Fracture characterization of structural steel S690Q by using mini-CT specimens

Mini-CT specimens are an interesting alternative when characterising the fracture behaviour of structural materials and there are issues with regard to, for example, the amount of available material, the irradiation level (in nuclear materials) or material inhomogeneities. Furthermore, in ferritic-pearlitic steels, the characterisation of the fracture behaviour within the ductile-to-brittle transition zone (DBTZ) is of particular interest, given that the material may behave very different, in terms of fracture toughness, when operating at different but relatively close temperatures within this zone. In many occasions, the definition of the DBTZ behaviour is performed through the Master Curve (MC) methodology and, thus, by testing standardised fracture specimens (e.g., CT, SENB) and determining the material Reference Temperature (T0). The use of mini-CT specimens to define T0 has been validated in a wide range of steels used in nuclear industry, but its application to structural steels has been scarce. Thus, this work gathers the fracture characterisation results (T0) obtained in structural steel S690Q, comparing them to those obtained by using conventional standardized SENB specimens. It is shown that, for this particular structural steel, the use of miniaturized specimens provides a T0 value (-89.3°C) which is comparable to the value obtained from conventional larger specimens (-110°C).