ENGG 103

Materials in Design

Failure
Callister Chapter 8
5 April 2016
 Chapter 8: Failure

ISSUES TO ADDRESS

• How do cracks that lead to failure form?

• How is fracture resistance quantified? How do the fracture

resistances of the different material classes compare?

• How do we estimate the stress to fracture?

• How do loading rate, loading history, and temperature

affect the failure behavior of materials?

2
 Fracture Mechanics
If a small incision has been made into an edge of a plastic package,
it is easy to tear the package open

One of the basic tenets of fracture mechanics is that an applied

stress is amplified at the tip of a small incision or notch
What Happened Here?

Aloha Airlines Flight 243 28 April 1988

Why did This Tanker Fracture in a
Brittle Fashion?
 WWII Merchant Ships Break In Two!
This was an extremely serious problem in World War II, when over 250
ships fractured or cracked.
Nineteen of these broke completely in two!
All of the ship fractures were in metals that were ductile, but just not
tough enough
The Great Boston Molasses Tank Disaster
A tank of molasses, 30m in diameter and 16m high whose contents were
supposed to have become rum
When the tank split, a wall of molasses advanced down the street
Many of the deaths and casualties occurred among people who were
engulfed in their flats below the level of the street.
There were 12 deaths and 40 injuries
Half a century later it was determined that the tank's steel was below its
ductile/brittle transition temperature; the same problem as with the WWII
merchant ships
The Silver Bridge Collapse – West Virginia
In December 1967 46 people perished as their cars plunged into the icy
Ohio River
The accident was caused by stress-corrosion cracking resulting from
long exposure to hydrogen sulphide vapour, H2S, from nearby paper mill
digesters
The bridge failure is an example where the energy required to extend the
fracture was reduced while the metal was in service
9
10
11
150 mph = 250 km/h

How is this possible?

How can the car disintegrate while the monocoque remains intact?
 Fracture mechanisms

• Ductile fracture
– _____________________________________

• Brittle fracture
– ___________________________

– ____________________________

14
 The Fracture Process
• What is fracture?
‒ ______________________________________

• How does it happen

‒ Crack propagates through the material causing separation
‒ Crack growth requires energy (breaking bonds, creation of new
surfaces etc.)
‒ Crack growth also releases energy (elastic energy)

• Energy balance:
Energy supplied from
external loading
(increased stress etc.) Energy absorbed by
VS crack growth

Energy released from

crack growth
15
 The Fracture Process
• Energy balance:

_____________________

16
 The Fracture Process
• Energy balance:

_________________________________
(even if the applied stress is below the yield strength of the material)

17
 Ductile vs Brittle Failure

Fracture Very Moderately

Classification Brittle
behavior Ductile Ductile

Ductile fracture is
usually more desirable
than brittle fracture!

%AR or %EL Large Moderate Small

Ductile: Brittle:

_____________ _______
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 Example: Pipe Failures
• Ductile failure:
-- one piece
-- large deformation

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

19
 Moderately Ductile Failure
Failure Stages
void void growth shearing
necking fracture
nucleation and coalescence at surface
σ

50
50mm
mm
Resulting
fracture
surfaces
(steel)
100 mm
particles
serve as void
nucleation
sites.
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 Moderately Ductile vs. Brittle Failure

_________________________ ________________________

21
Compare Ductile and Brittle Fractures
 Brittle Failure
Arrows indicate point at which failure originated

23
 Ideal vs Real Materials
Stress-strain behavior (Room T)

σ perfect mat’l-no flaws

E/10 TS engineering << TS perfect
materials materials
carefully produced glass fiber

E/100 typical ceramic typical strengthened metal

typical polymer
0.1 e
DaVinci (500 yrs ago!) observed...
-- the longer the wire, the
smaller the load for failure
Reasons

________________________

_________________________
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 Flaws are Stress Concentrators

Griffith Crack

ρt where
ρt = radius of curvature
σo = applied stress
σm = stress at crack tip
α = half crack length

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 Concentration of Stress at Crack Tip

1/ 2
a
σ m = 2σ o   = K tσ o
 ρt 

σo = _______________

σm = _______________

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Brittle vs Ductile Fracture

In ______________, the stress

concentration can be so large
that the cohesive stress is
exceeded and de-cohesion of
atomic planes are possible

In ________________, the
stress concentration is
truncated at the yield stress,
the shear stresses then
causes ductile fracture to
occur

27
 Crack Propagation
Cracks having sharp tips propagate ___________ than cracks having
blunt tips

A plastic material deforms at a crack tip, which “blunts” the crack.

deformed
region

brittle ductile

Energy balance on the crack

Elastic strain energy-
• energy stored in material as it is ____________ deformed
• this energy is __________ when the crack propagates
• creation of new surfaces requires ____________
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 Engineering Fracture Design
Avoid sharp corners
σmax
Stress Conc. Factor, K t =
σ0
σ0
2.5
w
σmax
2.0 increasing w/h
r, h
fillet
radius 1.5

