Failure of Materials

MSE 1101
Failure of Materials
Lecture Topic 12
15 June, 2019
How do materials fail?
• Ductile vs. brittle fracture
• Impact fracture testing
• Fatigue (cycling stresses)
• Creep (time dependent deformation)
Fracture means separation of a body into pieces due to stress, at
temperatures below the melting point.
Steps in fracture:
• crack formation
• crack propagation
Fracture of Materials
Depending on the ability of material to undergo plastic deformation before
the fracture two fracture modes can be defined - ductile or brittle
• Ductile fracture - most metals (provided that it is not too cold):
Extensive plastic deformation ahead of crack
Crack is “stable”: resists further extension unless applied stress is increased
• Brittle fracture - ceramics, ice, cold metals:

Relatively little plastic deformation
Crack is “unstable”: propagates rapidly without increase in applied stress
Ductile fracture is preferred in most applications.
Ductile vs. Brittle Fracture
Ductile fracture is almost always preferred
for two reasons.
• First, brittle fracture occurs suddenly and
catastrophically without any warning.
• Second, more strain energy is required to
induce ductile fracture.
Ductile materials - extensive plastic deformation
and energy absorption (“toughness”) before
fracture.
Brittle materials - little plastic deformation and low
energy absorption before fracture.
Ductile vs. Brittle Fracture
• A. Very ductile, soft metals (e.g.
Pb, Au) at room temperature,
other metals, polymers, glasses
at high temperature.
• B. Moderately ductile fracture,
typical for ductile metals
• C. Brittle fracture, cold metals,
ceramics.
Ductile Fracture
• (a) Necking
• (b) Formation of microvoids
• (c) Coalescence of microvoids to
form a crack
• (d) Crack propagation by shear
deformation
• (e) Fracture
Ductile Fracture
Scanning Electron Microscopy: Fractographic studies at high resolution. Spherical

or parabolic “dimples” correspond to microvoids that initiate crack formation.
Brittle Fracture
No appreciable plastic deformation. Crack propagation is very fast.

Crack propagates nearly perpendicular to the direction of the applied stress.
Crack often propagates by cleavage – breaking of atomic bonds along specific
crystallographic planes (cleavage planes).
Brittle Fracture
Transgranular fracture:
Fracture cracks pass
through grains. Fracture
surface have faceted
texture because of
different orientation of
cleavage planes in grains.
For most brittle

crystalline materials,
fracture takes places in
this manner.
Brittle Fracture
Intergranular fracture:
Fracture crack propagation
is along grain boundaries
(grain boundaries are
weakened or embrittled by
impurities segregation
etc.).
In some alloys, crack

propagation takes place
along grain boundaries.
Impact Fracture Testing
Under some circumstances normally ductile metals fracture abruptly and with very
little plastic deformation. This phenomenon can be attributed to a mode of
loading which involves high strain rate at low temperature and it is called impact.
• An impact test normally determines the energy absorbed in fracturing a test
piece under conditions of high speed loading.
• A sudden load or impulse is applied to a standardized test piece held in a vice in
specially designed testing machines.
• The striking energy of the pendulum swinging form a height ‘h’ is partially
absorbed in breaking the specimen.
• To set up stress concentrations to ensure that fracture does occur, the specimen
is notched.
• As the pendulum swings past, it carries a pointer to its highest point of swing ‘h’,
thus indicating the amount of energy consumed in fracturing the specimen.
• The energy required to fracture A = G (h-h’) kg-m; G=wt. of pendulum
• When the energy A, required to rupture the specimen is known, the impact
strength may be determined by using Ak = A/f kg-m/cm2.
• Here f is the cross-sectional area of the specimen, in sq-cm, at the fracture.
Types of Impact Test
• The Charpy Test and
• The Izod Test.
The essential difference between the two types of test is in the positioning of the
specimen.
• In the Charpy test, the specimen is loaded as a simple beam. It is placed
horizontally, between two anvils. The knife strikes opposite the notch at the mid-
span.
• In the Izod test, the specimen is clamped to act as a vertical cantilever. The notch
faces the falling pendulum and the specimen is so positioned that the notch is
just visible above the vice.
Effect of Low Temperatures
• The effect of low temperature can be examined by immersing several specimens in
advance in liquids at different temperatures and then transferring them quickly to the
test fixture.
• Low energy absorption corresponds to brittle fracture whereas high energy absorption
corresponds to ductile fracture.
• The transition from ductile too brittle behavior is not sharp but occurs over a range of
temperature.
• As temperature decreases a ductile material can become brittle.
• FCC metals remain ductile down to very low temperatures.
• The ductile-to-brittle transition can be measured by impact testing: the impact energy
needed for fracture drops suddenly over a relatively narrow temperature range –
temperature of the ductile-to-brittle transition.
Ductile to Brittle Transition
Brittle More Ductile

