Processing of Aerospace Materials - I

(ME772)
Fracture toughness and high cycle fatigue
Lecture 3
Date: 11 January 2022
Amol A. Gokhale, Course Instructor

General References:
1. A Mouritz, Aerospace Materials, Woodhead Publishing Limited, 2012 (5.6, 5.8 and
Sections 19.2.3, 19.2.4)
2. W D Callister and David Rethwisch, Materials Science and Engineering, An
Introduction, 2014 (6.6 to 6.9 for tensile and Chapter 8 for fracture toughness)
3. George E Dieter, Mechanical Metallurgy, McGraw Hill Co, 1988 (Chapter 11)
 Brittle versus ductile fractures (tensile tests)
Stages in the cup-and-
cone fracture. (a)
Initial necking.
Moderate (b) Small cavity
High ductility ductility Brittle formation. (c)
Coalescence of
cavities to form
a crack. (d) Crack
propagation. (e) Final
shear fracture at a 45
angle relative to the
tensile direction.

Decreasing plastic deformation 

Low magnification

Rough at Moderate Brittle Smooth at microscale

microscale ductility
 Stress intensity factor

• Local stresses near a crack (an atomically sharp notch) depend on the ‘nominal’
stress and the square root of the flaw length (Lecture 2). Stress intensity factor
( ) is defined in terms of the applied (nominal) stress and the crack length.

 

K = stress intensity factor

 = geometric factor (this is close to 1
when the crack length is much
smaller than plate width)
(designated as Y in a few books)
 = nominal stress (applied force/
For sharp cracks overall cross sectional area)
a = half crack length for centre crack
= full crack length for surface crack
 What is fracture toughness

• Fracture toughness is the property that is a measure of a material’s resistance to

brittle (i.e. catastrophic) fracture under loading when a crack is present. It is a
measure of the energy required to propagate a crack to fracture.
• Mathematically, fracture toughness of a material is the critical value of the stress
intensity factor (KIc) exceeding which brittle failure occurs. It is a material
property.
• If surface crack of half length ‘a’ is to be allowed to exist and be stable, stress
must be less than a value (and vice versa) where K remains less than KIc
• For high strength materials (where the service stresses are expected to be high),
this allowable flaw (crack) size is very small.
 Brittle vs ductile materials

Yield Strength

• Presence of plastic zone reduces stress concentration at the crack tip. Material
becomes resistant to catastrophic fracture.
• In thick materials, region in the interior is constrained from deforming plastically, hence
has small plastic zone size (Plain strain condition)
 • KIc = thickness independent - mode I fracture
Fracture toughness toughness (known as plane strain fracture
toughness or “valid fracture toughness”).
Blue: plastic deformation
Brown: elastic deformation • KIc is the conservative estimate of fracture
toughness and can be used for design
Minimum thickness B needed to obtain
valid KIc value B = 2.5(  )

Interpretation of single curves: Allowable

stress decreases as crack length increases.
Allowable crack size decreases as design stress
increases (typically for high strength materials)
Comparison between the curves: Higher
fracture toughness allows greater tolerance for
flaws or allows higher applied stresses for the
same flaw size

Dieter: Mechanical Metallurgy

 Critical defect size
• Aerospace materials need high toughness to resist the growth of cracks
initiating at damage sites (e.g. corrosion pits, impacted regions) or sites
of high stress concentration (e.g. fastener holes, windows, doors ….)
• Tough materials require large amounts of energy to crack, while brittle
materials require small amount of energy to crack.
• If critical crack size is less than detection limit of Ultrasonic Testing
(about 1.2 mm in industrial practice), material will fail without notice
• Landing gear steels typically have YS of 2000 MPa and KIc of 100 MPam
and critical crack size of 3 mm (for Kt = 1). If the crack is on a bolt hole (Kt
= 2.5), this size reduces to 0.3 mm

Kt = stress
concentration factor

Applied stress as..

