. The AtoDis multiscale model is introduced, which combines atomistics and dislocation dynamicsinto a fully dynamic model that is able to simulate deformation mechanisms at finite temperature. The model uses point forces to ensure mechanical equilibrium and kinematic continuity at the interface. By resolving each interface atom analytically, and not numerically, the framework uses a coarse FEM mesh and intrinsically filters out atomistic vibrations. This multiscale model allows bi-directional dislocation transition at the interface of both models with no remnant atomic disorder. Thereby, the model is able to simulate a larger plastic zone than conventional molecular dynamics while reducing the need for constitutive dislocation dynamics equations. This contribution studies dislocation nucleation at finite temperature and investigates the absorption of dislocations into the crack wake.

In this paper we attempt to understand the origins of strain hardening response in glassy polymers at large strains through well-designed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on an atomistic model of a glassy polymer. In the existing constitutive theories of glassy polymers, strain hardening is assumed to be the result of affine orientation of an underlying entanglement network with stretch. This model is inspired by theories of rubber elasticity. However, in the glassy state the length scale of the network is uncertain although satisfactory fits to experimental stress–strain curves can be obtained using rubber elasticity-inspired constitutive theories. In this work we probe whether the network of entangled macromolecules in the glassy state is capable of deforming affinely obeying Langevin or Gaussian statistics. We also investigate the thermodynamics of the deformation process and try to ascertain if the free energy description of deformation in rubbery materials can be used to model irreversible plastic deformation of glassy polymers. We observe in particular that the 'locked in energy', which is the part of the energy dissipated during deformation that is not converted to heat, shows remarkably different behavior in MD simulations as compared with rubber elasticity based continuum models.