Fracture Of Materials

Fracture: is the separation of a solid body into two or more parts under the
action of stress.
The process of fracture can be considered to be made up of two components:-
a) Crack initiation.
b) Crack propagation.
Types of fracture:-
A) Amount of plastic deformation:
1) Ductile fracture
In this type there will be large amount of plastic deformation.
2) Brittle deformation
Rapid rate of crack propagation , little or no plastic deformation. The tendency for
brittle fracture is increased with decreasing temperature and increasing strain
rate.
B) Fracture surface:
3) Shear fracture
Occurs as a result of extensive slip on the active slip plane. The fracture surface
will be grey and fibrous.
4) Cleavage fracture
Is controlled by tensile stress acting normal to the cleavage plan. The fracture
surface appears to be bright or granular owing to reflection of light from the flat
cleavage surfaces.
C) Type of loading:
5) Creep fracture
Will occur under static load. The stress and temperature are constants.
6) Fatigue fracture
Occurs under cyclic loading.
D) Path of fracture:
Based on metallographic examination, fracture in polycrystalline materials can be
classified as:
a) Transgranular:
The crack propagates through the grains
 b) Intergranular:

The crack propagates along grain boundaries.

Theoretical Strength of Metals:

In general high cohesive forces are related to high melting points. The following
figure shows the variation of the cohesive force between two atoms as a function
of the separation between these atoms.

The above curve is the resultant of the attractive and repulsive forces between the
atoms. The interatomic spacing of the atoms in the unstrained condition is
indicated by αo . If the crystal is subjected to a tension load, the separation
between atoms will be increased. The repulsive force decreases more rapidly with
increased separation than the attractive force, so that a net force between atoms
balances the tensile load. As the tensile load is increased still further, the repulsive
force continues to decrease. A point is reached where the repulsive force is
negligible and the attractive force is decreasing because of the increased
separation of the atoms. This corresponds to the maximum in the curve, which is
equal to the theoretical cohesive strength of the material.

The curve force can be represented by a sine curve

max sin (1(

σmax : theoretical cohesive strength

= (α - αo) is the displacement in atomic spacing in a lattice with wave length ƛ

For small displacement (sin ) =

 max (2(

For elastic range of deformation apply Hock,s low:

(3(

Eliminating X from (2), (3)

σmax = (4)

When fracture occurs in a brittle solid, all of the work expanded in producing the
fracture goes into the creation of two new surfaces. Each surface has a surface
energy of ɤs erg/cm2 .

The work done per unit area of surface in creating the fracture is the area under
the stress- displacement curve.

∫ max. sin (

=
Sub. in equation (4) :-

σmax = ( ) (5)

Take: E= 1012 dyns/cm2, ao = 3x 10-8 cm, ɤs = 103 erg/cm2

∴ σmax = 1.8x 1011 dyn/cm2

Engineering materials have fracture stresses that are 10 to 1000 times lower than
the theoretical value. This leads to the consideration that cracks are responsible
for the lower fracture strength of materials.

In the presence of cracks, the maximum stress at the tip of the crack σmax :-

σmax = 2 σ ( ) (6)

Where 2c = crack length, L= Radius of curvature at the tip

Combining equations (5)<, (6) , we can solve for σ which is the nominal fracture
stress σf of the martial continuing cracks.

∴ σf = ( )
PUT L

∴ σf = ( )

E= 1012 dyns/cm2, ɤs = 103 erg/cm2, ao = 3x 10-8 cm , L

Crack length = 104

∴ σf = E/1000
∴ the presence of small crack causes large decrease in the stress for fracture.
Griffith theory of brittle fracture:-

The crack will propagate when the stress at the crack tip will be ≥ theoretical
cohesive stress. This can also be represented by the Griffith criterion:-

The crack will propagate when the decrease in elastic strain energy ≥ energy
needed for crack propagation (for the formation of the new surface).

The stress distribution for an elliptical crack was determined by "Inglis".

A decrease in strain energy results from the formation of the crack.

The elastic strain energy per unit of plate thickness is:-

UE =
Where is the tensile stress acting normal to the crack length 2c. A negative sign is
used because growth of the crack releases elastic strain energy. The surface
energy duo to the presence of crack is :-

Us = 4c ɤs
The total change in energy will be :-

∆U = Us+ UE
According to Griffith's criterion, the crack will propagate under constant stress σ if
an incremental increase un crack length produces no change in the total energy of
the system.

= ( )

∴ σ=( )
The above equation gives the stress required to propagate crack as function of the
size of crack. This equation indicates that σ is inversely proportional to ( . Thus
increasing the crack length by a factor of 4 reduces the fracture stress by one half.

Metallographic aspects of fracture:-

Metallographic evidence of the formation of microcracks at nanometallic

inclusions in steel as result of plastic deformation has excited for many years.
Brittle fracture will occur in three steps:

a) Formation of dislocation pile- ups.

b) Crack initiation.
c) Crack propagation.

The initiation of microcracks can be greatly influenced by the presence of second

phase particles.
Most brittle fractures occur in a transgranular manner. If the grain boundaries
contain a film of brittle material, the fracture will be of an intergranular manner.

Considerable amount of Information can be obtained by examining the surfaces of

the fracture; this is known as "Fractography".

Dislocation theories of brittle fracture:-

The process of brittle fracture consists of the stages:

a) The pile- up of dislocations along their slip planes at an obstacle.

b) The build up of shear stresses at the head of pile- up to nucleate a mico-
crack.
c) The growth of the cracks which will lead t fracture.

"Zener" was the first one to suggest a theory for microcrack formation.

τ
L
++++++++++++++++
+
SOURCE

2C

Zener mechanism for crack formation at a pile up of edge dislocations"

The shear stress acting on the slip plane forces the dislocations together. At some
critical value of stress the dislocations at the head of the pile up are pushed to
close together that they form a wedge crack or cavity dislocation.. The crack grows
as long as the dislocation source continues to force dislocations into the pile- up.

Ductile fracture:-

Ductile fractures are high energy fractures. The amount of plastic deformation is
large. Deformation occurs by slip. Slip occurs in an atomic scale and can be varied
as the movement or sliding of one layer over the other. To calculate the stress
necessary to cause slip ( Tmax ), It is assumed that the stress varies sinusoidally with
distance between stable atomic positions.

τ
τ τmax sin ( ----)1(

∵ τ=Gγ o o o o
-----b----
o O o o
γ=
b
o o o o
∴τ G ---- )2(

τ
Where:

τ : shear stress, τ max: maximum shear stress.

a: distance between atomic positions in the direction of slip

b: distance between atomic positions normal to the slip directions

x: distance in direction of slip. γ :Shear strain G :Shear modulus.

For small movements:

Sin ( )

∴τ τmax . G

∴ τ max = G ----(3)