Fracture mechanisms

• Ductile fracture
– Occurs with plastic deformation
• Brittle fracture
– Little or no plastic deformation
– Catastrophic

1
 Ductile vs Brittle Failure
• Classification:
Fracture Very Moderately
Brittle
behavior: Ductile Ductile

%AR or %EL Large Moderate Small

• Ductile Ductile: Brittle:
fracture is usually warning before No
desirable! fracture warning

2
 Example: Failure of a Pipe
• Ductile failure:
--one piece
--large deformation

• Brittle failure:
--many pieces
--small deformation

3
 Moderately Ductile Failure
• Evolution to failure:
void void growth shearing
necking and linkage fracture
nucleation at surface
s

• Resulting 50
50mm
mm
fracture
surfaces
(steel)
100 mm
particles From V.J. Colangelo and F.A. Heiser, Fracture surface of tire cord wire
serve as void Analysis of Metallurgical Failures (2nd loaded in tension. Courtesy of F.
ed.), Fig. 11.28, p. 294, John Wiley and Roehrig, CC Technologies, Dublin,
nucleation Sons, Inc., 1987. (Orig. source: P. OH. Used with permission.
sites. Thornton, J. Mater. Sci., Vol. 6, 1971, pp.
347-56.) 4
 Transgranular Fracture

Schematic Cross-Section profile SEM Fractograph

5
 Intergranular Fracture

Schematic Cross-Section profile SEM Fractograph

6
 Ductile vs. Brittle Failure

cup-and-cone fracture brittle fracture

Adapted from Fig. 8.3, Callister 7e.

7
 Introduction to Fatigue in Metals

• Loading produces stresses that are variable, repeated,

alternating, or fluctuating

• Maximum stresses well below yield strength

• Failure occurs after many stress cycles

• Failure is by sudden fracture

• No visible warning in advance of failure

 Fatigue Disasters

 Versailles train crash

(1842)
 De Havilland Comet
(1952)
 Eschede train disaster
(1998) Aloha Airlines flight 243, a
 China Airlines Flight Boeing 737-200, taken April
611 (2002) 28, 1988. The mid-flight
fuselage failure was caused
by corrosion assisted fatigue.
 Stages of Fatigue Failure
• Stage I – Initiation of micro-
crack due to cyclic plastic
deformation
• Stage II – Progresses to
macro-crack that repeatedly
opens and closes, creating
bands called beach marks
• Stage III – Crack has
propagated far enough that
remaining material is
insufficient to carry the load,
and fails by simple ultimate
failure
11
 Fatigue
• Fatigue = failure under cyclic stress.
specimen compression on top Adapted from Fig. 8.18,
Callister 7e. (Fig. 8.18 is
motor from Materials Science in
bearing bearing counter
Engineering, 4/E by Carl.
A. Keyser, Pearson
flex coupling Education, Inc., Upper
tension on bottom Saddle River, NJ.)

• Stress varies with time. s

smax
-- key parameters are S, sm, and
S
frequency sm
smin time

• Key points: Fatigue...

--can cause part failure, even though smax < sc.
--causes ~ 90% of mechanical engineering failures.
12
 Fatigue Design Parameters
• Fatigue limit, Sfat: S = stress amplitude
case for
--no fatigue if S < Sfat unsafe steel (typ.)

Sfat
safe

10 3 10 5 10 7 10 9
N = Cycles to failure
• Sometimes, the
fatigue limit is zero! S = stress amplitude
case for
unsafe Al (typ.)

safe

10 3 10 5 10 7 10 9
N = Cycles to failure
13
 Creep
Sample deformation at a constant stress (s) vs. time
s
s,e

0 t

Primary Creep: slope (creep rate)

decreases with time.
Secondary Creep: steady-state
i.e., constant slope.
Adapted from
Fig. 8.28, Callister 7e.
Tertiary Creep: slope (creep rate)
increases with time, i.e. acceleration of rate. 14
 Creep

Influence of stress and temperature on creep behavior

15