MANE-4030: Elements of Mechanical Design: Worksheet #9

3/3/11: Brittle fracture of ductile materials

A pinned-end structural member in a high-performance tanker is made of a 0.375-inch-
thick-by-5-inches-wide, rectangular cross-section, titanium Ti-6Al-4V bar, 48 inches
long. The member is normally subjected to a pure static tensile load of 154,400 lb.
Inspection of the member has indicated a central through-the-thickness crack of 0.50-inch
length, oriented perpendicular to the applied load. If a safety factor of n = 1.3 is required,
what reduced load limit for the member would you recommend for safe operation?

(a) First, you need to determine what are the potential failure modes. Yielding?
Fracture? Fatigue? Creep? In this case, static loading (thus, no fatigue) at low
temperatures (thus, no creep).

(b) First, consider yielding. Compute the average stress using the area supporting the
load (subtract out the crack area, not supporting the load). Compare this to the yield
strength to compute the safety factor against yielding (Note, there will be local
yielding in the vicinity of the crack tip, but if no global yielding across whole cross-
section, not a concern because yielding will be very constrained and the material will
work harden in this region). Is it satisfactory? If not, what should the load be
reduced to?

(c) Next, consider fracture due to crack propagation. What mode do we need to
consider? Plane strain or plane stress? Compute appropriate value of K
c
.

(d) Compute K
I
. Find appropriate figure to determine C. In computing K
I
, use gross
nominal stress (i.e. average stress in member away from the crack as shown in Fig.
5.17). Compare this to K
c
to compute the safety factor against fracture. Is it
satisfactory? If not, what should the load be reduced to?
EMD worksheet #9 solutions
Mar. 3, 2011
(a) The potential failure modes are yielding and fracture.
(b) The average stress in the plane of the crack is

average
=
P
A
=
154, 400 lb
(0.375 in)(5 0.50) in
= 91.5 ksi
From Tabel 5.2 we get the yield strength of Ti-6Al-4V: S
yp
= 119 ksi. The safety factor
guarding against yield is then:
n
y
=
S
yp

average
=
119 ksi
91.5 ksi
= 1.30
So failure by yielding is not predicted to occur.
(c) This is mode I fracture. The thickness of the member is B = 0.375 in. The minumum
material thickness for plane strain conditions is:
B
min
= 2.5
_
K
Ic
S
yp
_
2
= 2.5
_
96 ksi

in
119 ksi
_
2
= 1.627 in > 0.375; in
So we need to treat it as plane stress mode. From Equation (5-54):
K
c
= K
Ic
_
1 +
1.4
B
2
_
K
Ic
S
yp
_
4
_1
2
= 96 ksi

in
_
_
1 +
1.4
(0.375 in)
2
_
96 ksi

in
119 ksi
_
4
_
_
1
2
= 219.3 ksi

in
(d) Use Figure 5.17. Also note:
a
b
=
0.25
2.5
= 0.1 (where we assume the crack length give in
the problem statement is the total length of from crack-tip to crack-tip, i.e. 2a). We get:
C
_
1
_
a
b
_
= 0.96 C = 1.012
The nominal stress for use in Eqn. (5-51) is calculated as:

n
=
154, 400 lb
(0.375 in)(5 in)
= 82.3 ksi
1
Using Equation (5-51):
K
I
= C
n

a = (1.012)82.3 ksi
_
()0.25 in = 73.8 ksi

in < K
c
= 219.3ksi

in
So failure by fracture is not predicted to occur. Safety factor guarding against fracture is:
n
f
=
K
c
K
I
=
219.3
73.8
= 2.97
2