Abstract: The Master Curve (MC) is an engineering tool that allows the fracture toughness of ferritic steels operating within their ductile-to-brittle transition zone to be estimated. It is based on statistical considerations, related to the distribution of cleavage-promoting particles around the crack tip, and assumes that: a) fracture is controlled by weakest link statistics; b) it follows a three parameter Weibull distribution. The authors have previously provided two different approaches for applying the MC in notched conditions. The first one consists of determining the reference temperature (T0) in cracked conditions and applying a subsequent notch correction to estimate the fracture toughness at a given temperature; the second one proposes obtaining directly a notch reference temperature (T0N) for a given notch radius by testing notched specimens. This second approach assumes that both the Weibull parameters (Kmin=20 MPam1/2 and b=4) and the censoring criteria used in cracked conditions are applicable in notched conditions. This paper provides some thoughts about these assumptions with the aim of analysing the applicability of the MC in ferritic steels containing notches, and includes specific validation on steels S460M and S690Q.

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