The suggestion has been made that the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 can be linked to metallurgical failure. The brittle failure of steel is an interesting subject. Current fascination with the Titanic provides good reason to review the ductile to brittle transition of steel. A review shows that a good argument exists to day the steel selected for the Titanic's hull plate was suitable for the application and did not contribute to the tragedy. The failure mode of brittle materials is by crack propagation. Glass is a brittle material. Anyone who has seen a window pane shatter knows the event occurs almost instantly. While nothing in nature takes place instantly, the speed at which cracks move through a brittle material has been calculated to be 38 percent of the speed of sound in the solid. Velocities as fast as 31 percent of the speed of sound have been experimentally observed in crystals. The speed of sound in a solid is much greater than the speed of sound in air. A crack can spread through glass or brittle steel at the startling velocity of 1,700 m/second, which is more than 4,000 miles/hour3. Theoretical aspects of crack propagation like brittle behavior in steel, stress concentration, crack growth, work of fracture and the theory of metals including dislocation defects, ductility, transition temperature, the role of oxygen and grain size are presented. In summary brittle steel is considered not to be responsible for the sinking of the titanic due to plate and rivet construction but the opening of 1.1 m2 across six compartments by collision with the iceberg.
The Titanic: Did steelmakers let the great ship down?
Iron and Steelmaker ; 26 , 10 ; 67-72
1999
6 Seiten, 2 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 15 Quellen
Article (Journal)
English
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