J Fail. Anal. and Preven.
DOI 10.1007/s11668-015-0030-9
CASE HISTORY—PEER-REVIEWED
Investigation of the Shaft Failure Connected to Extruder
S. S. Pelaseyed . F. Mashayekhi . A. Movahedi-Rad
Submitted: 19 July 2015 / in revised form: 27 September 2015
 ASM International 2015
Abstract In this study, the failure analysis of a shaft of a
unit, which had been failed during the service, was studied.
This shaft was welded to the blades, and their chemical
compositions were determined by spectroscopy method. In
order to determine the root cause of failure and contribu-
tion factors, different investigation methods including
visual examination, optical microscopy and scanning
electron microscope analysis, and hardness test were car-
ried out. It was concluded that the shaft was failed due to
fatigue. The failure was caused by improper welding of
blades to the shaft. At the end, in order to prevent or
decelerate such failure, some recommended remedies were
suggested.
Keywords Failure analysis  Fatigue  Fracture surface 
Ratchet mark  Weld metal  HAZ  Steel
Introduction
Shafts are one of the most important components in power
transmission system in different industries. The most
common cause of failure of shafts is fatigue. Fatigue is
progressive and localized damage of a material, which is
subjected to the cyclic loading patterns. In general, the
shafts in power plant systems run with a steady torsion
combined with cyclic bending stress due to the self-weight
S. S. Pelaseyed
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sharif
University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
F. Mashayekhi  A. Movahedi-Rad (&)
School of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, College of
Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
e-mail: movahedirad@ut.ac.ir
bending during rotation or possible misalignment between
journal bearings [1].
There are several investigations in the literature, which
have reported the failure of shafts in different industries.
Pavan et al. [2] studied the root cause analysis of bowl-mill
pinion shaft failures. They reported that the shaft had failed
due to low stress, high stress concentration torsional fati-
gue, although fatigue marks were not observed as the
fractured surfaces rubbed against each other after failure,
and as a result, crack had initiated from the keyway corner.
In another work, the failure of the gear shaft connected to
extruder was investigated [3]. They deduced that while the
extruder was running, the fatigue failure occurred due to
the high mean stress. Also, they observed material strength
degradation, which could have made the shaft fatigue
life shorter. Similarly, Göksenli and Eryürek [5] studied
the failure analysis of an elevator drive shaft, which had
failed at the keyway of the shaft. Zangeneh et al. [4] also
reported the failure of AISI 304L stainless steel shaft.
There are some reports in the literature, which have also
identified the failure of shafts by performing finite element
(FEM) method [5–7]. Researchers also have considered the
failure analysis of shafts in vehicles. Farrahi et al. [8]
investigated the failure analysis of a cast iron crankshaft in
diesel engine. In other investigation, the failure analysis of
automotive drive shaft was studied [9]. Drive shaft is a
mechanical part of a transmission system which is used to
transfer power from engine to the wheels. So, due to the
extensive applications of shafts, it is extremely important
to determine and correct the possible causes of failures.
One of the problematic issues in industrial components
is welding places, which make them very susceptible to
failure. In other words, the welded joints are most critical
places of steel structures due to high residual stress and
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stress concentration [7, 10]. Therefore, identification of
shafts’ failure mechanisms needs complete evaluations and
investigations.
In this study, a shaft has failed during service, and the
authorities required the analysis of the failure in order to
take the corresponding decisions. Hence, the failure anal-
ysis of the shaft was completely studied, and feasible
influential factors have been considered. This shaft was
joined by welding process to eight blades and was designed
to transmit motion to extruder. In addition, its mean speed
of rotation has been about 600 rpm. Finally, some remedies
are recommended.
Experimental Procedure
In order to find out the failure mechanism, at first, the
actual chemical composition was determined by employing
spectroscopy method. Then, some samples were cut far
from, and near from the region where the fracture had
initiated. The samples were polished and etched for
studying shaft’s microstructure by optical microscopy
(OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Moreover,
macrohardness was carried out on the shaft material, heat-
affected zone (HAZ), and the weld.
section, and comprises only 10%. The fracture surface was
flat and oriented perpendicular to the axis of the shaft.
Figure 3 shows close observation of fracture surface and
reveals the presence of some ratchet marks, which usually
indicates stress concentrated zones. Also, ratchet marks are
located at the interface of welded blades and the shaft, and
are illustrated in Fig. 4. Beach marks are also seen at the
vicinity of the final fracture zone (Zone 3) as shown in
Fig. 5. Therefore, visual appearance of the fracture was
indicative of fatigue failure. By comparing the fracture
surface with the schematic guide to appearance of fracture
surfaces in fatigue failure of shafts, as shown in Fig. 6 [11],
the following characteristics are suggested: high cycle, low
stress with small final fracture zone in comparison to the
total shaft cross section as a result of cyclic stress caused
by rotating bending loads, and a mild stress concentration.

