Failure

Group IV
WHY STUDY Failure?

• The design of a component or structure often calls upon

the engineer to minimize the possibility of failure. Thus, it
is important to understand the mechanics of the various
failure modes—i.e., fracture, fatigue, and creep—and, in
addition, be familiar with appropriate design principles that
may be employed to prevent in-service failures.
INTRODUCTION
• The failure of engineering materials is almost always an
undesirable event for several reasons; these include
human lives that are put in jeopardy, economic losses,
and the interference with the availability of products and
services.
INTRODUCTION
• Even though the causes of failure and the behavior of
materials may be known, prevention of failures is difficult
to guarantee. The usual causes are improper materials
selection and processing and inadequate design of the
component or its misuse.
INTRODUCTION
• It is the responsibility of the engineer to anticipate and
plan for possible failure and, in the event that failure does
occur, to assess its cause and then take appropriate
preventive measures against future incidents.
Fracture
FUNDAMENTALS OF FRACTURE
• Simple fracture is the separation of a body into two or
more pieces in response to an imposed stress that is
static (i.e., constant or slowly changing with time) and at
temperatures that are low relative to the melting
temperature of the material. The applied stress may be
tensile, compressive, shear, or torsional; the present
discussion will be confined to fractures that result from
uniaxial tensile loads.
Fracture Mechanics
• Fracture mechanics is the discipline concerned with the
behaviour of materials containing cracks or other small
flaws. The term “flaw” refers to such features as small
pores (holes), inclusions, or microcracks. The term “flaw”
does not refer to atomic level defects such as vacancies
or dislocations. what we wish to know is the maximum
stress that a material can withstand if it contains flaws of
a certain size and geometry.
Fracture Toughness
• Fracture Toughness measures the ability of a material
containing a flaw to withstand a applied load. Note that
this does not require a high strain rate (impact).
• A typical fracture toughness test may be performed by
applying a tensile stress to a specimen prepared with a
flaw of known size and geometry. The stress applied to
the material is intensified at the flaw, which acts as a
stress raiser. For simple case, the stress intensity factor K
is K=fσ√(pi x ɑ)
 f 1.12 for a small single edge notch.
f 1.0 for internal flaw.

Schematic drawing of fracture toughness specimen (a) internal flaws (b) edge.
The flaw size is defined for the two classes.
Fracture Toughness

where: f is a geometry factor for the specimen and flaw.

σ is the applied stress
ɑ is the flaw size.

• If the specimen is assumed to have an “infinite” width,

• By performing a test on a specimen with a known flaw
size, we can determine the value of K that causes the flaw
to grow and causes failure. This critical stress intensity
factor is defined as fracture toughness KsubC.

• KsubC= K required for crack to propagate

Importance of Fracture mechanics
• The fracture mechanics approach allows us to design and
select materials while taking into account the inevitable
presence of flaws. There are three variables to consider:
the property of the material (K) the stress σ that the
material must withstand, and the size of the flaw ɑ. If we
know two of these variables, the third can be determined.
Importance of Fracture mechanics
Section of a material
If we know the maximum size ɑ of flaws in the material
and the magnitude of the applied stress, we can select a
material that has a fracture toughness K large enough to
prevent the flaw from growing.
Design of a component
If we know the maximum size of any flaw and the
material, we can calculate the maximum stress that the
component can withstand. Then we can size the part
appropriately to ensure that the maximum stress is not
exeeded.
Importance of Fracture mechanics

Design of a Manufacturing or Testing Method

If the material has been selected, the applied stress is
known, and the size of the component is fixed, we can
calculate the maximum size of a flaw that can be tolarated.
A nondestructive testing technique that detects any flaw
greater than this critical size can help ensure that the part
will function safely. In addition, we find that, by selecting the
correct manufacturing process, we can produce flaws that
are all smaller than this critical size.
Example

A large steel plate used in a nuclear reactor has a plane

strain fracture toughness of 80,000 psi √in. and is exposed
to a stress of 45,000 psi during service. Design a testing or
inspection procedure capable of detecting a crack at all the
edge of the plate before the crack is likely to grow at a
catastrophic rate.
Brittle Fracture
• Any crack or imperfection limits the ability of a ceramic to
withstand a tensile stress. This is because a crack
(sometimes called Griffith Flaw) concentrates and
magnifies the applied stress.
• Occurs in a high strength metals and alloys or metals and alloys
with poor ductility and toughness. Furthermore, even metals that
are normally ductile may fail in a brittle manner at low
temperature, in thick sections, at high stain rates (such as
impacts), or when flaws play an important role. Brittle fracture are
frequently observed when impact, rather than overload causes
failure. Brittle fracture can be identified by observing the features
on the failed surfaces. If failure occurs by cleavage each fractured
grain is flat and differently oriented, giving a crystalline or “rock
candy” appearance to the fracture surface.
• Another common fracture feature is the Chevron pattern,
produced by separate crack fronts propagating at different
levels in the material. A radiating pattern of surface
markings, or ridges, fans away from the origin of the
crack. It is visible with naked eye or magnifying glass and
helps us identify both the brittle nature of the failure
process as well as the origin of the failure.
Transgranular
Intergranular
Example

Assume that an advance ceramic sialon (silicon aluminum

oxynitride) has a tensile strength of 60 000 psi. Let us
assume that this value is for a ceramic. A thin crack 0.01 in
deep is observed before a sialon part is tested. The part
unexpectedly fails at a stress of 500 psi by propagation of
the crack. Estimate the radius of the crack tip.
Ductile Fracture
• Usually occurs in a transgranular manner (through the
grains) in metals that have good ductility and toughness.
Caused by simple overloads, or by applying too high
stress to the material. Microvoids form when a high
stress causes separation of the metal grain boundaries or
interferences between the metal and small impurity
particles. As the local stress increases, the microvoids
grow and coalesce into larger cavities.
• In thick metal sections, we expect to find evidence of
necking, with a significant portion of the fracture surface
having a flat face where microvoids first nucleated and
coalesced, and a small shear slip where the fracture is at
45 degrees angle to the applied stress. The shear slip,
indicating that slip occurred, gives the fracture a cup and
cone appearance.
Microstructural Features of
Fracture in Ceramics, Glasses and
Composites
• In ceramic materials, the ionic and covalent bonds permit
little or no slip. Most crystalline ceramics fail by cleavage
along widely spaced, closedly packed planes. The
fracture surface typically is smooth, and frequently no
characteristic surface features point to the origin of the
fracture.
• Glasses also fracture in a brittle manner. Frequently a
conchoidal fracture surface is observed. This surface
contains a smooth mirror zone near the origin of the
fracture, with tear lines comprising the remainder of the
surface. The tear lines point back to the mirror zone and
the origin of the crack, much like the chevron pattern in
metals.
• Polymers can fail by either ductile or a brittle mechanism.
Some plastics with structures consisting of tangled but not
chemically cross-linked cahains fail in a ductile manner
above the glass transitions temperature, giving evidence
of extensive deformation is a result of sliding of the
polymers chains, which is not possible in thermosetting
polymers.