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4B2 TEST 5

This test is only for people who missed one of the other four tests.

The theme of this test is “Causes of Failure”. In this course we used a classification of six different
causes of failure, which were: Design; Manufacturing; Material; Use; Maintenance; Repair

Q1. In Case 2, brittle fracture occurred because the temperature in the annealing furnace was 560 oC
instead of 600oC. How would you classify the cause of this failure?

MANUFACTURING

Q2.. Why did this small change of temperature allow the failure to happen?

Because the remove of residual stress depends on diffusion of atoms, which is rate-
controlled through the Arrhenius relationship, so a relatively small decrease in T gives a big increase
in the time needed to remove all the residual stress. Residual stress added to the stress from the
pressure, creating the brittle fracture.

Q3. In Case 3, a bearing ceased to function properly, causing a brake system to fail. How would you
classify the cause of this failure?

You could say MAINTENANCE (I’d allow this answer) but really it’s DESIGN

Q4. Explain the reason for your answer to Q3.

The person who designed the brake system chose to use a cheap bearing and didn’t specify
any maintenance procedure. Also they didn’t realise that failure of this rod would render the brake
unusable.

Q5. How would you classify the cause of failure in Case 4?

USE – (Or you could say MAINTENANCE)

Q6. Explain your answer to Q5.

The operating conditions were not the specified ones (the temperature being too high). But
you could argue that if there had been proper maintenance the fault causing the high temperature
would have been detected.
Q7. Give an example of a failure for which the cause was Repair. This can be an actual case that you
know about or something that you made up.
[two marks for this question]

e.g. The frame of your bicycle breaks at one of welded joints between the tubes. You repair
it with further welding but you do a poor job, leaving a lack-of-fusion defect. This quickly causes a
fatigue crack to propagate and the joint fails again.

Q8. Considering your answer to Q7, explain how you as a forensic engineer, would go about
discovering the cause in this case?
[two marks for this question]

Examination of the fracture surface would detect the lack-of-fusion defect which has a
different appearance from the fatigue crack and fast fracture regions. A cross section cut through
the joint, polished and etched would show changes in the material structure that would confirm the
second weld (different from the original weld).

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