MECHANICAL FAILURE

ISSUES TO ADDRESS...
How do flaws in a material initiate failure?
How is fracture resistance quantified; how do different
material classes compare?
How do we estimate the stress to fracture?
How do loading rate, loading history, and temperature
affect the failure stress?

Ship-cyclic loading
from waves.
Adapted from Fig. 8.0, Callister 6e. (Fig.
8.0 is by Neil Boenzi, The New York
Times.)

Computer chip-cyclic
thermal loading.
Adapted from Fig. 18.11W(b), Callister 6e.
(Fig. 18.11W(b) is courtesy of National
Semiconductor Corporation.)

Hip implant-cyclic
loading from walking.
Adapted from Fig.
17.19(b), Callister 6e.
Chapter 8- 1

Mechanical Failure
The usual causes for failure are:
Improper materials selection and processing
Inadequate design
Misuse

Cost of failure
1000 Billions of $ or YTL annually
Loss of human life !

Chapter 8-

Fracture mechanisms
Ductile fracture
Occurs with plastic deformation

Brittle fracture
Little or no plastic deformation
Catastrophic

Chapter 8 -

DUCTILE VS BRITTLE FAILURE

Classification:
Substantial plastic deformation
Absorb high amounts of energy
before fracture
What is the reduction in x-sectional
area ?

Adapted from Fig. 8.1, Callister

6e.

Ductile
fracture is
desirable!

Ductile:
warning before
fracture

Brittle:
No warning
Failure is catastrophic
Chapter 8- 2

Ductile vs. Brittle Failure

cup-and-cone fracture

brittle fracture

Adapted from Fig. 8.3, Callister 7e.

Chapter 8-

Chapter 8-

S=F/d

s=S/ao e

E=S/ao

Chapter 8-

Chapter 8-

Chapter 8-

10

Chapter 8-

11

Chapter 8-

(c) 2003 Brooks/Cole Publishing / Thomson Learning

Figure 4.17 The effect of grain size on the yield

strength of steel at room temperature.

12

Chapter 8-

13

Chapter 8-

14

Chapter 8-

Fracture, in detail
Two steps involved in fracture:
Crack formation
Crack growth

Two fracture modes can be defined

Ductile (preferred, most metals and some polymers)
extensive plastic deformation in the vicinity of a crack
Extension of crack length requires an increase in the applied load,
hence crack is stable unless stress is increased. Crack propagation
is therefore slow

Brittle (undesired, ceramics, metals at low temperatures)

Takes place w/o appreciable plastic deformation
Crack is unstable, will propagate with high speed once formed and
w/o increase in applied stress
Chapter 8-

TOUGHNESS & RESILIENCE

Energy to break a unit volume of material
Approximate by the area under the stress-strain
curve.
Engineering
tensile
stress, s

smaller toughness (ceramics)

larg er toughness
(metals, PMCs)
smaller toughnessunreinforced
polymers

Engineering tensile strain,

RESILIENCE is energy stored in the material w/o plastic deformation ! Ur = y2 / 2 E

TOUGHNESS is total energy stored in the material upon fracture !

Chapter 8- 20

Heverill Fire Department aerial ladder

failure from:
http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/WofMatE/FailureA
naly.htm

From http://plane-truth.com/comet.htm
Chapter 8-

Anything peculiar in this image !

From http://plane-truth.com/comet.htm

Chapter 8-

Engineering Fracture Design

Avoid sharp corners!
s
so
max
Stress Conc. Factor, K t = s
sw

max

r,
fillet
radius

2.5

Adapted from Fig.

8.2W(c), Callister 6e.
(Fig. 8.2W(c) is from G.H.
Neugebauer, Prod. Eng.
(NY), Vol. 14, pp. 82-87
1943.)

2.0

increasing w/h

1.5
1.0

0.5
1.0
sharper fillet radius

r/h

Chapter 8-

FLAWS ARE STRESS CONCENTRATORS!

Elliptical hole in
a plate:

Stress distrib. in front of a hole:

a
smax s 2
o r
t

rt
Stress concentration factor:
Large Kt promotes failure:
NOT
SO
BAD

K t =2

Sharper cracks amplify stress !

