FRACTURE TOUGHNESS

AND FATIGUE
REPORTER VI
 Contents 01
INTRODUCTION: Material Failure and Its Types
~Osian

Contents 02
FRACTURE TOUGNESS: Defining Fracture Toughness, Fracture,
and Fracture Mechanics
~Nigad

Contents 03
FRACTURE TYPES: Ductile, Brittle, Creep, and Fatigue
~Quirona

Contents
FRACTURE TOUGNESS: Metals, Ceramics, and Polymers
04
~Nuevo

Contents 05
FATIGUE: Defining Fatigue and The Main Features that Distinguish Fatigue
~Oineza

Contents 06
FATIGUE: Factors Affecting Fatigue Properties
~Oliveros

Contents 07
FATIGUE: Designing Against Fatigue
~Pedronio
MATERIAL FAILURE
AND ITS TYPES
 MATERIAL FAILURE
 A material is deemed to have failed
when it is unable to satisfy the PERFORMANCE
original design function.

 The failure of the material can be

caused by the improper handling of
the material during processing PROCESSING
stage.

 Deformation, reaction to heat,

response to electromagnetic PROPERTIES
radiation, chemical reactivity.

 Breakdown of an object due to

factors that affect the strength, STRUCTURE
stability, and chemical
composition.
 Corrosion, fracture, creep
 Failure By Yielding

 Metals exhibit both elastic and plastic behavior.

 As the level of stress is increased so the

amount of elastic strain increases in the
direct proportion to the stress applied up
to a certain limit- elastic limit.

 To minimize the possibility of excessive

stress, factors of safety are applied.
 Failure By Fracture

 The terms tough, ductile, brittle, or fatigue are

frequently used to described the fracture behavior of
a material.

 TOUGH OR DUCTILE FRACTURE: Failure is

preceded by excessive plastic deformation;
detectable.

 BRITTLE OR NON-DUCTILE FRACTURE:

Involves little or no plastic deformation;
catastrophic.
fracture
What is Fracture?

• It is the separation of a
material into two or more
pieces under the action of an
applied stress.

• A material may undergo one of

two major types of fracture modes
depending on its mechanical
properties: ductile and brittle.
Materials undergoing ductile fracture first experience plastic deformation , i.e., the
material resists the fracture by stretching itself. Imagine pulling on two ends of a
plastic bag. The bag stretches by a considerable amount before it eventually tears.
This plastic deformation, which is not limited to polymers, is also seen in metal
alloys.

Materials that undergo brittle fracture, on the other hand, will fracture with
negligible plastic deformation. In other words, they break without warning.

Regardless of the type of fracture, during failure a material will experience:

•Crack formation, where all fractures start, and
•Propagation of the crack, in response to the applied stress
Fracture Toughness

• To improve fracture toughness there is a need to avoid

excessive elastic deflections and plastic yielding.
• Fast fracture can occur which causes catastrophic failure.
Fast Fracture
• It is caused by growth of these defects which suddenly become
unstable and propagate at the speed of sound

Ductile Fractures
In ductile fractures, this crack is stable, i.e., it will undergo continuous
deformation, only propagating when more stress is applied. As such, ductile
 materials will typically deflect by a significant amount before they fail, thus
giving warning before they fracture entirely.
Factors that affect the Fracture of a
Material

• Stress Concentrations
• Fracture Toughness
Fracture Mechanics

This is the study of the relationships between crack

geometry , material strength and toughness and stress
systems as they affect the fracture characteristics of a
material.
The aim of fracture mechanism is to determine the critical
size of a defect necessary for fast fracture to occur.
Fracture Mechanics is important to
consider for several important reason:
• Cracks and crack-like flaws occur much more frequently than
might be expected. Cracks can either pre-exist in a part, or they
can develop due to high stress or fatigue.
• Typically, as the strength of a material increases, fracture
toughness decreases. The intuition of many engineers to prefer
higher strength materials can lead them down a dangerous path.
• Ignoring fracture mechanics can lead to failure of parts at loads
below what is expected using a strength-of-materials approach.
• A failure due to brittle fracture is rapid and catastrophic and
provides little warning.
TYPES
OF
FRACT
URE
 DUCTILE 01
There is absorption of massive amounts of energy and a
slower propagation before the fracture occurs

BRITTLE 02
It is a break in a brittle piece of metal that failed

FATIGUE 03
Caused when a stress is applied, then removed, then
reapplied.

