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Failure analysis of a spring for a fuel pump bracket assembly

Article in Indian Journal of Engineering and Materials Sciences · February 2009

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Himadri Roy Debasish ghosh Ghosh

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Tapas Sahoo Awadhesh Shukla

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Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials Sciences
Vol. 16, February 2009, pp. 33-36

Failure analysis of a spring for a fuel pump bracket assembly

Himadri Roy*, Debashis Ghosh, Tapas Sahoo & Awadhesh Shukla

NDT and Metallurgy Division, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur 713 209, India

Received 6 November 2007; accepted 21 November 2008

This investigation is primarily aimed to examine the premature failure of a spring used in a fuel pump bracket assembly.
Preliminary visual examinations along with detailed SEM studies are made on the damaged surface and fracture surface of
the failed spring. In addition, microstructural investigations along with hardness measurements are carried out to understand
the reason for the premature failure. Finally, it is concluded that improper heat treatment of the spring material is responsible
for failure.

Keywords: Spring, SEM, Pearlite, Delamination, Failure

A large variety of springs is made from one of several Experimental Procedure

grades of carbon or alloy steels and is used in The chemical composition of the spring under
different components for the purpose of absorbing investigation was analyzed using standard
loads. Helical coil springs are generally manufactured spectrometer and has been shown in Table 1. Small
from rods, which are coiled in the form of helix. specimens were cut from the spring, polished up to
Fatigue is the most common mechanism of failure in 1000 grade emery paper followed by cloth polishing
springs1-6. Fatigue fracture generally initiates at the and then etched with freshly prepared nital (2 wt%).
surface and the resolved tensile stresses cause further Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used for
growth of the developed cracks and lead to premature
failure of the springs. Other common causes of Table 1—Chemical composition of the selected steel
failures include overstressing, design deficiencies, (weight %)
material defects, processing errors and unusual Phase 1 2 3 4
operating conditions7. In certain cases more than one Pearlite 35.6 38.9 37.3 40.1
cause can contribute to failure. The most common Tempered martensite 45.3 43.9 44.1 43.1
microstructure of steel springs are tempered
martensite with the hardness in the range of 45-
52HRC7.

The present investigation has been carried out on a

spring used in fuel pump bracket assembly. During
service spring is compressed 350 times per minute,
whereas the total length of service rendered is
11000 h. The expected life for this kind of spring is
approximately 100000 h. The failed spring along with
the fracture surfaces have been shown in Fig. 1. The
diameter of the spring at undamaged location was
measured to be 7 mm. The steel grade is found to be
of AISI 1080 variety.
_________
*For correspondence: Fig. 1—Photograph of the failed spring sample along with the
E-mail: h_roy@cmeri.res.in, himadri9504@gmail.com fracture surfaces
34 INDIAN J. ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2009
microstructural analysis and fractographic studies.
Samples were properly cut to separate the fracture
surfaces from the as received spring coils and these
fracture surfaces were properly cleaned using an
ultrasonic cleaner. A number of representative
Fig. 2—White light scanned image of the damaged and
undamaged cross-section of the failed spring
Fig. 3—SEM photographs of the spring surface showing
damage/surface delaminations (marked as A)
photographs of the damaged surface and the fracture
surface were taken using SEM (Make: Hitachi S 3000
N, Japan).
White light laser scanner (Make: C-250,
Optotechnik-GmbH) was used to measure the cross-
sectional area of the spring. In a white light scanner,
the cross-sections were resolved distinctly on a flat
surface and using standard software packages the
cross-sections were accurately measured. Bulk
hardness was measured using (Hardness Tester 751,
Instron Wolpert, UK) in Vickers hardness scale and
was subsequently converted to Rockwell C-scale
using standard conversion chart. Microhardness was
also carried out using (MXT 70, Matsuzawa Seiki
Ltd, Japan) microhardness testing machine to confirm
the presence of undesirable phase in the
microstructure of the spring.
Results and Discussion
Proper visual inspection of the failed spring, shown
in Fig. 1 revealed numerous delaminated marks or
surface flaws on the upper surface of the spring. The
Fig. 4—SEM fractograph of the spring sample showing brittle
fracture (Also seen in the figure is coarse striation marks)
 ROY et al.: FAILURE ANALYSIS OF A SPRING FOR A FUEL PUMP BRACKET ASSEMBLY 35