Evaluating flaw propagation possibility

5 mm 12 mm
 Fatigue failures

• Boeing 737-200 commercial aircraft (Aloha Airlines flight 243) that

experienced an explosive decompression and structural failure on April 28,
1988.
• An investigation of the accident concluded that the cause was metal fatigue
aggravated by crevice corrosion, as the plane operated in a coastal (humid
and salty) environment.
• Strain cycling of the fuselage resulted from compression and decompression
of the cabin chamber during short hop flights.
• A properly executed maintenance program by the airline would have
detected the fatigue damage and prevented this accident.
 Fatigue
• Failures occurring under conditions of alternating loading are called
fatigue failures. They occur only after a considerable period of service.
• Older aircraft are more prone to fatigue due to likelihood of presence of
small cracks.
• Fatigue failure usually occurs at stresses well below those required for
yielding, or in some cases above the yield strength but below the tensile
strength of the material.
• These failures are dangerous because they occur without any warning.
• Fatigue is defined as the deterioration to the structural properties of a
material owing to damage caused by cyclic or fluctuating stresses.
• Fatigue resistance is the ability of structural materials to maintain an
acceptable level of strength under fluctuating stress conditions.

The possibility of a fatigue failure is the main reason why aircraft components
have a finite life
 Fatigue crack initiation
• High Cyclic Fatigue (HCF) is the most common form of fatigue. It refers to low stress
amplitudes at low fractions of yield strength (hence fully elastic) at which the cycles to failure
are high i.e. greater than 104 - 105. The cyclic stress tests are conducted on smooth specimens
and the results are plotted as stress amplitude vs. cycles to failure (S-N curves). The stress
amplitude at which the cycles to failure are very high (or infinite) is called the fatigue strength.

• Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF ) refers to stress amplitudes which exceed the yield strength thus
producing cyclic plastic strain. The cycles to failure are less than 104 - 105. These tests are cyclic
strain controlled conducted on smooth specimens. Plastic strain amplitude vs. cycles to failure
are plotted (Coffin Manson Plots).

Below part is not for syllabus

• Corrosion fatigue is another common form of fatigue (combined effects of corrosion and cyclic
stress loading)

• Fretting fatigue is the progressive deterioration of materials by small-scale rubbing movements

that cause abrasion of mating components. (..at loose joints containing bolts, rivets or screws)
 Typical fatigue loading
Stress becomes positive when the aircraft becomes
airborne because the wing deflects upwards under the
pressure needed to support the weight of the fuselage
Wing  Bending and torsion
stresses occur many
• In military aircraft, thousand times in a single
loads may rise up to flight
8-9g (i.e. Lift to  Need materials resistant to
weight ratio 8-9)
• Spectrum loading is
high cycle fatigue loads
applicable to wings (tested under stress cycling
between two levels)
Wing is stressed to about minus one g as it
deflects downwards under its own weight and ‘g’ represents lift- to-
Fuselage the weight of any wing-mounted engines weight ratio (‘n’ below)

• One flight cycle represents one cycle of pressurisation /

depressurisation
• + Fatigue due to gusts and manoeuvres during flight

• Requires materials which can withstand low cycle fatigue

loads
• Constant strain amplitude cycling loading is applicable to
fuselage (strain cycling between two levels)
 Q&A
What do you understand by yield strength
 HCF test details
• Maximum fatigue stress max.
• Mean (or steady-state) fatigue stress m, which is the average
of the maximum and minimum stress in the cycle: m = (max
+ min)/2,
• Stress range r = max - min , alternating stressa = (max -
min)/2
• Fatigue stress ratio R, which is the minimum divided by the
maximum fatigue stress: R = min / max
• Stress frequency f, which is the number of load cycles per Repeated stress cycle
second.
• Tests are performed by repeated tension–tension, tension–
compression or other combinations of cyclic loading

1 cycle
f = 1-20 Hz

Test specimen
Fully reversed cycle
Different shapes of
cyclic loads
 HCF: S-N Curves
 Fatigue tests are performed to determine the total number of load cycles to failure
 For metals, tension – tension loading is most detrimental
 For composites, tension – compression loading is the most detrimental
 Typical cycles experienced (flight hours)
 15 000–20 000h for modern jet engine materials
 80 000 to 120 000 h for airframe materials