CREEP 04
Time-dependent and permanent deformation of a
material
 DUCTILE FRACTURE
• A ductile fracture is a type of fracture characterized
by extensive plastic deformation or necking. This
usually occurs prior to the actual fracture.
• In a ductile fracture, there is absorption of massive
amounts of energy and a slower ropagation before
the fracture occurs as compared to a brittle fracture.
• For example, ductility is a desirable property in high
temperature and high-pressure applications in
reactor plants due to the added stresses on the
• By understanding ductile fractures, engineers are able to metals. High ductility in these applications helps to

develop more dependable and safer industrial products greatly reduce the possibility of a sudden brittle

and materials. fracture.

 • All fracture processes involve two steps, crack formation and propagation, which are responses to
imposed stress.
• Cracks that occur in ductile materials are said to be stable, meaning they are able to resist extension
without any increase in stress.
• brittle materials, cracks are unstable, which means that the crack propagation, once started, continues
spontaneously without an increase in stress level.
• Materials that exhibit ductile fracture are preferable for various reasons, including:
• Ductile materials elastically deform, slowing the fracture process and allowing more time to correct
problems
• Higher amounts of energy strain are required to deform a ductile material
• Ductile materials are forgiving, and any error in the design process does not immediately result in a
catastrophic failure
 BRITTLE FRACTURE
is the fracture of a metallic object or other
material without appreciable prior plastic
deformation. It is a break in a brittle piece
of metal that failed because stress
exceeded cohesion.

A brittle fracture is a breakage or cracking

of a material into discernible parts, from
which no deformation can be identified (a
clean break).
Brittle fractures display either transgranular or intergranular
fracture. This depends upon whether the grain boundaries are
stronger or weaker than the grains:
Transgranular fracture
The fracture travels through the grain of the material. Cracks
choose the path of least resistance.
Intergranular fracture
• The crack travels along the grain boundaries, and not
through the actual grains. This usually occurs when the
phase in the grain boundary is weak and brittle.
 FATIGUE
A fatigue fracture is a material failure that
occurs as a result of excessive cyclic loading.
Prior to final fatigue fracture, many different

FRACTURE
micro fractures are created and eventually
the repeated dynamic loading propagates the
cracks.

A fatigue fracture is caused when a stress is applied,

then removed, then reapplied.

Every time the stress is reapplied, micro cracks on

the surface of the material are allowed to grow.

Once the growth of these micro cracks and the

stress applied is sufficient, one or more of the
cracks will propagate throughout the thickness of
material
 aluminum has less fatigue resistance than a material
such as steel.

materials with sharp corners fracture easier than

materials that have rounded edges because the sharp
corners act as stress concentrators that are nucleation
points for the initial micro cracking.

Another cause is the stress being cyclically applied. If

the stress can be reduced either in magnitude or in
multitude, then the risk of a fatigue fracture diminishes.
 CREEP
FRACTURE Creep failure is the time-dependent and permanent
deformation of a material when subjected to a constant load
or stress.

This deformation typically occurs at elevated temperatures,

although it may occur under ambient temperatures as well.

jet engine turbine rotors and steam generators can experience The study of creep is essential because it helps to assess the

creep due to increased temperature and stress exposure. At some lifespan of materials or equipment in a given environment.

point, failure may occur.

creep curve
consists of
• primary or transient creep region,

where the material experiences an increase in creep resistance

three
or strain hardening.
It is important to note that at this point, as the material is
strained, deformation becomes more difficult.

regions: 2. secondary or steady-state creep.

the creep rate is constant and usually has the longest duration.
This is due to the competing processes between strain
hardening and recovery.

