Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140

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Engineering Failure Analysis

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Bending fatigue of stainless steel shear pins belonging to a

hydroelectric plant
C.R.F. Azevedo a,*, D. Magarotto a, J.A. Araújo b, J.L.A. Ferreira b
a
Universidade de São Paulo, Dep. Eng. Metalúrgica e de Materiais, 05508-030 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
b
Universidade de Brasília, Dep. Engenharia Mecânica, Brasília, DF, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Coaracy Nunes was the first hydroelectric power plant in the Amazon region, being located
Received 8 July 2008 in Araguari River, Amapá State, Brazil. The plant operates since 1976, presenting now a
Accepted 8 July 2008 nominal capacity of 78 MW. The shear pins, which are installed in the turbine hydraulic
Available online 25 July 2008
arms to control the wicket gate and regulate the water flow into the turbine blades, suf-
fered several breakdowns since 2004. These shear pins are made of an ASTM 410 stainless
Keywords: steel and were designed to break by a shear overload of 120 kN. Fractographic investigation
Bending fatigue
of the pins, however, revealed two types of fracture topographies: a region of stable crack
Shear pin
Stainless steel
propagation area, with non-pronounced striation and secondary cracks; and a region of
Hydroelectric plant unstable propagation, featuring elongated dimples. These results indicated that the stable
FEA crack propagation occurred by fatigue (bidirectional bending), which was nucleated at
machining marks under high nominal load. Finite element analysis was carried out using
two loading conditions (pure shear and a combination of shear and bending) and the
results indicated that the presence of a bending stress strongly increased the stress concen-
tration factor (85% rise in the shear stress and 130% rise in the Von Mises stress). Misalign-
ment during shear pins assembly associated with vibration might have promoted the
premature failure of the shear by bending fatigue.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

In Brazil hydroelectricity accounts for about 76.6% of the installed capacity and 82.8% of all consumed electricity in the
country. The installed capacity of the hydroelectric power plants currently in operation (about 74,000 MW) represents not
more than 28.4% of the total hydroelectric potential (about 260,100 MW), indicating concrete possibilities for the expansion
of the installed capacity [1]. Although hydroelectricity is presented as a clean, renewable and cheap energy source; it pre-
sents many social and environmental issues as follows [1]:

 Alteration of the hydrological regime, jeopardizing other activities downstream of the reservoir, such as irrigation, leisure,
fishing, among others.
 Greenhouse gases emission, specifically methane, due to the decay of the submerged vegetable cover.
 Public health problems, due to the formation of the large still waters reservoirs, which might lead to the proliferation of
vectors that transmit endemic diseases.
 The constructions of hydro power plants in Brazil resulted, so far, in the flooding of approximately 34,000 km2 of native
forests and the compulsory displacement of almost 200,000 families.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 11 30915916; fax: +55 11 30914308.

E-mail address: c.azevedo@usp.br (C.R.F. Azevedo).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2008.07.009
 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140 1127

Table 1
World distribution of hydric resources [3]

Country km3/year
Brazil 8.2
Russia 4.5
Canada 2.9
Indonesia 2.8
China 2.8
USA 2.0
Peru 1.9

Table 2
World distribution of installed capacity of hydroelectric plants [3]

Country MW
USA 79.5
Canada 66.9
China 65.0
Brazil 57.5
Russia 44.0
Norway 27.5
Japan 27.2
France 25.3

