Effect of warm pre-stressing on fracture toughness of Eurofer97 steel

•Quantification of warm pre-stressing effects on effect fracture toughness of a reduced activation tempered martensitic steels with mechanical tests.•Simulations by finite element analysis of the near tip stress field.•Application of a fracture local approach to model the toughness–temperature behavior.

Experiments and finite element simulations have been carried out to assess the warm pre-stressing effects on the effective fracture toughness of the high-chromium reduced activation tempered martensitic steel Eurofer97. The experiments have been conducted on sub-sized compact tension specimens in the low ductile to brittle transition region. The specimens have been pre-loaded at room temperature before being tested at low temperature. A clear increase of fracture toughness measured after warm pre-stressing has been found that is discussed in the light of the finite element calculations. In particular, a discussion of the role of the residual compressive stress field, triaxiality level and accumulated equivalent plastic strain respectively on the fracture toughness increase after warm pre-stressing is analyzed. It is shown that a change of the local criterion for fast-fracture has to be considered, which results from the pre-deformation.