Chapter 11 Note

Failure of Engineering Materials

Fracture of a material occurs in the following ways:

 Slow application of external loads (tensile loading)
 Rapid application of external loads (impact loading)
 Cyclic Loading (Fatigue)
 Time-dependent deformation (creep)
 Internal stresses – e.g.; thermal stresses cause by anisotropy of CTE or temperature differences in a material
 Environmental effects (stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen embrittlement)

Common causes of fracture:

 Incorrect material selection
 Poor design
 Use of new design or material; which produces unexpected results
 Damage during use

Failure is undesirable because

 Human lives are risk
 Economic losses
 Interference with availability of products and services

Fracture is the separation of a body into two or more pieces in response to an imposed stress, which can be:
 Static (i.e., constant or slowly changing with time)
 Fatigue (cyclic stresses are imposed)
 Creep (time--dependent deformation, normally at elevated temperatures)

Fracture of a material occurs when:

1. Energetically possible
2. Fracture mechanism is available

Fracture process involves two steps:

1. Crack Initiation
2. Crack Propagation

There are two fracture modes:

1. Ductile Failure (High Energy): preceded by plastic deformation. Often the crack will only propagate with
additional applied stress (stable crack)
2. Brittle Failure (Low Energy): no plastic deformation (crack is unstable)

The mode of fracture is highly dependent on the mechanism of crack propagation

Ductile Fracture is preferred to brittle because

 Brittle fracture occurs suddenly without any warning – due to the spontaneous and rapid crack propagation.
 Ductile fracture: plastic deformation gives warning that failure is imminent, allowing preventive measures to
be taken
 More strain energy is required to induce ductile fracture
Ductile Fracture  Rough Surface
Brittle Fracture  Smooth Surface

Stages in the cup-and-cone fracture

1. Initial necking
2. Small cavity formation
3. Coalescence of cavities to form a crack
4. Crack propagation
5. Final shear fracture at a 45o relative to the tensile direction

In order to prevent fracture, we must know how and under what conditions materials fail

Designing a fracture control plan requires knowledge of the structural strength as it is affected by cracks, and the
time involved for cracks to grow to a dangerous size.
Meaning that cracks must be prevented from growing to a size at which the strength would drop below the
acceptable limit. In order to determine which size of cracks is admissible one must be able to:
1. Calculate the structural strength affected by cracks
2. Calculate the time in which a crack grows to a permissible size

The process of fracture is made up of two components: crack initiation

and crack propagation. These 2 processes are preceded by damage
accumulation – (associated with material properties: crystal structure,
grain boundaries, and prior loading history)

Fracture Mechanics
1. Effect of Cracks and Notches (stress
concentration)
Notches and cracks give rise to a stress
concentration (local region where the
stresses are higher than average)
2. Stress Concentration Factor
At the region near the notch or crack tip,
the stress is higher than the average value
is called stress raiser or stress
concentrator

The stress concentration is expressed by a

theoretical stress concentration factor, kt,
described as the ratio of max stress to
applied stress
Kt = m/0
As a general rule, blunt notches, e.g: a round hole, produce lower
stress, sharp notches cause higher stresses
 The effect of a stress
concentrator is more
significant in brittle than
in ductile materials

In ductile metals, plastic

deformation causes a
more uniform
distribution of stress in
the vicinity of the stress
concentrator

The Critical stress required for crack propagation in a brittle material is:
E: Modulus of elasticity
𝜸s: Specific surface energy
a: half the length of an internal crack

Fracture Toughness
Using the principles of fracture mechanics, an expression relating the critical stress for cracking propagation (σc) and
crack length (a)
Possible Fracture Modes:
1. Opening, Tension
2. Sliding, Shear
3. Tearing, Shear

A pre-existing crack will propagate when the stress intensity factor reaches a critical value called fracture toughness

