Effect of anisotropic microstructure of a 12Cr-ODS steel on the fracture behaviour in the small punch test

Oxide dispersed strengthened steels can exhibit a strongly anisotropic microstructure with elongated pancake-like grains in the rolling plane. This gives rise to intergranular fracture and subsequent delamination along large-area grain boundaries. We investigated an oxide dispersed strengthened alloy with 12 mass percent Cr, manufactured by mechanical alloying, hot extrusion and cold rolling by means small punch tests and subsequent fractographic analysis. The fracture behaviour was analysed in dependence of the specimen orientation. The results from small punch tests were contrasted with those from impact tests with sub-sized samples. In both tests, the ductile to brittle transition temperatures as well as the upper shelf energies depend significantly on the orientation of the specimens. However, the delamination affects the fracture of impact and small punch test samples in different ways. Thus, it depends on the load situation whether delamination has a beneficial or a detrimental effect on the fracture behaviour.