3.tertiary creep,
where the creep occurs at an accelerated rate as the material
approaches ultimate failure.
Fracture Toughness
In Metals, Ceramic and Polymers
Fracture toughness
Metals 01
- Fracture toughness is a quantitative way of expressing a
material's resistance to brittle fracture when a crack is present.

Ceramics 02
- The fracture toughness of Fine Ceramics is measured using the
critical stress intensity factor KIC at crack terminations where
fracturing generally occurs.

Polymers 03
-Polymer Fracture is the study of the fracture surface of an
already failed material to determine the method of crack formation
and extension in polymers both fiber reinforced and otherwise.
 Fracture Toughness

The fracture toughness as measured by the

critical stress intensity factor Kc and critical
strain energy release rate Gc define the
resistance of materials against crack
growth. The fracture toughness properties
of materials vary over a wide range, about
five orders of magnitude. High fracture
toughness in metals is generally achieved
by increasing the ductility, but this often
comes at the expense of lower yield
strength.
Fracture Toughness In Metals

In metallurgy, fracture toughness refers to a property which describes the ability of a material containing
a crack to resist further fracture.

Fracture toughness is a quantitative way of expressing a material's resistance to brittle fracture when a
crack is present. If a material has high fracture toughness, it is more prone to ductile fracture.
Brittle fracture is characteristic of materials with less fracture toughness.

Fracture toughness values may serve as a basis for:

•Material comparison
•Selection
•Structural flaw tolerance assessment
•Quality assurance

Fracture toughness is an indication of the amount of stress required to propagate a pre-existing

flaw.

Flaws may appear as:

•Cracks
•Voids
•Metallurgical inclusions
•Weld defects
•Design discontinuities
Fracture Toughness In Metals

A parameter called the stress-intensity factor (K) is used to determine the fracture
toughness of most materials. The stress intensity factor is a function of:

•Loading
•Crack size
•Structural geometry

The purpose of a fracture toughness test is to measure the resistance of a material

to the presence of a flaw in terms of the load required to cause brittle or ductile
crack extension (or to reach a maximum load condition) in a standard specimen
containing a fatigue pre-crack.

The fracture toughness of a material commonly varies with grain direction. It is

customary to specify specimen and crack orientations by an ordered pair of grain
direction symbols.

The fracture toughness of metals can be improved without significant loss in

strength in several ways, including minimising the impurity content, reducing the
grain size, and reducing the amount and size of intermetallic particles at the grain
boundaries.
 
Fracture Toughness in Ceramics

Fracture toughness measures a fissured material's resistance to

fracturing (whether the fissures exist throughout the material or
only on its surface).
The fracture toughness of Fine Ceramics is measured using the
critical stress intensity factor KIC at crack terminations where
fracturing generally occurs. In particular, the fracture toughness
KIC value is used to compare material's shape when a fissure is
opened by a plane deformation. Though Fine Ceramics
generally possess low fracture toughness, partially-stabilized
zirconia, used for products such as scissors and knives, offers
significant fracture-toughness improvements.
Fracture toughness in Polymers
Polymer fracture is the study of the fracture surface of an
already failed material to determine the method of crack
formation and extension in polymers both fiber reinforced and
otherwise. Failure in polymer components can occur at relatively
low stress levels, far below the tensile strength because of four
major reasons: long term stress or creep rupture, cyclic stresses
or fatigue, the presence of structural flaws and stress-cracking
agents. Formations of submicroscopic cracks in polymers under
load have been studied by x ray scattering techniques and the
main regularities of crack formation under different loading
conditions have been analyzed. The low strength of polymers
compared to theoretically predicted values are mainly due to the
many microscopic imperfections found in the material. These
defects namely dislocations, crystalline boundaries, amorphous
interlayers and block structure can all lead to the non-uniform
distribution of mechanical stress.