N= KIC / Kr

Kt < KIC  Crack will not propagate

Kt > KIC  Crack will propagate

Fatigue
Fatigue failure is fracture under repeated cyclic or fluctuating stresses (mechanical or thermal) that are less than the
tensile strength of the material
Fatigue fractures are progressive, and always start at a crack that grow under the action of cyclic stress. There are
three stages in fatigue failure:
1. Crack Initiation (Short Duration)
2. Crack Propagation (Most of the part life)
3. Final Fracture (occurs due to unstable crack growth)

The initiation site is very small, extending only about two to five grains around the origin. The location of the
initiation is at a stress concentration and may be difficult to distinguish from the succeeding stage of propagation, or
crack growth. The crack initiation site is always parallel to the shear stress direction.

 Fatigue failures are common in moving parts such as shafts, connecting rods, rgears, axles and springs in
applications such aircraft and automotive.
 A bridge also undergoes cyclic loading in service according to the pattern of traffic flow and the force of the
wind.
 It is estimated that 90% of all engineering failures are due to fatigue
 Fatigue failure appears brittle even in ductile materials
 Fatigue failure occurs due to cumulative actions of thousands or millions of load cycles, which result in
initiation and then propagation of cracks.
 Fatigue failure usually occurs at stress concentrators and/ or surfaces

A fatigue cycle is a single

segment of the stress function
that is periodically
repeated.
For example, in reversed stress
cycle one cycle consists of
ZERO--TENSION-ZERO-
-COMPRESSION--ZERO
Fatigue life of a component is defined as the total number of stress cycles to cause failure, Nf
This fatigue life can be expressed as consisting of 3 stages:
1. Crack initiation
2. Crack propagation
3. Fast Fracture

This gives:
Nf = Ni + Np

Ni: number of cycles required to initiate a crack (depends on stress level, stress
concentrations, imperfections, environment, etc…)
Np: number of cycles required to propagate a crack (depends on stress level,
microstructure and environment)

Factors Affecting Fatigue Life

Mechanical factors, Microstructural factors, and Environmental factors
1. Mechanical Factors
a. Mean Stress
b. Surface effects - fatigue life is sensitive to the condition of the component surface (scratches, polishing)
c. Stress Concentration – design factors

a. Mean Stress
Much of the fatigue data have been determined for conditions of completely reversed stresses where m = 0
However in practice, conditions of where m  0 exist

There are three stages in fatigue failure:

1. Crack initiation (fatigue always starts at a crack)
2. Crack propagation
3. Fast fracture, which can be ductile or brittle (failure with no
warning)
Stage I Crack Growth

Cyclic Stress causes dislocation movements

A slip band develops within a grain and then accumulates permanent damage
This damage results in intrusions and extrusions and a crack is initiated
Slow propagation of a crack along crystal planes with high resolved shear stress

Stage II Crack Growth

The crack that leads to fracture is usually nucleated in a slip band on which
the maximum shear stress is acting
This is because slip is a shear process so more plastic deformation will occur
in slip bands on which the max shear stress is acting than in other slip bands
In stage II, the crack propagates very fast normal to the applied stress
The crack will eventually reach a critical size and failure occurs

Appearance of Fatigue: Two Different regions can be distinguished

1. Smooth Region, through which the crack has grown under cyclic
loading. “Beach marks” are characteristics of fatigue failure and may
indicate crack origin
2. Rough Area: covered by the crack during the final fracture where the
component has failed in a ductile manner when the cross section was
no longer able to carry the load

Creep, what is Creep?

Time – dependent plastic deformation,
which generally occurs at high temperatures
(T > 0.4Tm) under an applied load
Creep is important in applications such:
turbine blades, gas turbines, power plants
which must operate at high stresses and high
temperatures without any changes in
dimensions

Creep behaviour of a metal is determined by

measuring the strain deformation as
function of time under constant stress

Mechanisms for creep in metals include:

1. Dislocation motion
2. Grain boundary sliding
3. Diffusion Creep