The British University in Egypt

4th Year Mechanical Engineering

2018/2019 – Semester 1
18MECH61H Failure analysis

The aim of this tutorial is to make sure that students understand that one of the common design criteria is
design against failure.
Tutorial 3

Questions

1. Consider a brittle material with 𝛾𝑠 = 1 𝐽/𝑚2 and E=100 GPa, (a) what is the breaking
strength of this material if it contains cracklike defects as long as 1 mm? (b) should it be
possible to increase 𝛾𝑠 to 3000 𝐽/𝑚* , what would be the breaking strength for a 1-mm-
2𝐸𝛾𝑠
long crack? (𝜎𝑐 = - 𝜋𝑎
)

2. If the specific surface energy for polymethyl acylate is 0.0365 J/m2 and its corresponding
modulus of elasticity is 2.38 GPa, compute the critical tensile stress required for unstable
propagation of a central internal crack whose length is 30 mm. if the strength of the sound
glass is 70 MPa, calculate the reduction in strength due to the presence of the crack

3. A 3 mm thick tension panel 10cm wide containing an edge crack of 1 mm yielding at a

load of 15o KN. However, at a load of 120 KN, another panel of same material cracked
into two pieces when the crack was 5 mm long. With this information, calculate the yield
stress and fracture toughness of the material. ( Kic=1.12𝜎 √𝜋𝑎)

Questions was adapted from Schigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design. Mc Graw Hill.