Failure and Stress Analysis of Deformed Steel Tube

Abstract A deformed steel tube was received for failure analysis after buckling during a heat-treat operation. The tube was subjected to various metallurgical tests as well as nondestructive testing to confirm the presence of residual stresses. The microstructure of the tube was found to be homogenous and had no banded structure. However, x-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the presence of up to 6% retained austenite which likely caused the tube to buckle during the 910 °C heat treating procedure.