PSI - Issue 81

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 81 (2026) 558–561

© 2026 The Authors. Copy from the contract: Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of DMDP 2025 organizers Keywords: eutectoid steel; pearlitic steel; cold drawing; cold drawn pearlitic steel; microstructural anisotropy; anisotropic fracture behavior; strength anisotropy; fracture crack paths; crack deflection; constraint effects; notch tensile strength. 1. Introduction Cold drawn pearlitic steel wires are widely used as components of prestressed concrete structures in civil engineering construction. They can be considered as high-performance and hierarchically-structured materials (Toribio, 2006; Zhang et al., 2013; Borchers and Kirchheim, 2016) whose really high strength is only limited by cleavage fracture, as described by Gil Sevillano (1986). Abstract The paper studies the anisotropy of notch-induced fracture behaviour in heavily cold drawn pearlitic steels supplied as prestressing steel wires for prestressed concrete. The necessity is emphasized of both stress triaxiality ( constraint ) and microstructural anisotropy ( orientation ) to induce anisotropic fracture behaviour in the pearlitic steel wires. The fracture behaviour of steels with high level of strain hardening (exhibiting a fracture profile with 90º step) is rationalized on the basis of the markedly oriented pearlitic microstructure of the cold drawn pearlitic steels that influences the operative micromechanism of fracture in this particular case, and a sufficient level of stress triaxiality ( constraint ) in the notched specimens is required to obtain the aforesaid anisotropic fracture behaviour (associated with cracking/fracture path deflection and mixed mode propagation ) and to avoid the otherwise isotropic fracture behaviour appearing for low stress triaxiality (constraint) levels, in spite of the marked microstructural anisotropy (orientation) in the most heavily cold drawn pearlitic steels. A key variable governing the notch-induced anisotropic fracture process is the cleavage hoop stress as the relevant factor promoting fracture path deviation in the most heavily cold drawn pearlitic steel wires. VIII International Conference “In -service Damage of Materi als: Diagnostics and Prediction” (DMDP 2025) Anisotropy of notch-induced fracture behaviour in cold drawn pearlitic steels supplied in the form of prestressing wires: A Tribute to John Ford Jesús Toribio*, Francisco-Javier Ayaso Fracture & Structural Integrity Research Group (FSIRG), University of Salamanca (USAL) E.P.S., Campus Viriato, Avda. Requejo 33, 49022 Zamora, Spain

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-677566723; fax: +34-980545002. E-mail address: toribio@usal.es

2452-3216 © 2026 The Authors. Copy from the contract: Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of DMDP 2025 organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2026.03.095