The debate on energy generation and transmission in Brazil has become more intense since the beginning of President
Lula’s second period, due to the announcement of the Growth Acceleration Plan (GAP), which created a positive prospect
to overcome the longer-than-a-decade economical apathy, producing a political debate on infra-structural investments in
energy generation and transmission1 [3–6].
As it can be seen in Table 1, Brazil is the country with the greatest hydric resource in the world, but it comes only as fourth
in terms of installed capacity (see Table 2), indicating that Brazil is exploiting merely 25% of its hydroelectric potential, while
the United States, for instance, exploits almost 80% of their potential [3–6].
Almost half of that Brazilian hydric potential (50.2%) is located in the Amazon region, mainly in the Tocantins, Araguaia,
Xingu and Tapajós Rivers. In this sense, conciliating hydroelectric power production and preservation of the Amazon region
and its biodiversity is one of the greatest challenges of the Brazilian economy for the next 30 years [3–6]. The recent con-
struction of Curua-Una, Balbina, Samuel and Tucuruí dams in the Amazon region has caused great environmental changes
(upstream and downstream), endangering both the local and regional ecosystem. Therefore a set of ecological and economic
studies should be carried out with the goal to promote a safer hydro energetic exploration of the Amazon Region [4–6].
Coaracy Nunes was the first hydroelectric power plant built in the Amazon Region, being located in Araguari River, Amapá
State, Brazil. The plant operates since 1976, presenting nowadays a nominal capacity of 78 MW [7]. The shear pins are in-
stalled in the turbine hydraulic arms to control the wicket gate and regulate the water flow into the turbine blades (see Figs.
1a and b). In this system, there are articulations activating the wicket gates and these components are submitted to complex
loading, specially shear. The presence of shear pins in specific points in these articulations is important to avoid damage of
the equipment due to shear stress overload.
The shear pins were designed to break at shear loads of 120,000.00 N and they suffered several breakdowns since 2004.
These failures produce a complex situation, as the replacement of the shear pins is a burdensome procedure: the turbine has
to be disassembled and possible collateral damage in the adjacent structures, as deformation, misalignment and misfitting,
must be checked. Then, every component must be realigned, recalibrated and reinstalled. Thus, besides the costs of new
shear pins, one should also consider the costs due to maintenance and energy production cut. The aim of the present paper
is to investigate the causes of shear pin failure, discussing if those break downs are related to project/manufacturing/ instal-
lation flaws or to unusual variations in the working conditions. The shear pins are made of wrought martensitic stainless
steel (AISI 410F), with intermediate tempering temperature.

2. Experimental procedure and results

The following exams were made: visual inspection; chemical analysis; macro and microtopographic examination of the
fracture surface and surrounding surfaces; microstructural characterization; mechanical characterization and finite element
analysis of stresses. Chemical analysis was carried out using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (Cr, P, Mo) and plasma

1
In January of 2002, a major failure in the energy transmission system caused a blackout in the southern states of Brazil, reaching approximately 67 million
inhabitants [2].
1128 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140

Fig. 1. (a) Turbine scheme; and (b) activation mechanism of the wicket gate.

spectrometry (carbon and sulphur determination). The results are shown in Table 3, indicating that the shear pin material is
in accordance with the AISI 410 specifications.
The general aspect of the shear pin is shown in Fig. 2a. Visual inspection of unused and broken shear pins indicated the
presence of machining marks along the neck of the pins (see Figs. 2a–c). The general aspect of a broken pin is shown in
Fig. 3a. Macrofractographic examination of the broken pin did not show the presence of gross plastic deformation (see Figs.
3a and b). Fig. 3b indicates that the fracture surface is composed of two distinct regions, with the presence of two similar
semi-elliptical regions placed at 180° from each other.
Microfractographic examination of a semi-elliptical region was carried out and the results are shown in Figs. 4a–c. Fig. 4b,
revealing the presence of fatigue striation marks, while Fig. 4c (just outside the semi-elliptical region) features the presence
of elongated dimples, typical of shear or bending loading. Unfortunately, the other fracture surface was not made available
for the investigation in order to identify the overload mode (elongated dimples can be related to either bending or shear

Table 3
Chemical analysis results

Element Result (%) AISI 410 (%)

Carbon (C) 0.12 0.15 max.
Chromium (Cr) 12.3 11.5–13.5
Sulphur (S) 0.01 0.03 max.
Phosphorus (P) 0.02 0.04 max.
Manganese (Mn) 0.8 1.0 max.
Silicon (Si) 0.5 1.0 max.
 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140 1129

Fig. 2. (a) General view of the shear pin, showing the presence of machining marks on the neck region (see white arrows); (b) and (c) detail of the
machining marks on the neck region of the fractured shear pins. These marks were associated with the presence of a secondary cracking. SEM, SEI.

overload fracture). These results indicated that the fracture was nucleated at machining marks and grew due to cyclic
mechanical loading (reversed bending fatigue under high nominal load) until a critical crack length was attained, causing
an overload fracture (shear or bending).
Finite element analysis of the stresses were carried out using ANSYS to quantitatively evaluate the effect of different
mechanical loading modes on the stress concentration factor of the shear pin neck. Table 4 shows the entry data used for
the FEA. The AISI 410 steel fatigue endurance limit (rn) was estimated using the Marin correction factors, see Eq. (1) [8],
and assuming that: the average roughness in the neck surroundings is 1.6 lm; the ultimate tensile strength of the martens-
itic stainless steel (rrt) is 826 MPa; the surface finishing correction factor is around 0.89; the size correction factor is 0.87
(due to the combined result of applied shear in a circular section with nominal diameter of 33 mm); and the material
correction factor is 0.504; the estimated value of the fatigue endurance limit (rn) is 324 MPa. Admitting that the fatigue
resistance for a life of 1000 cycles is given by 0.9 rrt, the estimated S–N curve of the AISI 410 steel is shown in Fig. 5.
1130 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140

