Embrittlement of a martensitic steel by liquid lead

摘要: EDF-EMA, Centre des Renardie`res, B.P. No. 1, Ecuelles-77250 Moret-sur-Loing, France(Received April 10, 1999)(Accepted in revised form June 23, 2000)Keywords: Liquid metal embrittlement; Martensitic steels; Lead; Mechanical propertiesIntroductionLiquid embrittlement refers to the reduction of ductility an otherwise ductile material whenstressed contact with a liquid metal. This general statement does not presuppose anything about theactual microscopic mechanism that leads LME, i.e. whether is consequence ofgrain boundaries penetration and/or wetting which induces necessarily intergranular fracture or whetherit result cohesion can either lead inter transgranular fracture. Anotheraspect LME usually mentioned its specificity, means only some particular liquidmetal-solid couples are prone embrittlement. Such specificity has been recently questioned byFernandes and Jones [1] who suggest it may rely on testing conditions rather than interactions between solid In this paper we report preliminary results ofLME martensitic steel by lead. Our data strongly suggest, under experimentalconditions adopted, due grain wetting, instead beinterpreted framework more traditional mechanisms suppose surfaceenergy bond-strength induced adsorption (see for instance review article Old[2] references therein). addition, work presented here clearly demonstrates embrittlementis observed metallurgical mechanical conditions. When these fulfilled, liquidlead no apparent detrimental effect, fact would have led wrong conclusion thereis lead.ExperimentalTensile specimens 4mm diameter 20mm gauge length were machined from 9% Cr 1% Molabelled 91 grade supplied Creusot Loire Industrie. Its chemical composition summarised Table1. Two different sets samples used, i) as received ones (R type following)