Fundamental of Theory of Damages

Damages are causes for the loss of functionality or

workability
Damages are unavoidable failures even for optimum
design and operational conditions
Therefore damages are the reasons for the existence
of maintenance organizations
To deal with maintenance on a specific basis, it is
necessary to study the reasons for and forms of
damages, and the possibilities of reducing of the
influences of damages
 Classifications of Damages
Broadly damages can be classified in to two:
1. Technological Processes: damages related to the
change of state of an equipment which causes
damages resulting from operational processes.
2. Technical-Economical Processes: these processes
are related to development in the technology of an
equipment which causes loss of the use value of
machinery due to obsolescence or existence of new
equipment with higher productivity, lower costs,
lower materials consumptions, etc.
 Reasons for Damages
Reasons for damages can basically be classified as:

Objective: damages caused by operational processes

and environmental causes and it is unavoidable
damages

Subjective: damages caused by failures in design,

manufacturing, use operation and maintenance. If an
equipment or means of production is handled
properly, subjective damages can be avoided.
 Behavior of Damages
It can be classified in to two:

 Sudden behavior: in this case an equipment diminishes

instantly, in other words sudden breakdown of
equipment takes place

 Continuous behavior: in this case the use value of

equipment decreases with time due to wear or other
gradual failure process. This is a degradation processes
that come with time under loading conditions
 Typical Damages of Equipment
Damages resulting from technological processes are basically
classified in to three: corrosion, wear and tear, and fatigue.
Apart from these, the natural phenomenon of aging can also
be taken as a damage process.

 Corrosion: is the deterioration of materials by chemical or

electrochemical reactions with the environment. Corrosion
reduces the useful life of an equipment. About 5% of yearly
production of steel is destroyed by corrosion.
 Kinds of Corrosion
Based on the appearance of the corroded materials
mostly metals corrosion can be classified as:
I. Surface corrosion: it is caused by influence of
ambient conditions on unprotected metal surfaces.
Its characteristic features are:
 Surface is destroyed nearly parallel to the
surface
 Metals become thinner and eventually may fail
II. Pitting corrosion: it is one of the most destructive
and insidious forms of corrosion. It causes
equipment failure because of perforation with only
a very small percent weight loss of entire
 …………….continued
The characteristic features of pitting corrosion are:
 Difficult to detect because of small size of pits
 Usually results in localized destruction of materials
 It can take place below the surface affecting the strength
of the component
III. Inter-crystalline corrosion: this type of corrosion
takes place below the surface and occurs at the
grain boundary of metal alloys usually causing
sudden crack.
IV.Trans-crystalline corrosion: it takes place below
the surface and across the grains of metals
V. Galvanic Corrosion
It is based on the current of galvanic cell made up of
two dissimilar metals when they are immersed in a
corrosive solution
 Common Location: common locations where
problems of corrosion can be found are:
 Along the water line in partially filled tanks
 In and around drops of water on steel surfaces
 Along crack lines
 Along joints, particularly in dissimilar metals
 Along cold worked areas like bending, sharp ends, etc.
Methods of Minimizing Corrosion
 Use of coating of protective metals such as Zinc,
Tin, Lead, etc.

 Application of protective paints

 Rendering the surface of the metal passive

(immersing in nitric acid after it has been highly
poised, immersing in fuming sulphuric acid)
Corrosion Problems
Corrosion problems are pronounced to a varying
degree, in
– Steam generating plants
– Equipments in chemical plants
– Pipes and piping
– Structures, etc
Wear
The phenomenon of wear is treated under the
subject matter of tribology. Tribology is the
science and technology of interacting surfaces in
relative motion (friction, wear & lubrication )
 ……………….continued
Wear is an undesired change of surface of machine
components by the removal of little particles
caused by mechanical and/or tribo-chemical
reasons.
Mostly wear is caused by friction of two mating parts.
Conditions for formation of wear are:
 Relative motion
 Normal force
 Intermediate materials
 Other factors like environmental conditions (
temperature, moisture , presences of attacking
gases)
 Kinds of Wear and Tear
I. Depending on the relative motion of mating parts
 Kinematic wear: sliding, rolling, drilling, fretting, mixed
 Static wear
 Impact wear
II. Depending on the time behavior of wear
 Stationary wear: wear intensity remains constant over
a long period of time
 Non-stationary wear : the wear intensity depends on
time
 Mechanisms of Wear
It depends on the materials, the environment,
operating conditions, and geometry. But generally it
can be classified into two
I. Stress interaction (mechanical behavior)
 Surface fatigue wear mechanisms: occur mainly due to
the action of stresses on, in or below the surface with
or with out physical contact of solids
 Abrasive wear mechanism: occurs in contact situations
may be due to embedded particles
II. Materials Interactions
 Tribo-chemical wear mechanisms: in this case
dynamic interactions between the materials
components and the environment determines the
wear processes

