In recent decades, high strength steels in thick sections have been increasingly used in offshore structures where they are subjected to harsh service conditions such as freezing temperatures and high static/dynamic loading. At these conditions they are susceptible to a transition from ductile failure to a dangerous brittle (cleavage) predominant type of failure, which occurs well before yielding. One of the main challenges in employing thick sections is the through-thickness heterogeneous variance of microstructures as a result of the processing route owing to a gradient of cooling rates from the surface to the bulk. As the material’s mechanical and fracture behaviour strongly depend on the microstructure, the through-thickness microstructural heterogeneity leads to a significant scatter in mechanical and fracture properties, which makes it difficult to predict and control cleavage fracture.

From the body of literature establishing microstructural dependence on cleavage failure, several features contributing to this type failure can be identified. Phases, grain size, grain boundary misorientations and the presence of secondary phase constituents can play a major role in failure through cleavage. Additionally, cleavage failure is also sensitive to the crack depth to width ratio (a/W). This study investigates the microstructural features contributing to cleavage failure in a 100 mm thick S690QT high strength steel plate by performing mechanical and fracture toughness tests. In order to improve mechanical properties and cleavage fracture toughness, an isoparametric study employing rapid cyclic heating with the objective of grain refinement was performed.

The steel plate has coarser prior austenite grain (PAG) sizes, and a larger area and number fraction of inclusions in the middle section. Additionally, segregation bands as a result of solute segregation during the solidification process were observed to be dispersed throughout the middle section. The middle section was also characterized by lower hardness compared to the top section. The detrimental effects of the middle section were evidenced by inferior low temperature tensile properties and cleavage fracture toughness. This was attributed to the larger PAG sizes, larger area and number fractions of inclusions, and segregation bands in the middle section. The specimen orientation with respect to the rolling direction was found to have no effects on the tensile properties. Additionally, different a/W geometries and notch orientations with respect to the rolling direction were used to investigate the role of constraint effect and rolling orientation, respectively, in the fracture behaviour. Shallow-notched specimens representative of the defects found in offshore structures demonstrated a higher fracture toughness than the deep-notched specimens. This was attributed to lower hydrostatic stresses at the crack tip, which reduces stress triaxiality. The isoparametric study resulted in average grain size reduction by 41% and proved to improve micro-hardness, low temperature tensile properties and cleavage fracture toughness by 5%, 13% and 41% respectively. Fractographic analysis on the fracture toughness specimens revealed the presence of O, C-rich regions which are known to promote brittle behaviour.