30-03-10 Senior Welding Inspection Preparatory for CSWIP 3.2 Fractured Surfaces Course Lecturers Notes Tony Whitaker Inc’ Eng. M Weld I. EWE. IWE. EWI IWI LCG Principal Lecturer/Examiner TWI W1yiddle EastFractured Surfaces Fatigue is a mechanism of failure experienced by materials under the action of a cyclic stress. It involves initiation and growth of a crack under an applied stress amplitude that may lay well within the static capacity of the material. Discontinuities such as changes in section or material flaws are favoured sites for fatigue initiation. During subsequent propagation the crack grows a microscopic amount with each load cycle. The crack so- formed often remains tightly closed, and thus difficult to find by visual inspection during the majority of the life. If cracking remains undiscovered, there is a risk that it may spread across a significant portion of the load-bearing cross section, leading to final separation by fracture of the remaining ligament. Fatigue cracks occur in many materials including metals, plastics, composites and ceramics. It is the most common mode of failure in structural and mechanical engineering components. Fatigue failure is synonymous with the aviation industry poor design of the first jet airliner the De- Havilland Comet 4C caused fatigue failures with loss of all life on two aircraft after only 10,000 hrs of flying time. Remediation included the changing of the window design to a more ovular form with much lower stress concentration. The latest A 380 Air Bus is protected in highly stressed areas by the use of a laminated aluminium/glass structure termed GLARE that can arrest any fatigue crack between its laminations of 5 — 20 layers with the expected fatigue service life of the aircraft being extended from 20 — 50+ years. ‘The fatigue phenomenon has been investigated extensively over many decades, particularly in metals and metallic alloys and as a result design guidance is readily available in many texis and is widely codified. Joints in materials are particularly susceptible to fatigue and therefore need to be designed with care for cyclic loading. Fatigue design rules for welded and bolted connections in steel can be found in many national standards, e.g. BS 7608 and BS 5400 widely used in the UK. Morphology: Fatigue cracks generally exhibit a smooth polished surface (caused by burishing) and propagate at 90° to the direction of applied stress. The initiation points can usually be identified as weld flaws/features, machining marks or geometrical stress raisers. In some instances striations and beachmarks can be seen. Striations can be viewed using and electron microscope and are a record of the crack growing under each loading cycle. Beachmarks can be seen with the naked eye and can indicate a change in loading pattern. Both of these phenomena can be used to estimate the fatigue crack growth rate. Fatigue cracks continue to grow until the increasing level of stress cannot be supported with the final few cycles inducing larger amounts of fracture surface and final fracture occurs. ‘The final fracture surface will show an area of fatigue failure emanating from the fracture initiation point, with the fractured surface characterised by beach marks. These beach marks may no longer be visible due to burnishing caused by metal/metal contact, though the final beachmark at the point of final failure is as a rule generally always present. Senior Welding Inspector Rev 30-03-10 Fractured Surfaces ‘Tony Whitaker Principal Lecturer TWL Vjiddle East |Beachmarks — initiation site arrowed Fatigue desig The standard method of representing fatigue test data is on an S-N curve. This plots either the stress or strain range on the y-axis and the number of cycles to failure on the x-axis. ‘The lower the stress range, the more cycles are required to cause failure. When potted on logarithmic axes the data for a particular specimen type can be approximated to a straight line between 10° and 10’ cycles. Under constant amplitude loading conditions most materials exhibit a fatigue limit. It is believed that tests performed at stress ranges below this limit will never cause a fatigue failure. For un-welded steels the fatigue limit occurs at approximately 2 million cycles, for welded steels and aluminium alloys this is closer to 10 million cycles. Because of the relatively low fatigue limit, aircraft components made from aluminium alloys have a finite lifespan, after which they are replaced. Fatigue is generally independent of rate of loading and temperature except at very high temperatures when creep is likely. However, the presence of a corrosive environment e.g. sea-water) can have a significant detrimental