 Adhesive wear mechanisms: are initiated by the

interfacial adhesive junctions which form if solid
materials are in contact on an atomic scale
Wear Processes
It is very complex and depends on a number of
factors: load, velocity, intermediate materials,
ambient conditions. However the wear process can
be differentiated in to the following:
 Shearing Process: when the applied force greater
than the shear strength of the materials
 Elastic Deformation: high energy concentration
and low percentage of contact area
 Plastic Deformation: local stress exceeds the
elastic limit of the material
Wear types
Depending on the presence of lubricants and/or luck of
it wear types are classified as:
 Wear by solid friction: occurs between contacting
surfaces of two bodies having relative motion and
it results in heating the surface
 Wear by liquid friction: occurs on two contacting
surface separated from each other by an
intermediate materials, mostly lubricant
 Wear by mixed friction: simultaneous action of
solid and liquid friction
Protection Against Wear
The main protection measure against wear is
lubrication. Proper lubrication with timely addition
or replacement of lubricant plays a vital role in
maintaining machine accuracy and increases its
working life.
Classification of Lubricants
Lubricants can be available in the form of oil, grease,
and solid form
 Oil Lubricants: two types, mineral and synthetic. In
addition to preventing or minimizing wear lubricating
oils perform the following duties:
 ……………………continued
Cooling by reducing friction and removing excess heat
generated
Protection by inhibiting corrosive processes caused by air and
water
Cleaning by flushing dirt particles away from lubricated
surfaces
Mineral Oils: mineral oils are basically hydrocarbons
often with some additives to introduce specific
characteristics in oils. Mineral oils are classified as:
• Paraffinic : contains significant waxy hydrocarbons with little
or no asphaltic matter
• Naphthenic : contains asphaltic matter in least volatile fraction
• Mixed base: contains both waxy and asphaltic matter
 ………………continued
Viscosity is resistance to flow which is the most
important properties of mineral oils. Depending on
the change in viscosity with temperature which is
given by kinematic viscosity index (KVI),
lubricating oils are classified as:
Low viscosity index (LVI)-----below 35 KVI
Medium viscosity index (MVI)-------35-80 KVI
High viscosity index (HVI)--------------80-110 KVI
Very high viscosity index (VHVI)-----over 100 KVI
Generally, the viscosity of mineral oils reduce with
increasing temperature and increases with pressure.
 ………………..continued
There are also other lubricant properties such as:
Anti-wear and EP( extreme pressure) properties
Oxidation resistance
Anti-corrosion properties
Anti-foaming properties
Demulsibility (ability to separate from water)
Oxidation is the process of forming oxides by some
chemical process. factors that influence oxidation
are: rise in temperature, access to oxygen, presence
of catalysts, types of oil
 ………………continued
Contamination is the most common reasons for
changing oils. It can be one of the following:
Gaseous, like air, ammonia, etc
Liquid like water, other oil type
Solid like road dust, wear products, etc
Synthetic oils: produced under controlled
conditions industrially from chemical base and
additives. The most important properties of
synthetic oils are: added lubricity, higher film
strength, good engine start-up properties, good
resistance to thinning, improved energy efficiency,
less sludge or deposit formation, good thermal
properties, stability, & good fire resisting properties
greases
A grease may be defined as solid to semi-fluid
lubricant consisting of a dispersion of a thickening
agent in a lubricating fluid. The consistency of
greases depends on the percentage of thickener.
Greases can be classified as:
 semi-fluid

Soft
stiff
 Advantages of Greases over Using Oils
Convenience: easily retained where it is applied

Persistence: lubricating film is retained on surface

during shutdown

Protection: minimum leakage thus encouraging the

formation of protective coating against corrosion

Cleanness: greases do not leak nor splash thus

maintaining cleanness of surfaces where they are
applied
 Disadvantage of greases
Poor cooling properties: greases do not dissipate
heat generated easily

Contamination: greases can easily get contaminated

by dirt, wear debris, oxidation products, etc.

Low speed of application: greases can not be applied

where working speed are over 2 m/s
Solid lubricants
A solid lubricant is as powder or thin film on a surface to
provide protection from damage during relative motion
so as to reduce friction and wear
 Properties of solid lubricant
 incapable of carrying away heat
Immobile and they must somehow be bonded to
the surface
Capable of retaining their lubricating
effectiveness at high temperature
Lubricating Systems
There are two methods of lubricating
1. Non-circulating lubrication
 Single pass of lubricant through the friction
area
2. Circulating lubrication
 Circuit of lubricant without leakage, in this
case all lubricating points must be tight
Planning a lubricant maintenance system
Techniques for sorting the work divide the work:
a) in terms of the frequency of lubricant application
b) by method of application and lubricant grade
c) Consider the optimum route for lubrication
 Lubrication Instruction
It should be clear and easily understandable by
lubricating personnel
Procedures:
o Clean and lubrication of machine
o Random check to eliminate negligence by operator
o Lubrication frequency should be set
o At the start of the shift machines should be cleaned
o Moving parts must be considered like, screws, feed
shafts
o At the end of the shift cleaned off chips, dust,
foreign materials, exposed parts must be lubricated
 Fatigue
Fatigue is the failure of a material under fluctuating
stresses applied for a large number of times.
Fatigue strength decreases with the presence of a
corroding medium
Alternating stresses tend to cause considerable
damage to any protective film