The Effects of Homogenizing and Quenching and Tempering Treatments on Crack Healing

Abstract

After thermal deformation and heat treatment, it can be observed that there are small, newly formed grains in the crack healing zone, which indicates that the internal crack is fully healed. However, in our previous study, the impact properties of the internal healing zone could only be partially healed. In this study, the process of homogenizing treatment was adopted to achieve grain size homogeneity. The effects of homogenizing treatment and quenching and tempering treatment on crack healing were also systematically analyzed. With the same heat treatment method, SA508-3 samples, which were subjected to multi-pass deformation, had a higher percentage recovery than those that underwent uniaxial compression. The percentage recovery of the crack healing zone was significantly improved after the process of homogenizing treatment. The impact property of the crack healing zone could be fully restored after homogenizing treatment followed by quenching and tempering treatment. However, after several episodes of heating, the grain-boundary strength decreased, and the impact value was relatively low.