Mechanisms of fracture in metals

• Ductile fracture
• Due to void nucleation, growth and coalescence of microscopic voids
that initiates at inclusions and second phase particles.
• Stages in ductile fracture are
1. Formation of free surface at an inclusion or second phase particle
either by decohesion or particle cracking
2. Growth of the void around the particle by means of plastic strain
and hydrostatic stress
3. Coalescence of the growing void with adjacent voids due to local
plastic instability and consequently fails.
• Cleavage or Brittle fracture
• Separation along crystallographic planes (Trans granular)
• When sufficient stress (decohesion) is applied to break the interfacial
bond between the second phase particle and the matrix, voids are
formed around the second phase particle.
• The decohesion stress is the sum of hydrostatic stress and the
effective von-Mises stress.
• Void nucleation occurs more readily in tri-axial tensile stress.
• Voids can also be formed due to cracking of particles.
• Large particle are more likely to crack due to plastic strain.
• Once voids are formed ,further plastic strain and hydrostatic stresses
cause the void to grow and coalesce.
Micro - mechanisms of fracture
Uni -axial tensile deformation of ductile
materials
 Micro voids formation in a SENT specimen
at a distance of 25 mm away from the notch tip
Void nucleation ,growth and coalescence in
ductile materials
a) Inclusions in ductile matrix
b) Void nucleation
c) Void growth
d) Strain localisation between
voids
e) Necking between voids
f) Coalescence and fracture
Mechanism of ductile fatigue crack growth

a) Initial state
b) Void growth
c) Coalescence
Fatigue crack growth mechanisms, fracture
surfaces and macroscopic features
• A wide range of fatigue crack growth mechanisms can exist
Three of the more common modes are:
1. Striation formation
2. Micro void coalescence and
3. Micro cleavage
The ripples are called fatigue striations.
These striations are not the beach marks. Actually, one beach mark can
contain thousands of striations.
Electron microscopic magnification between 1,000x and 50,000x must be used
to view striations.
Striations are seen only in certain materials like Aluminium, Magnesium etc.
They may not be seen clearly because of substantial surface rubbing and
pounding during repeated loading. They are also difficult to find in high
strength materials
 The fracture surface will have two distinct regions
• Initial crack region
• A number of initial cracks combined to form a band called beach
marks. Beach marks indicates crack growth.
• Two stages of fatigue crack growth are
Stage I- shear mode
Stage –II- Tensile mode
• Fatigue crack grows
across grain boundaries
( trans crystalline) or along
grain boundaries
(inter crystalline)
Fracture Morphology

• The SEM analysis shows the beach marks, striation formation and micro voids coalescence

Striations in CT specimen at 2 mm
Beach marks in SENT specimen at Micro voids formation in SENT specimen
away from the notch tip
3 mm from the notch tip at 25 mm away from the notch tip
• Materials that exhibit ductile behaviour often display appreciable
striations and micro void coalescence .
• Micro void coalescence and cleavage are fracture mechanisms that
can occur under either monotonic or cyclic loading conditions.

• Striations do not occur under monotonic loading conditions as their

formation relies on the cyclic nature of fatigue.
 Micro void coalescence and fracture

SEM photograph showing micro void coalescence and fracture in SENT specimen at 25 mm
13