Usefulness of Impact Tests
• Results obtained from notched bar tests are not readily expressed in terms of
design requirements.
• No general agreement on the interpretation or significance of results
obtained with this type of test.
• The principal measurement from the impact test is the energy absorbed in
fracturing the specimen.
• The mode of failure may also be determined by the examination of failure
surface.
• The notched bar impact test is most meaningful when conducted over a
range of temperature so that the temperature at which the ductile to brittle
transition takes place can be determined.
Fatigue
• Fatigue is a form of failure that
occurs in structures subjected to
dynamic and fluctuating stresses
(e.g., bridges, aircraft, and machine
components).
• Under these circumstances it is
possible for failure to occur at a stress
level considerably lower than the
tensile or yield strength for a static
load.
• The term “fatigue” is used because
this type of failure normally occurs
after a lengthy period of repeated
stress cycling.
Fatigue
• Fatigue is important inasmuch as it is the single largest cause of failure in metals,
estimated to comprise approximately 90% of all metallic failures; polymers and
ceramics (except for glasses) are also susceptible to this type of failure.
• Furthermore, fatigue is catastrophic, occurring very suddenly and without
warning and it is brittlelike in nature even in normally ductile metals.
• The process occurs by the initiation and propagation of cracks, and ordinarily the
fracture surface is perpendicular to the direction of an applied tensile stress.
Mean Stress, σm = (σmax + σmin)/2
Range of Stress, σr = (σmax – σmin)
Stress Amplitude, σa = σr/2
Stress Ratio, R = σmin/σmax
Fatigue Test
• Fatigue properties of a material are tested in rotating-bending tests in fatigue

testing apparatus.
• Result is commonly plotted as S (stress) vs. N (number of cycles to failure)
• To permit condensation of experimental data a log scale is almost always used
to represent N.
• The number of cycles of stress that a metal can endure before failure decreases
with increasing stress.
S-N Curves
In most alloys, S decreases continuously with N.

These materials do not have a true fatigue limit [the
• For some metals (steel), the S-N curve S-N curve does not become horizontal].
becomes horizontal at a certain stress. In this cases the fatigue properties are described by
(Fatigue limit or Endurance limit).
Fatigue strength: stress at which fracture occurs
• Below the fatigue limit, the material after a specified number of cycles.
presumably can endure an infinite number Fatigue life: Number of cycles to fail at a specified
of cycles without failure. stress level.
Fatigue Crack Initiation & Propagation
Three stages of fatigue failure:
1. crack initiation in the areas of stress concentration (near stress raisers)
2. incremental crack propagation
3. final rapid crack propagation after crack reaches critical size
The total number of cycles to failure is the sum of cycles at the first and the second
stages:
Nf = Ni + Np
Nf = Number of cycles to failure
Ni = Number of cycles for crack initiation
Np = Number of cycles for crack propagation
Fatigue Crack Initiation & Propagation
Crack initiation takes palce at the sites of stress concentration
(microcracks, scratches, indents, interior corners, etc.). So, quality of
surface is important.
Crack propagation
Stage I: initial slow propagation along crystal planes. Involves just a
few grains, and has flat fracture surface
Stage II: faster propagation perpendicular to the applied stress. Crack
grows by repetitive blunting and sharpening process at crack tip.
Rough fracture surface.
Crack eventually reaches critical dimension and propagates very
rapidly
Fatigue
Appearance of Fracture Surface
• A fatigue fracture surface consists of two parts:
• One part is smooth and quite burnished and
shows ripple like marks radiating outwards from
the center of crack propagation.
• The other part is coarse and crystalline
indicating the final fracture of the remainder of
the cross-section that could no longer withstand
the load.
Creep
Creep is a time-dependent and permanent
deformation of materials when subjected to a
constant load at a high temperature (> 0.4 Tm).
Example: steam generators
• Amorphous polymers, which include plastics
and rubbers, are especially sensitive to creep
deformation.
• A typical creep test consists of subjecting a
specimen to a constant load or stress while
maintaining the temperature constant.
• Deformation or strain is measured and plotted
as a function of elapsed time. Fig: Creep Testing
Generalized Creep Behavior
•1. Instantaneous deformation: mainly elastic.
2. Primary creep: Slope of strain vs. time
decreases with time.
(Work-hardening is taking place.)
3. Secondary/steady-state creep: Rate of
straining is constant.
Steady-state creep rate,
4. Tertiary: Rapidly accelerating strain rate up to
failure. Formation of internal cracks, voids,
grain boundary separation, necking, etc. occurs.
Creep: Effect of Stress & Temperature
•The
stage of secondary/steady-state creep
is of longest duration and the steady-state
creep rate ( is the most important
parameter of the creep behavior in long-life
applications.
Another parameter, especially important in
short-life creep situations, is time to
rupture, or the rupture lifetime, tr.
• With increasing stress or temperature:
• The instantaneous strain increases
• The steady-state creep rate increases
• The time to rupture decreases
Alloys for High Temperature Use
Turbines in jet engines, hypersonic airplanes, nuclear reactors, etc. demands high
temperature heavy duty.
Creep is generally minimized in materials with:
• High melting temperature
• High elastic modulus
• Large grain sizes
Following alloys are especially resilient to creep:
• Stainless steels
• Refractory metals (containing elements of high melting temp. like Mo, W, Ta)
• “Superalloys” (Cobalt and Nickel based alloys.)
End for Today

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MSE 1101

• Brittle fracture - ceramics, ice, cold metals:

Scanning Electron Microscopy: Fractographic studies at high resolution. Spherical

No appreciable plastic deformation. Crack propagation is very fast.

For most brittle

In some alloys, crack

Brittle More Ductile

• Fatigue properties of a material are tested in rotating-bending tests in fatigue

In most alloys, S decreases continuously with N.

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