Mechanical Failure of

Materials

Fast Fracture

MMME1034
Materials and Manufacturing
Learning Outcomes

▪ Awareness of the consequences and common causes of fast fracture.

▪ Understanding on the process of fast fracture in the present of cracks and

crack propagation.

▪ Capability to relate material’s fracture toughness, 𝐾𝑐 to stress intensity factor,

𝐾 and solve similar problems through appropriate material selection and
design.

▪ An appreciation of the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature of material and

its influence on tendency to fast fracture.
 Introduction:
Consequences and Common Causes of Fast Fracture

During world war II

➢ US built Liberty ship
➢ Hull and deck cracks with 1500 noticeable brittle fractures
➢ 19 ships broke in half without warning

Key issues of catastrophic failure

➢ Cracks → sharp corner of hatches (stress concentration)
➢ Cracks → welded seams (ease cracks propagation)
➢ Choice of materials → grade of steel became brittle at low
temperature (cold sea temperature at North Atlantic)
➢ Unexpected conditions → severe storms at sea

Brittle fracture of ship

 Process of Fast Fracture

To avoid stress overload, structures are often designed to avoid

elastic deformation and plastic yielding
➢ Beware of fast fracture
❖ Takes place without any appreciable deformation
➢ Common fast fracture process:
❖ How this happen ?
❖ Presence of cracks → rapid crack propagation → catastrophic failure
by fracture
❖ Factors → materials and fabrication specifics i.e. ceramics is very
brittle and could fracture rapidly under tensile stress

Why this happens ?

What can we do to minimize the problem ?
 Understanding Fast Fracture:
Energy Criterion

▪ For a material under stress, energy stored during

deformation.
▪ Stress increases → deformation increases and
energy stored increases.

▪ In a material with defect or crack, this energy involved in the creation

of new surface to make crack growth.
▪ At a critical point, the stored energy would be enough for rapid crack
growth to take place.
▪ The stress at this critical point where fast fracture occurs is called
critical stress.

How can we estimate the stress to fracture?

Fracture Mechanics

MMME1034 Materials and Manufacturing

 Flaws are Stress Concentrators

▪ Stress concentration at crack tip with very large local stress.

▪ This stress decreases with distance from crack tip.

▪ The stress at crack tip is proportional to the stress intensity factor,

𝐾, which is dependent on the applied stress and structure geometry.

𝐾 = 𝑌𝜎 𝜋𝑎

▪ When 𝜎𝑡𝑖𝑝 is very high and well above 𝜎𝑦 of the material, plastic
deformation (plastic zone) occur ahead of the crack tip.

When does a crack propagate ?

 Stress Intensity Factor and Crack Propagation

Condition for crack propagation 𝐾 = 𝐾𝑐

Stress Intensity Factor: Fracture Toughness: 𝐾 = 𝑌𝜎 𝜋𝑎
- Depends on applied - Depends on the material,
stress & geometry. temperature, environment

Values of 𝐾 for centre and edge cracks

Centre crack, Y = 1 Edge crack, Y = 1.1

𝐾 = 𝜎 𝜋𝑎 𝐾 = 1.1𝜎 𝜋𝑎

Unit of 𝐾: 𝑀𝑃𝑎 𝑚

How do we measure
a
fracture toughness ?
 Measurement of Fracture Toughness

Tensile test on specimen with crack of known length:

 max

Before crack At failure

propagation

𝐾 = 1.1𝜎 𝜋𝑎 𝐾𝑐 = 1.1𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜋𝑎

Since the test is performed in crack opening mode

(mode 𝐼) the value obtained at fracture is 𝐾𝐼𝐶
 Fracture Toughness of Different Materials

𝑲𝑰𝑪
𝑴𝑷𝒂 𝒎

Increasing
𝐾𝐼𝑐 = 1.1𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜋𝑎

𝐾𝐼𝑐
𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 =
1.1 𝜋𝑎

Example: for a crack of 3𝑚𝑚:

𝐾𝐼𝐶_𝑇𝑖 = 50 ; 𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 470 MPa

𝐾𝐼𝐶_𝐴𝑙2𝑂3 = 5 ; 𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 47 MPa
𝐾𝐼𝐶_𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑦𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 = 0.5: 𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 4.7 MPa
 Design against Crack Growth

Condition for crack propagation 𝐾 = 𝐾𝑐

𝐾 = 𝑌𝜎 𝜋𝑎

Largest, most stressed cracks grow first !

Max flaw size dictates design stress Design stress dictates max flaw size

2
𝐾𝑐 1 𝐾𝑐
𝜎𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 ≤ 𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑥 ≤
𝑌 𝜋𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜋 𝑌𝜎𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛
 Example on Fracture Mechanics: Aircraft Wings

An aircraft wing is made of Al alloy.

The largest flaw size of 9mm resulted from the wing fabrication process.
Failure stress was measured as 112MPa.

An improvement of the aircraft wing manufacturing process managed to

reduce the largest flaw size to only 4mm.
Determine the effects on failure stress.

𝐾𝑐 = 𝑌𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝜋𝑎
 Case Study on Pressure Vessel:
Fracture Limited Design

In the submersible example, we have looked at yielding of spherical

pressure vessel.
What will happen to the spherical pressure vessel that contains defect due
to improper welding of the structure ?

