Damage and failure

 Damage is a physical discontinuity in the object or material. It can

be introduced either during manufacturing or service stage. The
damage can impair usefulness or normal functioning of the object
or material. The damage can be of micro, meso or / and macro
scale. Damage characterizes the state of the object or material.
Quantitative evaluation of damage location, shape, size, evolution
and effect can be performed based on experimental, analytical and
numerical techniques.
 Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or
intended objective of the object or material. Product or material
failure ranges from failure to sell the product or material to its
fracture. Failure characterizes functioning or lack of functioning of
the product or material to its desirable or intended requirement.
 A fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or
more pieces under the action of applied / induced stress. Fracture
strength or breaking strength is the stress when a
specimen fractures. 
 Damage leads to failure and failure leads to fracture. When a
material is damaged it has not necessarily failed in service and can
be repaired somewhat like a shaft that can be built -up through
powder metallurgy to its original dimension but when it fails it
cannot be used in service, i.e. it has lost its integrity--the property
that makes it useful like a shaft that has yielded (plastic
deformation) in service. However, when a material fractures it is
broken into two or more parts.
Types of Destructive Testing
Aggressive Environment Testing: This includes fracture and fatigue
testing in sour (H2S), sweet (CO2) and other corrosive environments; at
a range of temperatures and pressures. These test allow industry to
assess the impact of these conditions on materials and performance.

Corrosion Testing: This covers non-toxic, small-scale, aqueous

corrosion testing in a variety of different environments including fresh
and sea water.

Fracture and Mechanical Testing: This includes different types of

destructive testing methods such as tension tests, bend tests, Charpy
impact tests, Pellini drop weight testing, peel tests, crush testing,
pressure and fracture testing. As well as the testing of metals, fracture
and mechanical tests can be carried out on different materials, such as
welded polymers including plastic pipes.

Fatigue Testing: Performed in air or seawater environments, these tests

are used to test parent materials and the endurance of welded joints
under constant or variable amplitude loading. This destructive testing
method can also be used for fatigue crack growth testing of welds, base
metals, and heat affected zones.

Hydrogen Testing: This type of testing covers materials that have a risk
of corrosion from exposure to hydrogen. These tests can be carried out at
a variety of different temperatures and strain rates.

Residual Stress Measurement: Residual stresses are those that remain

in a solid material after the original causes of any stresses have been
removed. These can be intentional, such as with the scratch-resistant
glass on smartphones, or unintentional which can lead to premature
failure of a structure. Measurement of residual stresses allows for
designers and engineers to determine factors like near-surface and
through-thickness residual stress distribution, which can be used in
engineering critical assessments.
Testing methods (static)

 Plain, Open and Filled Hole tensile and compressive tests

 E module determination (tensile, compressive and flexural
modulus)
 Bearing stress tests for fasteners
 Determination of tensile shear strength (Single Slotted Lap
Shear Test SSLS)
 Flexural test on sandwich structures.
 Determination of interlaminar shear strength (ILSS)
 Determination of Mode I and Mode II of fracture toughness
energy (GIc- and GIIc-Test) and Mixed-Mode
 Pull Through Test
 Curved Beam Failure Load (Inter-Laminar Tensile Strength:
ILTS)
 All testing can be performed at temperatures between -70° to
+180°C

Fatigue tests

 ILTS Fatigue (Curved beam bending)

 Mode I – Interlaminar fracture toughness (GIc-Test) fatigue.
 Fatigue testing combined with non-destructive tests in order to
monitor the growth of defects
Corrosion testing Metals are used extensively in many
industries due to their tensile strength and versatility.
However, they are also prone to corrosion. Rust on iron-
based materials, tarnish on silver, patina on copper and
copper alloys are common examples of corrosion. This is
a problem because corrosion decreases the tensile strength
and life of these metals.
Corrosion testing is a test method done to test the
effectiveness of applied corrosion resistance measures. It
covers all experimentation and processes to prevent or
mitigate corrosion-related problems. Measuring the
characteristics and the rate of corrosion can also be
considered to be part of corrosion testing.
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM
International) has an elaborate set of standards and testing
methodologies for corrosion in different metals and
environments. If needed, custom protocols can be
developed as needed.
Hardness testing (HT)
Material hardness determines whether components
undergo permanent deformation due to stress. Hardness
shows how effectively a material resists indentation. This
indicates how long a component can be in use and how
well it will perform over time.
The Rockwell scale is a commonly used measure to index
hardness with respect to the reference material. An
indenter is used to penetrate the material with a consistent
force. The depth of penetration is indexed against the
depth of penetration in the reference material. This type of
mechanical testing is not to be confused with impact tests
done using Charpy testing.
Again, ASTM international offers a wide range of
standards and testing procedures to measure the hardness
of different materials.
Tensile (elongation) testing
Tensile testing is conducted by applying controlled force
across test material till it fails (crack, breakage, etc). The
test specimen is compressed or elongated according to the
characteristics that are being measured. Tensile testing is
used to determine the strength of the material. 
The measured properties are ultimate tensile strength,
breaking strength, maximum elongation or reduction.
Based on the readings, engineers can calculate physical
properties such as Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio,
yield strength, and strain-hardening characteristics.
These properties are used to determine which materials
should be used when there is a need to withstand a great
amount of force. ASTM International has various
standards and procedures for different types of tensile
tests.
Torsion testingTorsion testing is conducted similarly to
tensile testing. Instead of compression and elongation,
torsional forces are applied to the material. This helps to
determine the shearing forces the material can withstand
before it deforms. 
The point at which the material twists and breaks is the
failure point of the material. ASTM and ISO both outline
standards and test procedures for various materials and
use cases.
Stress testing
A component might experience different types of stresses
during operation. Stress testing is an umbrella term used
to describe a scenario in which we apply a combination of
different testing methods mentioned in the previous
sections. 
The testing focuses on the forces that are anticipated to
happen during regular operations. For example, a torsion
test is great for a component that will be used as the shaft
of an electric motor. However, torsion tests are useless for
material that will only experience compressing loads.
Aggressive environment testing
Machines work in different environmental conditions that
are impacted by:
 temperature
 pressure
 humidity
 salinity
  chemical exposure
 exposure to other elements or natural forces
Materials are tested based on the characteristics of the
environment they will be operating in. For instance,
building materials used to build a beach house must
withstand the salinity, humidity, wind conditions, and
other environmental factors of the coastal region.
Residual stress measurement
Residual stress is the internal stress experienced by
different components without any external loads present.
It is a measure that determines if a component can
withstand extreme load and stress conditions during its
service life. 
X-ray diffraction, Neutron diffraction, and Synchrotron
diffraction are three complex methods that can be used to
measure residual stress.
A simple technique of drilling a random hole in the
material and testing the new stress equilibrium can also be
used to measure residual stress (as seen in the image
above).