More important for brittle materials
as in ductile material Plas. Dfm
takes place and stress is distributed
more uniformly around a crack !
Chapter 8- 7

Moderately Ductile Failure

Evolution to failure:
necking

Resulting
fracture
surfaces

void
nucleation

void growth
and linkage

shearing
at surface

fracture

50
50mm
mm

(steel)
100 mm
particles
serve as void
nucleation
sites.

From V.J. Colangelo and F.A. Heiser,

Analysis of Metallurgical Failures (2nd
ed.), Fig. 11.28, p. 294, John Wiley and
Sons, Inc., 1987. (Orig. source: P.
Thornton, J. Mater. Sci., Vol. 6, 1971, pp.
347-56.)

Fracture surface of tire cord wire

loaded in tension. Courtesy of F.
Roehrig, CC Technologies, Dublin,
OH. Used with permission.
Chapter 8-

Ideal vs Real Materials

Stress-strain behavior (Room T):
E/10

s perfect matl-no flaws

TSengineering << TS perfect

carefully produced glass fiber

E/100

typical ceramic
0.1

materials

materials

typical strengthened metal

typical polymer

DaVinci (500 yrs ago!) observed...

-- the longer the wire, the
smaller the load for failure.
Reasons:
-- flaws cause premature failure.
-- Larger samples contain more flaws!

Reprinted w/
permission from R.W.
Hertzberg,
"Deformation and
Fracture Mechanics
of Engineering
Materials", (4th ed.)
Fig. 7.4. John Wiley
and Sons, Inc., 1996.

Chapter 8-

Flaws ; Stress concentrators

Fracture strength of a brittle solid is related to the
cohesive forces between atoms, bond strength. It
can be estimated that the theoretical cohesive
strength of a brittle material should be around ~
E/10. But experimental fracture strength is
normally E/100 - E/10,000.
Much lower fracture strength is explained by the
effect of stress concentration at microscopic
flaws. The applied stress is amplified at the tips
of micro-cracks, voids, notches, surface
scratches, corners, etc. that are called stress
concentrators raisers.
The magnitude of this amplification depends on
micro-crack orientations, geometry and
dimensions.
Chapter 8-

Loading Rate
Increased loading rate...
-- increases sy and TS
-- decreases %EL

s
sy

TS

Why? An increased rate

gives less time for
dislocations to move past
obstacles.

e
larger
TS

e
smaller

sy
e
Chapter 8-

Ductile Fracture
Cup

Cone

SEM of the fracture surface:

Fractographic studies
Dimples, micro-cavities that
initiate crack formation, on the
surface will be observed during
high resolution investigation of
the cup and cone type fracture
surfaces.

Cup and cone fracture in Aluminum

Micro-void

Dimple
Chapter 8-

Brittle Fracture Surfaces

Intragranular

Intergranular
(between grains)

4 mm

304 S. Steel
(metal)

(within grains)
316 S. Steel
(metal)

Reprinted w/permission
from "Metals Handbook",
Reprinted w/ permission
9th ed, Fig. 633, p. 650.
from "Metals Handbook",
Copyright 1985, ASM
9th ed, Fig. 650, p. 357.
International, Materials
Copyright 1985, ASM
Park, OH. (Micrograph by
International, Materials
J.R. Keiser and A.R.
Park, OH. (Micrograph by
Olsen, Oak Ridge
D.R. Diercks, Argonne
National Lab.)
National Lab.)

Polypropylene
(polymer)
Reprinted w/ permission
from R.W. Hertzberg,
"Defor-mation and
Fracture Mechanics of
Engineering Materials",
(4th ed.) Fig. 7.35(d), p.
303, John Wiley and
Sons, Inc., 1996.

160 mm

Al Oxide
(ceramic)
Reprinted w/ permission
from "Failure Analysis of
Brittle Materials", p. 78.
Copyright 1990, The
American Ceramic
Society, Westerville, OH.
(Micrograph by R.M.
Gruver and H. Kirchner.)

3 mm

1 mm
(Orig. source: K. Friedrick, Fracture 1977, Vol.
3, ICF4, Waterloo, CA, 1977, p. 1119.)

