Comments on the Intermediate-Temperature Embrittlement of Metals and Alloys: The Conditions for Transgranular and Intergranular Failure

Abstract

The intermediate-temperature embrittlement range was examined for Fe, Al, Cu, and Ni alloys. It was found that this embrittlement occurs in many alloys, although the causes are very diverse. Embrittlement can be due to fine matrix precipitation, precipitate free zones, melting of compounds at the grain boundaries, segregation of elements to the boundaries, and, additionally for steel, the presence of the soft ferrite film surrounding the harder austenite matrix. Grain boundary sliding and segregation to the boundaries seem to dominate the failure mode at the base of the trough when intergranular failure takes place. When cracking is due to the presence of hydrogen or liquid films at the boundary, then the dissociation along the boundaries is so easy, it is often independent of the strain rate and is always intergranular. In the other cases when failure occurs, if the deformation is carried out at a high strain rate, it is normally transgranular (e.g., hot rolling giving rise to edge cracking). However, when the strain rate is reduced to that of creep (e.g., bending during continuous casting of steel), failure can also take place by grain boundary sliding, and intergranular failure then becomes the favoured mode.