Fig. 3. (a) General view of a broken shear pin; and (b) fracture surface of a shear pin, showing the presence of two semi-elliptic areas, which are located at
180° of each other.

rn ¼ K a  K b  K c  K d  K e  /  rrt ð1Þ
where

 Ka – correction factor for surface finishing;

 Kb – correction factor for the size effect;
 Kc – correction factor for loading;
 Kd – correction factor for temperature;
 Ke – correction factor for neck sensibility;
 U – correction factor associated to the type of material;
 rrt – ultimate tensile strength.
 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140 1131

Fig. 4. Microfractographic examination of the semi-elliptical region showing: (a) sampling; (b) fatigue striation marks (region 1); and (c) elongated dimples
(region 3).

Table 4
Mechanical properties of the AISI 410 stainless steel

Specification ry rrt srt Elongation Hardness

(MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (%) (HB)
Project 440 min. 630–830 – 15 min. 200–280
Material 638.9 826.5 583 21.6 –

ry: yield strength; rrt: ultimate tensile strength; srt: shear strength.

The shear pin was then modelled in ANSYS. The finite element mesh was generated using a tetrahedric element with ten
nodes and three degrees of freedom per node (see Figs. 6a and b). A mesh refinement procedure proved that convergence
was achieved for a mesh containing 70,000 nodes.
1132 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140

Fig. 5. Estimated S–N curve for the AISI 410 shear pin.

Fig. 6. (a) Shear pin 3D CAD solid model; and (b) finite element mesh applied to the shear pin.

Two working situations were considered to compute the stresses in the shear pin; each one used distinct linkage char-
acteristics between the lever arm, the shear pin and the connecting rod (Fig. 1). In both cases, to apply the boundary con-
ditions a virtual structure (374 mm length, L) composed by beam elements was constructed, as shown in Fig. 7a.
The first work condition assumes that the loading transmission between the connecting rod and the lever arm is ideal,
meaning that all the moving elements are properly aligned and that the shear pin is under pure shear loading. More pre-
cisely, the boundary conditions in this situation are (Fig. 7a): (i) zero displacement in the underside of the pin, (ii) the con-
centrated load Fy and the distributed load q are equal to zero, (iii) a concentrated load Fx is applied at a distance t
(2.4073 mm) of the arm’s base so that no bending moment will arise in the pin.
 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140 1133

Fig. 7. (a) Virtual structure for the shear pin loading simulation; and (b) load application for the spurious stress calculation.

The value of Fx was defined so that the nominal (average) shear stress at the pin neck was 1 MPa. This essentially means
that the value of the computed stress at the most severely stressed point at the neck root (hot spot) provided directly the
value of the stress concentration factor. A more detailed description of the numerical modelling can be found in Appendix.
The results are shown in Figs. 8a–c, which indicate respectively the distribution of: the normal stress, ryy, the shear stress,
sxy, and the Von Mises stress. The stress concentration factor under pure shear reached around 1.75 for the shear stress; 2.50
for the normal stress; and 3.00 for the Von Mises stress.
The second work condition that the system lever arm – shear pin – connecting rod system works with some misalign-
ment, causing anomalous bending loading in the shear pin. In this analysis, one admits that besides the shear force, Fx,
the shear pin will also be under the action of a bending momentum, Mz, as result of an active force component in the length
direction of the pin, Fy, acting from a distance L of 374 mm. Again, the displacements of the pin were restricted in its under-
side, but now a distributed force q, equivalent to a concentrated force Fy, was applied on the top of the pin, so that there was
no resulting force in the y-direction (Fig. 7a).
In order to evaluate the effect of this spurious loading over the stress distribution in the surroundings of the stress con-
centrator, five loading conditions were considered, changing the ratio between the bending force (Fy) and the applied force
(F) (see Table 6).
Figs. 9a–c present the graphics relating the spurious loading level with the shear stress, sxy, normal stress, ryy, and Von
Mises stress acting at the perimeter of the notch root. In these graphics, the angular position refers to the direction of the
applied force, Fx (Fig. 7b). These graphs indicate that until 2% of spurious loading the pin failure is likely to take place at a
region positioned ±90° with respect to Fx direction, while for higher spurious loads the failure should occur in points collinear
to Fx direction (0°, ±180°).
It is also possible to show (Fig. 10) the effect of the spurious loading level on the stress concentration factor for the pin,
considering shear and Von Mises stresses. A spurious load of 5% (Fy/F) provokes an increase of approximately 85% in the shear
stress level and 130% in the Von Mises stress level.
Finally, to evaluate the reduction in the component structural strength capacity with misalignment, a graph of the admis-
sible loading level as function of the percentage of spurious loading was plotted for each failure mode, i.e., pure shear, yield
(considering Von Mises) and fatigue, Fig. 11. It is clear that the presence of even a small (5%) misalignment is devastating,
mainly in terms of fatigue resistance.

