Influence of grain size on fatigue crack propagation and acoustic emission features in commercial-purity zirconium

The influence of grain size on fatigue and corresponding acoustic emission (AE) features in commercial-purity zirconium were investigated. Fatigue crack propagation tests were conducted at room temperature with AE monitored simultaneously. The fatigue properties and AE sources were discussed combined with the microstructural and fractographic observations. The results showed that the increased grain size affected the fatigue crack stable propagation rate slightly, but it resulted in a significant increase of the AE counts rate. During the crack stable propagation, for the specimens with small-sized grains and medium-sized grains, the relationships between AE counts rate and fatigue stress intensity factor range were both generally according with the Pairs law, except some local fluctuations due to the regional occurrence of deformation twins. Especially, for the specimen with large grains, higher AE counts rate presented persistently, which were caused by twins appearing continuously at the edge of the crack. These results suggest that as the grain size increased in commercial-purity zirconium, twin became more frequent and made a more important contribution to the fatigue process, and the AE technique was sensitive to the crack propagation and the twin incidents during fatigue crack growth.