(a) (a)

(b)
(b)
Fig. 6—Etched specimen of the failed spring taken in (a) SEM
Fig. 5—Unetched specimen of the failed spring taken in (a) SEM and (b) optical microscope
and (b) optical microscope

Table 3—Microhardness in the transverse direction

Table 2—Microhardness in the longitudinal direction (Rc scale)
(Rc scale)
Elements C Si Mn S P
Phase 1 2 3 4 % weight 0.78 0.18 0.55 0.032 0.038
Pearlite 38.0 37.3 36.2 37.4
Tempered martensite 45.0 44.3 42.6 43.9
locations is because of definite loss of material from
cross-section of the spring was damaged near the the outer surface of the spring and not due to plastic
fracture surface. As we observed towards the lower deformation.
active coils the cross-section of the spring was found Next the ultrasonically cleaned, damaged spring
to be more or less circular. Two pieces were therefore surfaces showing delaminations were properly
cut from the damaged and undamaged part of the examined using SEM. The SEM image revealed that
spring and the cross-section of the two were measured the damaged areas were mostly brittle showing
using a white light scanner. These scanned cross- cleavage facets. The SEM examination of the fracture
sectional view of the damaged and undamaged spring surfaces revealed signatures of brittle failure with
specimens are shown in Fig. 2. The measured cross- some coarse striation marks. The SEM images for the
sectional area for damaged and undamaged faces was surface damage and the fracture surfaces are shown in
found to be 36.6 mm2 and 39.5 mm2 respectively. Figs 3 and 4 respectively. Careful observations of the
This difference in the cross-sectional area of the two SEM photograph revealed that the crack was initiated
 36 INDIAN J. ENG. MATER. SCI., FEBRUARY 2009
at the delaminated areas on the surface of the spring,
which then propagated inwards due to fatigue. The
presence of coarse striation marks on the fracture
surface confirms the mechanism of failure as fatigue.
The striation marks are shown in Fig. 4.
The optical microstructures of the longitudinal and
transverse sections of a spring sample were carefully
examined in unetched and etched conditions. The
unetched micrographs in the transverse section
showed some cracks emanating from the surface
towards the centre of the spring. A typical micrograph
of an unetched specimen in transverse section has
been shown in Fig. 5. The photograph reveals that
crack traverses from the surface towards centre. The
etched microstructures of the longitudinal and
transverse sections revealed primarily a tempered
martensite structure along with presence of lamellelar
pearlite at certain places as shown in Fig. 6. The
average hardness values of the damaged and
undamaged spring samples were found to be 43 Rc
and 44 Rc respectively. Furthermore, no cross-
sectional variation of hardness was observed.
Therefore, micro-hardness of the two phases was
carried out in both longitudinal and transverse
sections. The micro-hardness of the pearlite was
found to be around 6 Rc lower than the tempered
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martensite matrix. The details of the micro-hardness
results are shown in Tables 2 and 3 respectively.
Conclusions
The probable cause of the premature failure of the
spring can therefore be attributed to improper heat
treatment resulting in presence of pearlite in the
matrix during the manufacturing processes, which had
led to decrease in the stiffness of the spring as a result
of which the surfaces of the spring have come in
contact with each other. This continuous rubbing of
surfaces had further led to surface delaminations and
loss of material. A crack then initiated and propagated
under fatigue from these delaminated surfaces and led
to premature failure of the spring.
References
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10 (2003) 291.
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International, Ohio, USA), 1991.