Results and Discussion

In Fig. 1, the general view of the shaft is shown. In addition,

the fracture region is indicated by arrow. Figure 2 depicts
the visual observation of shaft’s fracture surface together
with its schematic drawing. In this case, shaft’s fracture
surface is divided into three different zones of 1, 2, and 3.
Visual examination of the failed shaft revealed that the
final fracture zone is small compared to the total shaft cross

Fig. 2 (a) Fracture surface, and (b) corresponding schematic

Fig. 1 General view of the shaft illustration

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Fig. 3 The presence of ratchet marks on fracture surface
Fig. 4 An illustration of ratchet marks and blades junction sites on
fracture surface
The chemical composition of the shaft material and the
weld is analyzed by spectroscopy method, and is listed in
Tables 1 and 2, respectively. According to the chemical
composition of the shaft, it can be concluded that the
material is a fairly close match to DIN EN 10250-2 Grade
S355J2G3 (St52). Analysis reveals the existence of high
percentages of manganese and silicon elements, which is
typical of a ASME AWS EXX18-G for the weld, used to
join blades to the shaft.
The microstructure of the shaft far from the failed region
is shown in Fig. 7, which consists of rows of ferrite with
pearlite and ferrite structure. Also, it is seen in Fig. 8 that
the samples from the shaft interfaces with blades have a
compact structure, which is due to grinding. The
microstructure of HAZ with an irregular microstructure is
depicted in Fig. 9. The HAZ structure consists of acicular
ferrite and few amounts of pearlite and bainite. Similar
observation was also reported by other researchers [12].
Fig. 5 An illustration of beach marks at the vicinity of the final
fracture zone
Figure 10 shows the microstructure of the weld zone,
including acicular ferrite and amounts of coarse pearlite.
Microscopic examination of zone 1 in failed region of
the shaft after etching process is shown in Fig. 11. From
this figure, it can be concluded that the blades are welded to
the shaft external surface. The crack initiation has occurred
at shaft interfaces with blades situated in the opposite side
of the final fracture zone, which laid in the HAZ. The path
of fatigue crack is interestingly shown by SEM micrograph
in Fig.12. As can be seen, fatigue crack has initiated from
the surface and has propagated toward the inside. The SEM
micrographs of fracture surface in zone 2 and zone 3 are
illustrated in Fig.13a and b, respectively, which show
fatigue striations. The distance between the striations is
measured about 1 lm in both zones. As a result, the rate of
crack growth is considered 1 lm per cycle. These striations
are observable over the 32 mm of the zone 3. Therefore,
based on the macroscopic and microscopic appearances of
the fracture surface and working conditions, it can there-
fore be concluded with confidence that the failure
mechanism is fatigue.
In order to clarify the role of applied stress on the
fatigue life of the shaft, the value of applied stress should
be calculated and then compared with the fatigue limit. The
fatigue limit is the stress below which failure does not
occur for any number of cycles. The fatigue limit of the
studied shaft in this paper is 270 MPa [13]. The estimation
of applied stress on the shaft during fatigue crack growth is
possible by Paris’ Law as shown in Eq 1.
da
¼ C½DKm ; ðEq 1Þ
dN
where C and m are material parameters, da/dN is the crack
growth rate, and DK is the stress intensity factor range,
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Fig. 6 Schematic guide to

appearance of fracture surfaces
in fatigue failure of shafts [11]

Table 1 Chemical composition of shaft material Table 2 Chemical composition of weld

Concentration (wt.%) Concentration (wt.%)
Actual chemical DIN EN 10250-2 Grade Actual chemical ASME AWS
Elements composition S355J2G3 Elements composition EXX18-G

C 0.17 0.220 (Max) C 0.10 …

Mn 1.45 1.600 (Max) Mn 1.32 1.0 (Min)
Si 0.40 0.550 (Max) Si 0.45 0.8 (Min)
Cr 0.17 0.300 (Max) Cr 0.09 0.3 (Min)
Ni 0.09 0.300 (Max) Ni 0.04 0.5 (Min)
S 0.01 0.035 (Max) S 0.01 0.8 (Min)
Al 0.04 0.200 (Min) Al 0.02 …
Mo 0.04 0.080 (Max) Mo 0.19 0.2 (Min)
Cu 0.11 … Cu 0.10 …
P 0.01 0.035 (Max) P 0.01 …
Cr ? Ni ? Mo 0.30 0.580 (Max) Fe Base Base
Fe Base Base

which can be approximated by the following equation [14,
15]:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
DK ¼ 1:12  2  ra p  a ðEq 2Þ
in which ra is the applied stress and a is the fatigue crack
length, which is assumed to be 32 mm for the zone 3.
Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 13, the crack growth rate
(da=dN) is 1 lm per cycle. By assuming that the dimension
of left side of the Eq 1 is mm/cycle and the right of it is
pffiffiffiffi
MPa m, the two constants of C and m can be assumed
3.15 9 109 and 3.07, respectively. Consequently, the
value of applied stress on the shaft during fatigue crack
growth in zone 3 is calculated as 87 Mpa, which is thought
to have been constant during the operation of the shaft.

