Failure Analysis of CV-Axel (Driving Shaft):

First we should know that what is failure analysis ?

Well, it is the process by which a failed product(machine component) is inspected to determine
what cause it to fail, how it went wrong and how to prevent it from failure.
So here we will discuss that what was the basic cause for our sample(CV-Axel) failure. Since it is
already known that CV-Axel shaft is linking between inner and outer CV-Joints. The purpose of
this shaft is to ;
➢ Transmit the driving torque to the wheels
➢ Maintain the position of the wheels relative to each other and the body of vehicle
Reviewing theories pertaining to failure analysis ;
According to the failure theories, an actual machine component (here specifically CV-Axel) will
fail due to applied stresses become greater than the yield strength of machine component.
These stresses includes both shear and normal stresses. However, on its consequences we see
different phenomenon like vibrating stresses usually known as fatigue stresses. In most cases
related to shafts, the basic causes of failure are fig1-1
▪ Corrosion
▪ Wear
▪ Overload (high shear & normal forces)
▪ Fatigue (cyclic stresses)
Causes of failure for CV-Axel(sample) :
As we have got a broken CV-Axel shaft, shown in figure 1-1. We will analyze now, how it got
broken and become useless.
So the most nearer cause of this failure is fatigue stresses and overloading. Though the
corrosion and wear factors are present but the main causes are the former one. On the axel,
there is its own weight, also comes to further stresses when the wheel move up down as well
as the suspension system, along with this the axel shaft rotates so there is torsional stresses.
Besides these, there is dynamic loading when the engine piston moves up down, it creates
fatigue torsional stresses also.
The sample(CV-Axel) is made up hardened steel, which means it is neither more brittle nor
more ductile, but in intermediate. From this we infer that it failed due to torsional and as well
as bending fatigue stresses. If it was a pure ductile material then the failure cause would be that
of only shear stress. So we will now discuss one by one independently;
o Overloading of Shear Stresses
 There is a chance that the axel was hot enough to show more enough properties of
ductility. As from the fig 1-2, we see that the axel broken by near angle to 40-45degrees.
In this case we consider that shear stress produced in shaft was more than the yield

strength of the axel that cause the failure.

o Overloading of Normal Stresses:
As for as the shaft has its own weight which is distributed uniformly, this weight
multiplied with its length to cause bending moment in axel. Along with this the axel also
absorb some normal stress when positioning the wheel (CV-Joints). This might have
caused the stress exceed from ultimate tensile stress of the axel shaft.
o Fatigue loading :
Since we know that fatigue stresses are cyclic stresses changes with respect to time. If
we see our broken sample(axel shaft), it seemed like there is mighty cracks initiated
tangentially around the shaft which indicate the fatigue failure. There is also a possibility
that the crack initiated by corrosion or stress reversals.
Surface analysis of CV-Axel:
As shown in fig1-3 , the surface of broken plane shows that initially there are cracks meaning
that causes is fatigue failure, then at middle core it seems that it is totally twisted meaning that
shear stress was dominant.

Also the fracture offers key evidence. If the angle of failure is; fig1-3
o Closer to 90 degrees, it is dominant normal stresses
o Midway between 45degrees and 90 degrees, it is a combination of Shear and Normal
stresses.
o Closer to 45degrees, it is dominant under shear stress.