effect on fatigue performance in the form of corrosion fatigue. ‘Senior Welding Inspector Rev 30-03-10 Fractured Surfaces ‘Tony Whitaker Principal Lecturer TWL Middle ast 2fog (stress or strain) Sue “Er 4 103 © 104 = 405 108 = 107 108 1g (lite in cycles, N) Typical S-N curve Flaw assessment: In welded joints, fabrication flaws may give rise to premature fatigue failure, particularly planar flaws such as lack of fusion. Using fracture mechanics, the rate at which fatigue cracking will grow from such features can be estimated, and in this way tolerable flaw sizes can be derived. British Standard 7910 provides detailed guidance on this method of assessment. Factors to be sidered when investigating a fatigue fai Fatigue cracks initiate at areas of stress concentration such as discontinuities, weldments or sires of mechanical damage, They are a result of cyclic loading and can occur at stress ranges well below the material’s UTS. It is of prime importance to understand the nature (vibration, thermal, mechanical etc.) and magnitude of the loading in order to prevent failure. Often the final failure of the component/structure will be due to brittle or ductile fracture, therefore the fracture surface will show a combination of failure modes. Remediai For weldments where fatigue is known to be a problem, life extension techniques such as ‘weld toe burr machining, TIG dressing and pening can be used. These are effective but Jabour intensive and therefore expensive. Shot blasting will also increase the surface life of fatigue loaded structures by placing the weld face into compression; as with peening. Senior Welding Inspector Rev 30-03-10 Fractured Surfaces ‘Tony Whitaker Principal Lecturer TWI 1fiddle East 3Brittle Fracture: Brittle fracture is the rapid run of a crack(s) through a stressed material. There is very little prior plastic deformation and so failures occur without warning. In brittle fracture the cracks run close to perpendicular to the applied stress, leaving a relatively flat surface at the break. A brittle fracture surface may exhibit one or more of the following features. Some fractures have lines and ridges beginning at the origin of the crack and spreading ‘out across the crack surface. Others, some steels for example, have back-to-back V- shaped ‘Chevron’ markings pointing to the origin of the crack. Amorphous materials such as ceramic glass have a shiny smooth fracture surface and very hard or fine-grained materials may show no special pattern. g Ridge Fracture Surface In common with fatigue fractures all brittle fractures require a point of initiation, and therefore generally formed at areas of high stress concentration. This could be from a weld toe, undercut, arc strike, or could possibly be at the tip of a freshly initiated fatigue crack, as is though to have been the case with the Liberty Vessels sunk during the 2" World War and which often sailed through the icy cold and tempestuous Artic Ocean in order to avoid detection and destruction from the German U Boat torpedoes. Fatigue cracks are thought to have initiated at the square hatches through bad design, as in order to increase shipping production faster than shipping losses due to sinking the Liberty Vessels were the first welded vessels in the history of ship construction. ‘Senior Welding Inspector Rev 30-03-10 Fractured Surfaces ‘Tony Whitaker Principal Lecturer TWI idle Gast 4When compared with brittle fractures, ductile fractures move relatively slowly and the failure is usually accompanied by a large amount of plastic deformation. Ductile fracture surfaces have larger necked regions and an overall rougher appearance than a brittle fracture surface. The failure of many ductile materials can be attributed to cup and cone fracture. This form of ductile fracture occurs in stages that initiate after necking begins. parr i hs Be Plane Strain Effect A condition found in linear elastic fracture mechanics in which there is zero strain in a direction normal to both the axis of applied tensile stress and the direction of crack growth, Under plane strain conditions, the plane of fracture instability is normal to the axis of principal stress. This condition is found in thick plates. Along the crack border stress conditions change from plane strain in the body of the metal towards plane stress at the surface, this is displayed by the appearance of thin bands, caused by intense shear, that break through to the free surface. The structure now becomes a mechanism, and where plasticity breaks through to the surface shear lips will be observed. f | E> G>6 >: Fracture ea =0 ica on ae cheraton Plone = recrine Sas" Bore Fracte Aer roche A ‘Section AA Plane strain fracture: - plastic