A review on the effects of combined stress cracking defects in steels

Stress cracking is an important threat to steel industries. When certain conditions are created in the environment of steel, the loading of this defect leads to intergranular cracks in the radial-axial plane. These cracks can grow under continuous adverse loading and eventually lead to rupture. A lot of research and experiments have been done in this regard. This article is a review of the combination of conditions governing steels that lead to the growth of stress cracking. Failures caused by stress cracking occur in a long period during several stages such as germination, crack growth and final failure. On the other hand, we know that stress cracking depends on environmental, metallurgical and mechanical conditions. Therefore, in this article, the purpose of investigating the loading conditions at each stage of stress cracking and the effects of repetitive stress on steels will be discussed. Also, the synergistic effects of different parameters during the entire life cycle of steels will also be discussed. The main focus of this review is to relate the loading conditions at each stage of crack propagation, which plays an important role in estimating the remaining life of steels susceptible to stress cracking. This discussion will include how cyclic loading conditions can change steel properties and contribute to the initiation of intergranular cracking. Finally, the modeling of stress crack growth will be discussed and suggestions such as failure analysis due to stress crack growth on sheets were given.