Fractography

Fundamental Failure
Types

Ductile and Brittle

Failure

Ductile Failure

Ductile Failure

Brittle Failure

Brittle Fracture

Intergranular and
Transgranular Fracture
Macroscopically a
grainy and faceted
appearance as a
result of changes
in orientation of
cleavage
planes
from grain to grain

Three dimensional nature of grains

Fatigue Crack

Three steps:

Initiation

Fatigue crack propagation

final failure (when area decreases sufficiently)

Fatigue life:

Nf = Ni + Np

failure
high cycle fatigue ( Low stress levels):

Ni is the number of cycles to initiate fracture

Np is the number of cycles to propagate to

most of the life is spent in crack initiation

and Ni is high
low cycle fatigue (High Stress levels):

propagation step predominates and Np>Ni

Fatigue Crack (Contd)

Cracks that cause fatigue failure
almost always initiate/nucleate at
component surface at some stress
concentration: scratches, dents,
fillets, keyways, threads, weld
beads/spatter..
On very smooth surfaces, SLIP steps
can act as stress raisers
Fracture Mechanisms
stage I propagation
crack tends to grow initially along
crystallographic planes of high
shear stress:
high stresses and notches tend to
shorten this stage.
It may only propagate over a few
grains.
Length of stage I is controlled by

Beachmarks are macroscopic

evidence of fatigue and can be
observed with the naked eye
classical fatigue fracture surface
(clam-shell markings)
always concentric with the
fracture origin
caused by interrupted loading,
e.g. machine being switched on
and off during stage II
propagation
These marks DO NOT indicate
the crack growth per stress
cycle.

Fractography of Fatigue

Fatigue striations are microscopic

and require a scanning electron
microscope (SEM) to observe them
each beachmark is composed of
thousands of striations
results from incremental advance
of the fatigue crack during stage II
propagation region of crack is
usually relatively smooth and often
discoloured in relation to the final
fracture
Each of these microscopic
striations is usually caused by one
stress cycle.
If the stress increases, the
spacing usually increases.
Can count striations/mm to get

Beachmarks and striations

will not appear on that region
over which the rapid failure
occurs.
Rather, the rapid failure may be
either ductile or brittle;
evidence of plastic deformation
will be present for ductile failure
and absent for brittle failure.

Fatigue fracture
surface
At low magnifications,

The beach mark pattern

indicates fatigue as the fracture
mechanism.
The arrows show the direction
of growth of the crack front,
whose origin is at the bottom of
the photograph.

At very high magnifications

spaced striations formed during
fatigue are observed (x 1000).

Questions

chevrons plural ofchevron(Noun)

Noun
1.A line or stripe in the shape of a V or an
inverted V, esp. one on the sleeve of a
uniform indicating rank or length of service.
2.An ordinary in the form of a broad inverted
V-shape.

 facet(fst)n.1.One

of the flat
polished surfaces cut on a gemstone
or occurring naturally on a crystal.
2.AnatomyA small, smooth, flat
surface, as on a bone or tooth.
3.BiologyOne of the lenslike visual
units of a compound eye, as of an
insect.
4.One of numerous aspects, as of a
subject. See Synonyms atphase.