Micromechanics of stress corrosion cracking in progressively drawn steels

In this paper the consequences of the microstructural evolution in an eutectoid steel which has undergone a cold drawing process are studied. The experimental results of the stress corrosion cracking tests show that cold drawing produces strength anisotropy in the steel and thus the stress corrosion cracking resistance is a directional property which depends on the orientation of the microstructure in relation to the cold drawing direction. As a consequence, a transverse crack tends to change its growth direction to approach the wire axis, and a mode I crack growth evolves to a mixed mode propagation.