Reason Analysis on Fracture of Prestressed Steel Wires

By means of chemical compositions analysis, metallographic examination, macroscopic examination and mechanical properties test, the fracture reasons of prestressed steel wires during drawing from 82B steel wire rod were analyzed. The results show that the key reason of the brittle fracture was that the raw materials had defects of serious carbon segregation which resulted in overheating at the carbon-rich area and precipitation of mesh and massive cementite and cementite Widmanstatten structure when rolling. So in the same drawing force, the plastic deformation degree of the whole cross section of the wire rod was different, cracks produced and fracture happened during drawing.