Failure

1. Introduction
Failure of materials may have huge costs. Causes included improper materials
selection or processing, the improper design of components, and improper use.
2. Fundamentals of Fracture
Fracture is a form of failure where the material separates in pieces due to stress, at temperatures
below the melting point. The fracture is termed ductile or brittle depending on whether the
elongation is large or small.
Steps in fracture (response to stress):
track formation
track propagation
Ductile vs. brittle fracture
Ductile Brittle
deformation extensive little
track propagation slow, needs stress fast
type of materials most metals (not too cold) ceramics, ice, cold metals
warning permanent elongation none
strain energy higher lower
fractured surface rough smoother
necking yes no
Ductile Fracture
Stages of ductile fracture
Initial necking
small cavity formation (microvoids)
void growth (elipsoid) by coalescence into a crack
fast crack propagation around neck. Shear strain at 45
o

final shear fracture (cup and cone)
The interior surface is fibrous, irregular, which signify plastic deformation.
Brittle Fracture
There is no appreciable deformation, and crack propagation is very fast. In most brittle materials,
crack propagation (by bond breaking) is along specific crystallographic planes (cleavageplanes).
This type of fracture is transgranular (through grains) producing grainy texture (or faceted
texture) when cleavage direction changes from grain to grain. In some materials, fracture is
intergranular.
5. Principles of Fracture Mechanics

Fracture occurs due to stress concentration at flaws, like surface scratches, voids,
etc. If a is the length of the void and the radius of curvature, the enhanced stress
near the flaw is:

m
2
0
(a/)
1/2

where
0
is the applied macroscopic stress. Note that a is 1/2 the length of the
flaw, not the full length for an internal flaw, but the full length for a surface flaw.
The stress concentration factor is:
K
t
=
m
/
0
2 (a/)
1/2

Because of this enhancement, flaws with small radius of curvature are called
stress raisers.
6. Impact Fracture Testing
Normalized tests, like the Charpy and Izod tests measure the impact energy required to fracture a
notched specimen with a hammer mounted on a pendulum. The energy is measured by the
change in potential energy (height) of the pendulum. This energy is called notch toughness.
Ductile to brittle transition occurs in materials when the temperature is dropped below a
transition temperature. Alloying usually increases the ductile-brittle transition temperature (Fig.
8.19.) For ceramics, this type of transition occurs at much higher temperatures than for metals.
Fatigue
Fatigue is the catastrophic failure due to dynamic (fluctuating) stresses. It can happen in bridges,
airplanes, machine components, etc. The characteristics are:
long period of cyclic strain
the most usual (90%) of metallic failures (happens also in ceramics and
polymers)
is brittle-like even in ductile metals, with little plastic deformation
it occurs in stages involving the initiation and propagation of cracks.
Cyclic Stresses
These are characterized by maximum, minimum and mean stress, the stress
amplitude, and the stress ratio (Fig. 8.20).
The SN Curve
SN curves (stress-number of cycles to failure) are obtained using apparatus like
the one shown in Fig. 8.21. Different types of SN curves are shown in Fig. 8.22.
Fatigue limit (endurance limit) occurs for some materials (like some ferrous and
Ti allows). In this case, the SN curve becomes horizontal at large N . This
means that there is a maximum stress amplitude (the fatigue limit) below which
the material never fails, no matter how large the number of cycles is.
For other materials (e.g., non-ferrous) the SN curve continues to fall with N.
Failure by fatigue shows substantial variability (Fig. 8.23).
Failure at low loads is in the elastic strain regime, requires a large number of
cycles (typ. 10
4
to 10
5
). At high loads (plastic regime), one has low-cycle fatigue
(N < 10
4
- 10
5
cycles).
Crack Initiation and Propagation
Stages is fatigue failure:
I. crack initiation at high stress points (stress raisers)
II. propagation (incremental in each cycle)
III. final failure by fracture
N
final
= N
initiation
+ N
propagation

Stage I - propagation
slow
along crystallographic planes of high shear stress
flat and featureless fatigue surface

Stage II - propagation
crack propagates by repetive plastic blunting and sharpening of the crack tip. (Fig. 8.25.)
. Crack Propagation Rate (not covered)
. Factors That Affect Fatigue Life
Mean stress (lower fatigue life with increasing
mean
).
Surface defects (scratches, sharp transitions and edges). Solution:
polish to remove machining flaws
add residual compressive stress (e.g., by shot peening.)
case harden, by carburizing, nitriding (exposing to appropriate gas at high
temperature)
. Environmental Effects
Thermal cycling causes expansion and contraction, hence thermal stress, if
component is restrained. Solution:
o eliminate restraint by design
o use materials with low thermal expansion coefficients.
Corrosion fatigue. Chemical reactions induced pits which act as stress raisers.
Corrosion also enhances crack propagation. Solutions:
o decrease corrosiveness of medium, if possible.
o add protective surface coating.
o add residual compressive stresses.
Creep
Creep is the time-varying plastic deformation of a material stressed at high temperatures.
Examples: turbine blades, steam generators. Keys are the time dependence of the strain and the
high temperature.
. Generalized Creep Behavior
At a constant stress, the strain increases initially fast with time (primary or transient
deformation), then increases more slowly in the secondary region at a steady rate (creep rate).
Finally the strain increases fast and leads to failure in the tertiary region. Characteristics:
Creep rate: d/dt
Time to failure.
. Stress and Temperature Effects
Creep becomes more pronounced at higher temperatures (Fig. 8.37). There is
essentially no creep at temperatures below 40% of the melting point.
Creep increases at higher applied stresses.
The behavior can be characterized by the following expression, where K, n and Q
c

are constants for a given material:
d/dt = K
n
exp(-Q
c
/RT)
. Data Extrapolation Methods (not covered.)
. Alloys for High-Temperature Use
These are needed for turbines in jet engines, hypersonic airplanes, nuclear reactors, etc. The
important factors are a high melting temperature, a high elastic modulus and large grain size (the
latter is opposite to what is desirable in low-temperature materials).
Some creep resistant materials are stainless steels, refractory metal alloys (containing elements
of high melting point, like Nb, Mo, W, Ta), and superalloys (based on Co, Ni, Fe.)