zone diameter ro much less than sample thickness ‘Senior Welding Inspector Rev 30-03-10 Fractured Surfaces ‘Tony Whitaker Principal Lecturer TWLnpiddte East 5Synopsis: 1) Fatigue failures Generally produce beach marks indicating boundaries of plastic slip, generally > x 1 x 10° eycles. The fracture initiation point forms generally from a stress concentration i.e. weld toe, crack, or an abrupt change in section and can generally be identified at the epicenter of the beach marl/radii, Never the final, but very often the first mode of fracture, fatigue failures are generally normal (90° degrees) to the plane of the applied cyclic stress. Fatigue failure is the commonest form of failure due to Cyclic loading conditions. 2) Ductile failures Generally occur at 45° degrees to plain of the applied stress with the fracture surface having a rough or tom appearance, They often occur as a second or final mode of failure in a fatigue specimen and may be accompanied by shear lips or plastic deformation. Ductile failure is the commonest form of failure due to Static over loading conditions. 3) Brittle fracture Generally occur at 90° degrees to the applied stress with the fracture surface having a smooth crystalline appearance. Again the fracture initiation point forms generally from a stress concentration i.e, welded toe, crack, or abrupt change in section and can be often be identified by the presence of chevrons, which point to the fracture initiation point. Failures that initiate as brittle fractures are unlikely to show evidence representing any other forms of fracture morphology upon their surfaces, though this may be possible. When initiated as Brittle Fractures surfaces do not show plastic indications and generally remain purely as britle fractures, traveling in excess of the speed of sound. Brittle fracture is most commonly associated with sub zero or cryogenic conditions. 4) Plane Strain Effect Flat areas occurring at 90° degrees indicating the plane strain effect may also appear centrally upon fractured surfaces, and are caused by the inelastic behavior in larger material thickness, in otherwise ductile specimens. It is thus possible to find a single fracture surface showing 12 & 4 of the above characteristics, as in the ductile CTOD or Crack Tip Opening Displacement Test shown on the following page. Senior Welding Inspedtor Rev 30-03-10 Fractured Surfaces ‘Tony Whitaker Principal Lecturer TWLAWYiddte East 6Observations for fracture surface reports: 1) Draw a neat sketch of the plan of the fractured surface and any supporting views. 2) Look for clues indicating initial mode of fracture i.e. Beach marks and burnished highly polished surfaces at 90° to the plane of the stress for Fatigue ot rough crystalline surfaces with chevrons similarly at 90° for Brittle fracture, Du failures in contrast show a fearing failure at 45° to the plane of the stress. 3) Identify fracture initiation point i.e. Epicenter of beach mark/radii for Fatigue or direction and start point of any chevrons for Brittle. Look for stress raisers. 4) Enter any secondary indication or modes of failure i.e. ductile failure as final failure in fatigue fractures. This usually shows tearing, and/or shear lips and a characteristic failure at 45° to plane of stress. 5) Fractures that initiate as brittle fracture generally remain in that single mode however it is possible for a fatigue crack to fail as a brittle fracture in the event that a change of temperature is experienced during a cycle taking steel beyond its ductile/britile transition zone. Brittle fractures fail at 90° to the plane of stress. 6) Any flat crystalline areas appearing centrally between areas of duetile or fatigue failure are most usually caused by the plane strain effect. This occurs when ‘central fibers of the material are taken beyond UTS but are restricted from failure by support of outer fibers, hence when failure occurs the plane of the fracture is at 90° although the outer fibers show as characteristic 45° ductile failure. 7) The final report should show the full information of initiation point, initial mode and areas that can be observed on the fracture surface as a value of area % . Machined Notch CTOD | \v . Grown Fatigue Crack x Beach mark . Ductile Plastic Failure celafle Shear Lips € . Plane Strain a) Initiation point is at the tip of the machined notch (CTOD specimen) b) Initial mode of failure is at 90° to load. Fatigue 20% (Beach mark) ©) Secondary mode of failure is at 45° to load. Ductile 60% (Shear lips) 4) Central area of failure at 90° to load. Plane strain 20% (Flat/Crystalline) Senior Welding Inspector Rev 30-03-10 Fractured Surfaces ‘Tony Whitaker Principal Lecturer TWI O1piddle East 7