Effect of Plasma Marking on the Fatigue Properties of Grade 50W Steel
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28, Issue 9
Abstract
High-strength low-alloy (HSLA) weathering steels are the conventional material used for nonredundant fracture-critical members in bridge construction. Guidelines from state departments of transportation (DOTs) prevent material suppliers from scribing marks which remain on the surface of fracture-critical members when in service due to the possibility of degrading mechanical properties. Currently, any automated scribe marking, namely mechanical milling, is either cut from the end of the part, or welded over, thereby effectively removing it before service. All other markings are either manually die-stamped, or spray-painted on, which can be accidentally removed during sand blasting or shipping. Safe automated methods of scribing fracture-critical members are needed such that markings will remain throughout the production process but will not compromise the integrity over the lifetime of the part. In this study, a microstructural evaluation of 50W (or 345W) weathering steel was conducted to characterize the effect of plasma markings on microstructure and mechanical properties. S-N curves generated through fatigue testing showed no measurable difference in fatigue life between marked and unmarked material.
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Acknowledgments
The authors group would like to acknowledge Veritas Steel, formerly PDM, and Tampa Tank for technical discussions and for supplying and marking the weathering steel. In particular, Rick Sherman and Dale Ison, are gratefully acknowledged for their efforts and discussions. Additionally, we would like to acknowledge three undergraduate students, Shrishti Shrivastava, Emma Faulkner, and Peter Feldtmann, for the hard work that they put in to the project. The undergraduate researchers were partially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site: Infrastructure Materials program. This project was supported by the Florida Department of Transportation under the contract number BDV31 977-02. Lastly, we acknowledge the Major Analytical Instrumentation Center (MAIC) at the University of Florida for providing a facility in which our materials characterization needs were met.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28 • Issue 9 • September 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 23, 2015
Accepted: Jan 7, 2016
Published online: Apr 6, 2016
Published in print: Sep 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Sep 6, 2016
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