Chapter 8-

Impact Testing
Impact loading:

(Charpy)

-- severe testing case

-- makes material more brittle
-- decreases toughness
Adapted from Fig. 8.12(b),
Callister 7e. (Fig. 8.12(b) is
adapted from H.W. Hayden,
W.G. Moffatt, and J. Wulff, The
Structure and Properties of
Materials, Vol. III, Mechanical
Behavior, John Wiley and Sons,
Inc. (1965) p. 13.)

final height

initial height

Chapter 8-

Temperature
Increasing temperature...
--increases %EL and Kc

Ductile-to-Brittle Transition Temperature (DBTT)...

Impact Energy

FCC metals (e.g., Cu, Ni)

BCC metals (e.g., iron at T < 914C)
polymers
Brittle

More Ductile
High strength materials (s y > E/150)

Temperature

Adapted from Fig. 8.15,

Callister 7e.

Ductile-to-brittle
transition temperature
Chapter 8-

DBTT

1.
2.
3.
4.

As temperature decreases a ductile material can become behave brittle

- ductile-to-brittle transition
FCC metals remain ductile down to very low temperatures.
For ceramics, this type of transition occurs at much higher
temperatures than for metals.
The ductile-to-brittle transition can be measured by impact testing: the
impact energy needed for fracture drops suddenly over a relatively
narrow temperature range temperature of the ductile-to-brittle
transition.

Chapter 8-

Design Strategy:
Stay Above The DBTT!
Pre-WWII: The Titanic

Reprinted w/ permission from R.W. Hertzberg,

"Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering
Materials", (4th ed.) Fig. 7.1(a), p. 262, John Wiley and
Sons, Inc., 1996. (Orig. source: Dr. Robert D. Ballard,
The Discovery of the Titanic.)

WWII: Liberty ships

Reprinted w/ permission from R.W. Hertzberg,

"Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering
Materials", (4th ed.) Fig. 7.1(b), p. 262, John Wiley and
Sons, Inc., 1996. (Orig. source: Earl R. Parker,
"Behavior of Engineering Structures", Nat. Acad. Sci.,
Nat. Res. Council, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., NY,
1957.)

Problem: Used a type of steel with a DBTT ~ Room temp.

Chapter 8-

Fracture

Chapter 8 -

Plane stress

Chapter 8 -

Hardness test onto brittle

materials

E
Kic 0.014
H

0. 5

P
C 3/ 2

Chapter 8 - 33

Energy release rate G and toughness Gc

G >2 [J/m2]

Chapter 8 -

Elasticity theory

s ij

K1
2r

Fij ( ) C1 r 0 C 2 r 1 / 2 ....

Dimensionless analysis

s ij

f b s a
2r

K1 f bs a

Fij ( )

Thermodinamic analysis

dW dUe dUs

dS
dS
dS

K 2 (1 2 )
2 G I
E
Chapter 8 - 35

Chapter 8 -

Chapter 8 -

Chapter 8 -

Chapter 8 -

Chapter 8 -

Chapter 8 -

Manipulating FT. in metals

Chapter 8 -

Manipulating FT. in polymers

Chapter 8 -

Manipulating FT. in ceramics and

composites

Chapter 8 -

Design Against Crack Growth

Crack growth condition:

K Kc = Ys a
Largest, most stressed cracks grow first!
--Result 1: Max. flaw size
dictates design stress.

sdesign

Kc

Y amax

--Result 2: Design stress

dictates max. flaw size.

amax

1 K c

Ysdesign

amax

s
fracture
no
fracture

fracture

amax

no
fracture

s
Chapter 8 -

Design Example: Aircraft Wing

Material has Kc = 26 MPa-m0.5
Two designs to consider...
Design A
--largest flaw is 9 mm
--failure stress = 112 MPa

Use...

sc

Kc
Y amax

Design B
--use same material
--largest flaw is 4 mm
--failure stress = ?

Key point: Y and Kc are the same in both designs.

--Result:

112 MPa

sc

9 mm

amax

A sc

Reducing flaw size pays off!

4 mm

amax

Answer: (sc )B 168 MPa

Chapter 8 -

Mechanical Failure:
How
do
materials
break
?
Fracture: crack growth to rupture at a critical load
Ductile vs Brittle fracture
Principles of Fracture Mechanics
Stress Concentration

Impact Fracture Testing

Fatigue: crack growth due to cycling loads

Cyclic stresses, the S-N curve
Crack initiation and propagation
Factors that effect fatigue behavior

Creep: high temperature plastic deformation

Stress and temperature effects
Alloys for hi-temperature usage

Chapter 8 -