PSI - Issue 5

George Pantazopoulos et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 5 (2017) 476–483 G. Pantazopoulos and A. Vazdirvanidis / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2017) 000 – 000

478

3

~ 30 mm

Chevron marks

Axial Cracks

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1: Optical macrographs showing (a) the as-received components exhibiting axial cracking and (b) the manually opened fracture faces exhibiting characteristic chevron marks originated from the surface of the component.

Table 1. Chemical Composition of hexagonal brass fittings. Element Composition (%, wt.) Cu

57.7 0.19 3.0 0.13 0.06

Sn Pb Fe Ni Al Zn

0.004 Rem.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 2: Optical micrographs on transverse sections, showing the crack evolution and microstructural details; (a) generic crack extension pattern; (b ) typical phase structure consisting of α -phase (bright areas) in β -phase matrix (dark areas); Pb particles are shown as black dots dispersed in the microstructure (FeCl 3 solution etching).