Abstract
Martensitic stainless steels containing 12%Cr are commonly used in quenched and tempered conditions. The quenching heat treatment involves annealing to obtain austenite and to dissolve the carbides , followed by cooling to transform the austenite into martensite and often to cause carbide predipitation. In this study, we used three different tempered specimens which were temperated at 30$0^{\circ}C$, 67$0^{\circ}C$ and 75$0^{\circ}C$ . The crack propagation and fracture toughness tests were performed on this three different specimens. The experimental results showed that the highest value of crack growth rate and the lowest value of fracture toughness were observed in the specimen which were temperated at $600^{\circ}C$, however, when the specimen were temperated at 75$0^{\circ}C$, the vale of crack growth rate was significantly decreased and the value of fracture toughness was significantly increased as compared to which were temperated at $600^{\circ}C$.