1.0 r/h
0 0.5 1.0
sharper fillet radius

29
 Criterion for Crack Propagation
Crack propagates if crack-tip stress (σm) exceeds a
critical stress (σc)

i.e., σm > σc
where
– E = modulus of elasticity
– γs = specific surface energy
– a = one half length of internal crack

For ductile materials => replace γs with (γs + γp)

where γp is plastic deformation energy

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 The Fast Fracture Condition

_______________________

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 Fracture Toughness Ranges
Graphite/
Metals/ Composites/
Ceramics/ Polymers
Alloys fibers
Semicond
100
C-C (|| fibers) 1
70 Steels
60 Ti alloys
50
40
Al alloys
30 Mg alloys
K Ic (MPa · m 0.5 )

20
Al/Al oxide(sf) 2
Y2 O 3 /ZrO 2 (p) 4
10 C/C( fibers) 1
Al oxid/SiC(w) 3
Diamond Si nitr/SiC(w) 5
7 Al oxid/ZrO 2 (p) 4
6 Si carbide Glass/SiC(w) 6
5 Al oxide PET
4 Si nitride
PP
3 PVC

2 PC

1 <100>
Si crystal PS Glass 6
<111>
0.7 Glass -soda
0.6 Polyester
Concrete
0.5 32
 Design Against Crack Growth
• Crack growth condition:
K ≥ Kc =

• Largest, most highly stressed cracks grow first!

--Scenario 1: Max. flaw --Scenario 2: Design stress
size dictates design stress dictates max. flaw size

amax
σ
fracture fracture
no no
fracture amax fracture σ
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 Design Example: Aircraft Wing
• Material has KIc = 26 MPa-m0.5
• Two designs to consider...
Design A Design B
--largest flaw is 9 mm --use same material
--failure stress = 112 MPa --largest flaw is 4 mm
--failure stress = ?
• Use...

• Key point: Y and KIc are the same for both designs.
constant
--Result:
112 MPa 9 mm 4 mm

Answer:
34
Fracture – An example

W=50mm
l=2a

35
Fracture – An example

ANS

36
 Fracture – An example

7075-T6 Aluminium Alloy (KIc=25MPa.m0.5)

1000
Critical Fracture Stress σ (MPa)

Y=1
800

600
Yield strength ≈ 500MPa
400

200

0
0 5 10 15 20

Crack length a (mm)

37
 Impact Testing
Impact loading:
-- severe testing case
-- makes material more brittle
-- decreases toughness

(Charpy)

final height initial height

38
 Influence of Temperature on
Impact Energy
• Ductile-to-Brittle Transition Temperature (DBTT)...

FCC metals (e.g., Cu, Ni)

Impact Energy

BCC metals (e.g., iron at T < 914°C)

polymers
Brittle More Ductile
High strength materials ( σy > E/150)

Temperature
Ductile-to-brittle
transition temperature

39
 Charpy Impact Testing
• Usually performed at sub-ambient temperatures
• Tested across a range of temperatures

FCC

HCP All
BCC 40
 Design Strategy:
Stay Above The DBTT
Pre-WWII: The Titanic WWII: Liberty ships

Problem:
Steels were used having DBTT’s just below room temperature

41
 Ductile-to-Brittle Transition
Why did the Titanic sink?

Tensile test data

Titanic SAE 1020

Yield strength 193 MPa 207MPa
Tensile
417 MPa 379 MPa
strength
Elongation 29% 26%

Hence, no problem with the Titanic’s tensile properties

42
What about impact toughness?

Why is the impact toughness so low?

43
 Microstructures

Titanic steel Modern steel

N.B. Scale bars are not equal

44
 Failure conditions

___________ __________

___________ __________

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 SUMMARY
• Engineering materials not as strong as predicted by theory

• Flaws act as stress concentrators that cause failure at

stresses lower than theoretical values.

• Sharp corners produce large stress concentrations

and premature failure.

• Failure type depends on T and σ :

For simple fracture (noncyclic σ and T < 0.4Tm), failure stress
decreases with:
- increased maximum flaw size,
- decreased T,
- increased rate of loading.
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Mathematical Expression of the Failing Criterion

K ≥ Kc =

Half critical crack length

Geometrical
factor
Fracture Toughness
A material property
Measured experimentally
Critical stress
= Design stress
= The maximum stress that can be sustained in a
material with Fracture Toughness K,
containing a crack of size 2a
 Home Assignments

Problems 8.1; 8.3; 8.6; 8.8; 8.10; 8.13

Study the Summary Callister pp. 287 and 288 up to Fatigue