3. Discussion

3.1. Failure analysis

Macrofractographic examination of the fractured pin revealed the presence of two semi-elliptical areas with plane frac-
ture and placed at 180° from each other (see Figs. 3a and b), indicating the existence of two fatigue propagation fronts and a
1134 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140

Fig. 8. (a) Normal stress, ryy, concentration factor (pure shear condition); (b) shear stress, sxy, concentration factor (pure shear condition); and (c) Von
Mises equivalent stress, req, concentration factor (pure shear condition).

final overload region (unstable fracture). The ratio between the area of stable fracture and the overload region (see Fig. 3b)
indicated the action of a high nominal cyclic stress (low cycle fatigue). The present experimental work also indicated the
presence of machining marks (see Figs. 2b and c), which acted as stress raisers for the fatigue nucleation. The microfracto-
graphic examination of the stable fracture region revealed the fainted parallel striation marks associated with presence of
secondary cracks between the striations (Fig. 4b). The microstructure of the material is composed of tempered martensite
and presents a hardness of 241 HB. In this type of material, with homogeneous precipitation of hard carbides, the presence
of fatigue striation marks is not very clear. The fine dispersion of carbides creates, difficulties to the local slip, promoting an
 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140 1135

Table 5
Pure shear loading: critical load versus failure mode

Failure mode Critical load (kN)

Shear rupture 108.1
Tensile yield 69.1
Fatigue 32.2

Table 6
Analysis conditions for the presence of spurious loading

Situations F (N) Fx (N) Fy (N) Mz (N m) Fy/F (%)

A 324.37 321.13 3.24 1.21 1
B 324.37 317.88 6.49 2.43 2
C 324.37 314.64 9.73 3.64 3
D 324.37 311.40 12.97 4.85 4
E 324.37 308.15 16.22 6.07 5

Fig. 9. (a) Neck region, shear stress concentration factor, sxy (spurious loading condition); (b) neck region, normal stress concentration factor, ryy (spurious
loading condition); and (c) neck region, Von Mises equivalent stress, req, concentration factor (spurious loading condition).
1136 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140

Fig. 10. Correlation between the spurious load intensity and the maximum shear and Von Mises stresses.

Fig. 11. Admissible load versus spurious loading level and failure mode.

‘‘apparently brittle fatigue propagation” (small cleavage steps associated with secondary cracking). The microfractographic
examination of the overload region revealed the presence of elongated dimples, typical of shear or bending loading (Fig. 4c).
The identification of the active fracture mode during the overload mode was, however, not possible, as the opposite frac-
ture surface was not made available for the current investigation. Finally, cross section metallography and microhardness of
this region revealed intense surface work hardening, producing a hardness of 314 HB until a depth of approximately 100 lm,
which is associated with sub-surface cracking. By contrast, the examination of the stable cracking region did not show in-
tense sub-superficial hardening (see Figs. 12a and b).
The failure analysis results indicated that the fracture of the shear pin was nucleated on machining marks located at the
neck of the pin and progressed by reversed bending fatigue under the action of high-nominal stress, leading finally to a frac-
ture by an overload mechanism. Previous work [9] indicated that the failure of shear pins might occur under cyclic bending
loads, so, some hypothesis for the high occurrence of shear pin failures by reversed bending fatigue in the present investi-
gation, such as misassembly, vibration, pin geometry and pin superficial finishing, should be investigated to avoid the frac-
ture of shear pins under non critical situation.