𝑃𝑟
Stress in thin-walled pressure vessel: 𝜎𝜃𝜃 = 𝜎𝑎𝑎 = 2𝑡

Fast fracture occurs when 𝐾𝐼𝐶 = 𝑌𝜎 𝜋𝑎𝑐

For centre crack, 𝑌 = 1

 Case Study on Pressure Vessel:
Fracture Limited Design

To avoid yielding, wall thickness is chosen such that the working stress
(pressure) is less than the yield stress.
𝑃𝑟
Stress in thin-walled pressure vessel: 𝜎𝜃𝜃 = 𝜎𝑎𝑎 = ≤ 𝜎𝑦
2𝑡

For structure with crack defect

▪ Additional safety measure to prevent fast fracture, i.e. rapid crack propagation.
▪ In this case, yield before fracture is preferred such that the vessel is seen to
deform and can be detected.

𝐾𝐼𝐶 Pr
𝜎= ≥ 𝜎𝑦 =
𝜋𝑎𝑐 2t
General yielding
𝜎𝑦
2
𝐾𝐼𝐶
▪ This can be achieved when ≥ 𝜋𝑎𝑐 Fracture stress,
𝜎𝑦 𝐾𝐼𝐶
𝜎=
𝜋𝑎

 To maximise 𝑎𝑐 , choose materials crack size, a For centre crack, 𝑌 = 1

𝐾 Yield before ac
with large value of 𝐼𝐶. fracture Fast fracture occurs when
𝜎𝑦
Fracture before yield
𝐾𝐼𝐶 = 𝑌𝜎 𝜋𝑎𝑐
 Case Study on Pressure Vessel:
Fracture Limited Design

𝝈𝒚 (𝑀𝑃𝑎) 𝑲𝑰𝑪
Material 𝑲𝑰𝒄 (𝑴𝑷𝒂 𝒎) ൗ𝝈𝒚

Steel 250 50 0.2

Alloy steel 300 170 0.56

Cu alloys 250 90 0.36

Al 80 45 0.56

Ti alloys 700 100 0.14

Al alloys 400 35 0.09

GF / CFRP 600 40 0.07

PE 20 2 0.01

Tough alloy steels are common choice. Materials with high 𝜎𝑦 , such as Ti, high strength Al alloys
Cu alloy is good for boilers where corrosion is a problem. and CFRP are good for light (low weight) pressure vessels
PE is good for low stress vessels (beer bottles) but 𝑎𝑐 is low because of the high yield stress.
𝟐
𝑲𝑰𝑪
≥ 𝝅𝒂𝒄
𝝈𝒚
High 𝑲𝑰𝑪ൗ𝝈𝒚 can be obtained by low 𝜎𝑦 values, but this makes the vessel
very thick (and heavy) to withstand the pressure.
Effect of Temperature

MMME1034 Materials and Manufacturing

 Effect of Temperature

▪ Temperature can effect the fracture behavior of some materials. At high temperatures, 𝐾𝑐
tends to increase. Its is a very different story at low temperatures.

▪ Steels (with BCC structures) become brittle at low temperature as dislocation motion
becomes more difficult in these alloys.

▪ Polymers and rubbers also become brittle at low temperature as the Van der Waals bond
solidifies. Heavily cross-linked polymers are always brittle.

▪ Temperature below which the materials fails in a brittle manner is called the ductile-to-
brittle transition (DBTT) in metals and the glass-rubber transition in polymers.
 Effect of Temperature

▪ Ductile-to-brittle transition (DBTT) temperature

Fracture Energy BCC metals (e.g. iron at T < 914ºC)

Polymers

Brittle More Ductile

High strength materials (𝜎𝑦 > 𝐸Τ150)

Temperature
DBTT

▪ From a design perspective, it is very important to know where this temperature lies.
 Case Study: DBTT

Pre-WWII: The Titanic WWII: Liberty ships

A type of steel with a DBTT close to room temperature was used.

Sailing in cold seas meant it became brittle.
This led to a much-reduced 𝐾𝑐 value.

Small defects became important (dangerous) at much lower stresses !

Mild impact or residual stresses were enough to cause catastrophic (and rapid) failure !
 Case Study : DBTT of Bike Locks

The same principle can be applied to security devices such as bike locks. The hardened steel
is very difficult to cut but if one cool it down below the DBTT (with a bit of liquid nitrogen) and
you can smash it with a hammer.

The stronger (more alloyed) the steel is, the higher the DBTT, the less you have to cool it.

The difficulty is finding a compromise between cutting resistance and toughness (should use a
non-bcc material like stainless steel).
 Summary

▪ Engineering materials can fail as stresses < 𝜎𝑦 due to the presence of

cracks which may occur during welding or manufacture.

▪ Fracture mechanics can be used to calculate maximum stress for a given

crack size or a safe crack size for a given design stress.

▪ 𝐾𝑐 defines the fracture toughness of a material. In general, 𝐾𝑐 (metals) >

𝐾𝑐 (ceramics and polymers).

▪ Decrease in temperature also reduces toughness. A very strong effect is

observed in BCC metals (steels) and polymers.