Chain scission

Chain scission occurs in a polymer as a result of intense

localized heat. the chemical bond in a polymer backbone may be
broken with the generation of free radicles by heat, ionizing
irradiation, mechanical stress and chemical reactions. These
scissions multiple in number cause a fracture tip initialization to
occur followed by its growth.

Built-up heat from hysteresis
Polymers are viscoelastic by nature, and exhibit
mechanical hysteresis even at moderate strains
due to continuous elongation and contraction.
Some of this inelastic deformation energy is
dissipated as heat within the polymer, and
consequently the materials temperature will rise as
a function of frequency, testing temperature, the
stress cycle and the type of polymer. As the
temperature within the polymer rises, the stiffness
and yield strength will fall, and thermal failure
becomes a possibility as deformation levels
become excessive.
Yielding Mechanisms
As metals yield through dislocation motions in the slip planes,
polymer yield through either shear yielding or crazing. In
shear yielding, molecules move with respect to one another
as a critical shear stress is being applied to the system
resembling a plastic flow in metals. Yielding through crazing
is found in glassy polymers where a tensile load is applied to
a highly localized region. High concentration of stress will
lead to the formation of fibrils in which molecular chains form
aligned sections. This also creates voids which are known as
cavitation and can be seen at a macroscopic level as a
stress-whitened region as shown in Figure 1. The plastic like
behavior of polymers leads to a greater assumed plastic
deformation zone in front of the crack tip altering the failure
process.
Crack Tip Behavior

Just as in metals, when the stress at the crack tip approaches infinity, a yield zone will
form at this crack tip front. Craze yielding is the most common yielding method at the
crack front under tension due to the high triaxial stresses being applied in this local
region. The Dugdale- Barenblatt strip-yield model is used to predict the length of the
craze zone.

Critical Stress Intensity Factor

The critical stress intensity factor (K IC) can be defined as the threshold value of stress
intensity base on the material properties. Therefore, the crack will not propagate so long
as KI is less than KIC. Since KIC is a material property it can be determined through
experimental testing. Although KIC is material dependent it can also be a function of
thickness.
Fatigue
 Introduction

STRENGTHS

THREATS
S T
SWOT
WEAKNESS

W O
OPPORTUNITIES
• MEAN STRESS - raises the
maximum stress and induces
additional plastic strain, the fatigue
life may be extended due to the
reduced strain range for a given
stress amplitude.

• STRESS RANGE - The

algebraic difference between
the maximum and minimum
stress in one fatigue test cycle.
Conditions
S/N Diagrams
Factors Affecting
Fatigue Properties
 Factors Affecting Fatigue
Properties

GRAIN SIZE 01
When a material has a 'coarse grain' it has 'poorer' fatigue
resistance than when it has a fine grain.

COMPONENT SHAPE 02
A fatigue crack often starts some point of stress concentration and
so stress rising features such as an abrupt change of section e.g.
sharp corners, keyways, etc., should be avoided if possible.

SURFACE FINISH 03
Tooling marks act as stress raisers and so the fatigue resistance
of a component can be improved by polishing etc.

RESIDUAL STRESSES 04
Stressed produced by the machining operations will affect the
fatigue resistance of a component. Tensile Stresses 'reduce' the
resistance. Compressive Stresses 'improve' the resistance.
 Factors Affecting Fatigue
Properties

Corrosion 05
Corrosion produces a pitted surface and so introduces stress
raisers. The fatigue strength of a component is reduced very
considerably by corrosion.

Temperature 06
At high-temperature materials tend to lose their strength and also
suffer 'grain growth' and so fatigue strength falls when the
temperature is high.

Creep 07
The term 'Creep' is used to describe the 'slow plastic deformation'
that occurs under prolonged loading, usually at high
temperatures.
Designing against
fatigue
DESIGN FACTOR
THANK YOU