3.2. FEA – pure shear

The first situation, which was studied during the FEA, considered that the shear pin received a pure shear loading, allow-
ing the calculation of the stress concentration factor in the neck region of the pin for the normal stress, ryy; the shear stress,
 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140 1137

Fig. 12. Microstructure of the shear pin near the fracture surface: (a) fatigue region; and (b) overload region.

sxy; and the Von Mises stress, req. The analysis of these stress concentration factors (see Figs. 8a–c) showed values around
1.75 for the shear stress (sxy); 2.50 for the normal stress (ryy); and 3.00 for the Von Mises stress (req). These FEA results indi-
cated that failure by shear would take place under a nominal shear load of 108 kN (ultimate shear strength stress of
583.0 MPa), which is below the project maximum shear load (120 kN). Additionally, it is interesting to raise some other
points concerning the original project of the shear pin

 For a shear load higher that 69.1 kN, the resulting Von Mises stress (req) at the hot spot would reach a value higher than
the AISI 410 tensile yield stress (638.9 MPa), which would cause localised plastic deformation of the pin, leading to poten-
tial misalignment of the system and possible introduction of spurious stresses (see Table 5).
 For a cyclic shear load with amplitude higher than 32.3 kN, the resulting Von Mises maximum stress (req) would reach a
value larger than the fatigue limit (324 MPa), which would eventually lead to the failure of the pin by tension–compres-
sion fatigue (see Table 5). For instance, if an alternated load of 32 kN was applied with a frequency of 500 cycles a day, it
would take approximately six years for the fatigue failure of the shear pin to occur.

These results clearly indicate that, even before the working load reaches the project shear load limit (120 kN), the pin may
yield locally under a lower load, causing some misalignment. Further, even considering that no spurious load was present,
the existence of cyclic shear loads also considerably smaller than the project shear load limit may lead to a fatigue failure
mode.

3.3. FEA – shear plus bending

The FEA results on the effect of shear load combined with bending load (presence of a bending force Fy) were also inves-
tigated. Figs. 9a–c showed the effect of the spurious loading level with the shear stress, sxy, normal stress, ryy, and Von Mises
stress, req. The presence of a spurious load component (5% of the regular stress) causes a raise in the shear stress of 85%,
while the Von Mises equivalent stress increases around 130%, indicating that the component is highly sensible to spurious
loads (see Fig. 10).
The evaluation of the component resistance is expressed in Fig. 11, where a graphic correlates the decrease in the load
limit for three different failure modes under the action of spurious load levels from 1% to 5%. It is possible to see that the
1138 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140

failures by yield and fatigue are the most affected by the presence of a bending component. The fatigue load limit is much
lower than the designed shear load capacity of 120 kN for 5% spurious load.
Finally, it is worth of notice that 5% of misalignment involving components of such size would be acceptable from an engi-
neering point of view, so it seems necessary to go back to the mechanical design stage and take into account new design
constraints, such as the presence of spurious loading and vibration. In this sense, a proper materials selection procedure
should be carried out, taking into account these new design constraints and objectives.