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Fig. 7 Optical micrograph showing rows of ferrite with pearlite and
ferrite
Fig. 8 Optical micrograph of compact ferritic structure in the shaft
grinded interfaces with blades
Fig. 9 Optical micrograph of heat-affected zone microstructure
Fig. 10 Optical micrograph of weld zone microstructure
Fig. 11 A longitudinal section of shaft material, HAZ, and the weld
With this in mind and by knowing the fatigue limit of the
studied shaft, it is clear that the stress level developed in
the shaft at the failure location had been too low to lead to
fatigue failure. In this way, fatigue failure should not have
occurred. Thus, there are some other factors that would
have negative influences on the fatigue resistance of the
shaft. Firstly, as it was noticed, improper welding had been
performed on the shaft to join blades to its surface. The
welding process affects the microstructure of the shaft
material in HAZ. Such heat-affected regions generally
reduce toughness and are less resistant to fatigue crack
propagation. The welding process during shaft joining to
blades will develop tensile residual stress in the shaft sur-
face, and due to the effect of the increased mean stress, it
results in a significant reduction in fatigue life. There are
some examples in the literature, showing an association
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between fatigue failure of shafts and improper welding shown in Table 3. The applied load was 10 Kgf. The
practices [16, 17]; therefore, great care should be taken results show that the weld is harder toward the shaft
when performing weld on shafts in areas of stress con- material (35%), and it is in accordance with its
centration. Another observation was that the shaft was used microstructure, which consisted of acicular ferrites. Also
without any stress relief treatment, and as the weld area has the macrohardness of the HAZ is higher compared to the
an extremely high stress concentration effect, it is an ideal shaft material (about 22%), as it had bainite structure,
site for fatigue crack initiation. whereas the shaft material structure was ferrite and
The effects of welding on the fatigue life of a shaft can pearlite.
be hard to assess, as complex interaction of various
parameters may combine to either enhance or reduce the
fatigue strength of the component [7]. In the case of this
specific shaft, some factors were identified that raise con-
cern about the quality of welding work. At first, the
welding procedure used for joining blades to the shaft calls
for a carbon steel weld metal to match the shaft material
S355J2G3. Examination of the weld deposit determined
that a steel weld metal was actually used. While this does
not directly relate to a reduction in fatigue life, it does point
to poor quality control during the welding. In addition,
stress relief treatment was not done since there exists aci-
cular ferrite in both weld, and HAZ microstructure. The
acicular ferrite has a low toughness, and because of its
morphology, it promotes stress concentration. This will
significantly reduce the fatigue strength of the shaft.

Hardness Test

Macrohardness measurements on three regions including

shaft material, weld, and HAZ were performed and are

Fig. 12 SEM micrograph of fatigue crack at the edge of the fracture Fig. 13 SEM micrographs of fatigue striations on the fracture surface
surface in (a) zone 2, and (b) zone 3

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Table 3 Macro Vickers hardness values from shaft material, HAZ,
and weld
Shaft metal HAZ Weld metal
Vickers hardness (VH) 151 185 206
Recommended Remedies
Some suggested remedies are also recommended so that to
prevent or decelerate this type of failure. The first solution
for preventing such failure is to control the welding pro-
cess. To be specific, inducing a grinding with minimum
residual stress followed by shot peening, and a stress relief
treatment will be the most important suggested remedies.
Therefore, continuous and closed control on operating
conditions is mandatory. In addition, modifying the design
of the meeting point of blades with the shaft should also be
considered as practical way for increasing shaft’s life. This
modification prevents stress concentration.
Conclusions
The shaft with eight blades in its surface area failed in
service. The rotating bending loads and a mild stress
concentration led to fatigue failure. Fatigue failure is
highly unlikely to have occurred without the contribution
of the following two factors:
1. Residual stress due to unsuitable welding, and grinding.
2. Joining blades to the shaft external surfaces by welding
caused a heat-affected zone (HAZ) with acicular ferritic
structure.
The mechanical design and material selection of the
shaft is appropriate for its intended service. Failure can be
attributed to improper welding of blades to the shaft.
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