Endurance limits
are reported for
tests under fully Why is there endurance
reversed cycles limit for some materials?
Stress amplitude

(not for syllabus)

For fixed R ratio, frequency of

loading, mean stress, corrosion &
temperature determine fatigue life

Fatigue strength is the stress

amplitude which gives infinite life or
a specified cycles-to-failure
Comparative fatigue strengths

• Predicted fatigue life is found to be

inversely proportional to seventh
power of stress range  (max – min)
• Higher yield strength alloys give
higher fatigue lives for the same
applied max stress
• Fatigue life reduces significantly in
the presence of notches in the
sample

From Callister Book

 Fatigue crack initiation mechanism:
role of local slip (metals)
1. Even when bulk stress is elastic, local slip may still take place due
to stress concentrations attributed to various causes
2. Slip in single crystals creates 3. Cyclic slip on the same plane
tiny steps on sample surface creates intrusions and
extrusions on sample surface

Initiation occurs at the

component surface in
the vicinity of
geometrical stress
concentrations
Initiation and growth of a fatigue crack in an Al alloy

• Initially, cracks grow in slip bands. They are

along slip planes (planes in crystalline
materials on which dislocations slip)
• When they become long enough, they grow
perpendicular to the tensile axis.
Q&A

• What do you understand by ultimate tensile

strength
 Assignment 3
1. Suppose that a wing component on an aircraft is fabricated from an aluminum alloy
that has a plane-strain fracture toughness of 26.0 MPam. It has been determined
that fracture results at a stress of 112 MPa when the maximum internal crack length
is 8.6 mm. For this same component and alloy, compute the stress level at which
fracture will occur for a critical internal crack length of 6.0 mm.
2. A large plate is fabricated from a steel alloy that has a plane strain fracture
toughness of 82.4 MPam. If the plate is exposed to a tensile stress of 345 MPa
during service use, determine the minimum length of a surface crack that will lead to
fracture. Assume a value of 1.0 for .
 Fracture toughness testing
• Fracture toughness CT test specimen as per ASTM 399-T70
• (there is also Single Edge Notch Bending (SENB) type of specimen)

CT
SENB

Compact tension (CT) test specimen Single-edge notch bend (SENB) test specimen
The method of calculation of fracture toughness Tensile stress is generated at the crack tip.
is covered in ASTM standard E399-T70 The applied load required to grow a crack from
the notch tip through the specimen is used to
calculate the fracture toughness. Tough
materials require a high load to cause complete
fracture of the specimen.
 Calculation of fracture toughness (CT specimen)
1. Load versus notch displacement are
plotted.
2. Type I, II and III represent plastic, elastic-
plastic and complete elastic fracture.
These modes indicate how much plastic
deformation takes place ahead of the
crack.
Elastic- Elastic 3. Plastic deformation works against
Plastic
plastic catastrophic failure, since it absorbs
energy, giving high toughness.

1. Type I: Draw line OPS with 5% lower slope than initial slope of load displacement line. Calculate P5.
2. If the load at every point on the record that precedes P5 is lower than P5, then P5 is PQ
3. Type II and III: If there is a maximum load preceding P5 that exceeds it, then this maximum load is PQ
4. PQ is taken as the breaking load to calculate KQ (a tentative value of plane strain fracture toughness).
5. If sample thickness is more than , then it is considered a valid test. If not, there is too much
plastic deformation and KIc method cannot be used (since it is based on brittle fracture theory). We
need to choose a thicker sample in such a case.
6. In such cases, J integral method (not being covered in the course) is resorted to (JIc).

𝑄 and are specimen thickness and width, is

𝑄 0 .5
crack length
Ductility and notch sensitivity
• For a notch with stress concentration factor of 2.5, metals loose
strength only to the extent of loss in load bearing area due to the
notch. This happens by plastic deformation in the notch region which
reduces the stress in the notch region.
• But in brittle materials, where plastic deformation cannot take place,
the reduction in strength can be by the same factor as the stress
concentration factor

Limited
plasticity
material
Ideal plastic material

Brittle material