4. Conclusions

 The results indicated that the fracture of the shear pin was nucleated on machining marks located at the neck of the shear
pin and progressed by reversed bending fatigue under the action of high-nominal stress, leading finally to a fracture by an
overload mechanism.
 The presence of reversed bending was attributed to the geometry of the pin associated with the shear pin assembly pro-
cedure. Additionally, the superficial finishing of the shear pin along its neck should be optimised.
 Finite element stress analysis indicated that the shear pin supports a pure shear load around 109 kN before fracture.
 In the pure shear loading condition, the resulting Von Mises stress (req) would reach a value higher than the AISI 410
tensile yield stress for a shear load higher than 69.1 kN (below the project nominal shear load of 120 kN), which might
cause the plastic deformation of the pin and leading to shear pin misalignment and the introduction of spurious stresses.
 In the pure shear loading condition, the resulting Von Mises stress (req) would reach a value higher than the AISI 410 fati-
gue limit for a shear load higher that 32.3 kN (below the project nominal shear load of 120 kN), which would eventually
lead to the failure of the pin by tension–compression fatigue.
 The presence of a bending spurious load (5% of the resulting load in the pin) lead to a significant decrease in the shear load
before failure by shear, reaching the value of 53 kN (below the project nominal shear load of 120 kN).
 The presence of a bending spurious load (5% of the resulting load in the pin) lead to a significant decrease in the shear load
to deform plastically the shear pin at the hot spot, reaching the value of 28.9 kN (below the project nominal shear load of
120 kN).
 The presence of a bending spurious load (5% of the resulting load in the pin) associated with cyclic loading lead to a sig-
nificant decrease in the shear load which would induce failure by fatigue, reaching a value of 14 kN (below the project
nominal shear load of 120 kN).
 FEA results indicated some deficiencies on the description of the constraints, which were used during the mechanical
design of the shear pin, such as the possible occurrence of yielding, fatigue and spurious loading.
 Failure analysis and FEA showed compatible results, indicating that the failure of the pin might occur under shear loads
lower than the project values, as long as bending stress and vibration (both due to misassembly) are present.
 The shear pin should be redesigned to reduce its sensitivity to the action of spurious loading or variable loading and to
minimize misalignment during assembly. New materials selection procedure should be carried out taking into account
new design constraints and objectives.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Centrais Elétricas do Norte do Brasil (ELETRONORTE S/A) for the funding of the present
investigation. Additionally, they would like to thank FINATEC – Fundação de Empreendimentos Científicos e Tecnológicos,
the staff of (i) Grupo de Mecânica dos Materiais da Universidade de Brasília and (ii) of the Laboratório de Caracterização
Microestrutural Hubertus Colpaert da Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo.

Appendix.

For the comprehension of the model, some concepts were described, among them, the formulation of a support structure
with a beam element – 374 mm length (see Figs. 7a and b). This structure intended to simulate the load, which was trans-
mitted to the shear pin. With the purpose of simulating the presence of bending load, two force components were applied in
the point P: the Fx component, that generates the nominal shear stress; and the Fy, which generates the bending stress.
For the action of the Fx component, the upper cylinder of the shear pin does not suffer any rotation movement against the
lower cylinder. Such force stands at a distance (t) from the beam, turning the local bending load equal to zero. For the action
of the Fy component, the momentum generated by the Fy force will be equal to L * Fy. Besides, in order to eliminate the result-
ing tensile stress, a spread load of Fy intensity is applied to guarantee that the shear pin will be under two types of loads:
shear load produced by Fx force and bending load produced by Fy force.
The point (P) of load application was studied and in this analysis the location of the point P location was determined; in a
way that the momentum generated by Fx force was minimised. The graphic relating the distance t and the shear pin rotation
elucidates the choice of the point P (Fig. 13), so that the distance t must be equal to 2.4073 mm. A convergence analysis was
carried out using a calibration load (nominal shear stress of 1.0 MPa). Considering that the section area in the neck region is
 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140 1139

Fig. 13. Relation between the distance (t) and the rotation of the upper cylinder of the shear pin.

324.37 mm2, an applied load of 324.37 N is necessary to reach the desired shear stress (1.0 MPa). The graphic in Fig. 14 indi-
cated that a 70.000 nots mesh provided consistent results.
The pure shear loading condition results (Table 5), were obtained by applying the specified limiting stress values, stress
concentration factors and carve area (displayed in Table 7) and using Eq. (2) and Eq. (3).
r
rCalc ¼ ð2Þ
K
where
rCalc – applied stress with the stress concentration factor influence.
r* – applied stress.
K* – stress concentration factor for the respective stress.
F  ¼ rCalc  A: ð3Þ
where
F* – critical load related to the respective applied stress;
F – section surface area;
To calculate the critical shear load, the stress concentration factor was 1.75 (Ks) and not 3.0 (Kv), which was used in the
other two cases. The value of rrt was estimated by a pure shear stress experiment.

Fig. 14. Result of the convergence analysis for the finite element mesh.
1140 C.R.F. Azevedo et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 1126–1140

Table 7
FEA stress calculation data

Parameter Value
Tensile yield strength (ry) – MPa 638.9
Ultimate shear strength (rrt) – MPa 583.0
Fatigue limit (rn) – MPa 324.0
Shear stress concentration factor (Ks) 1.75
Von Mises equivalent stress concentration factor (Kv) 3.00
Neck section surface area (A) – mm2 324.4

In the condition with the presence of spurious load, the force F was kept constant, varying only the action angle, in order
to decompose it in the Fx and Fy components as exemplified (Fig. 9a). It can be verified that for low spurious loadings levels
F
(relation Fy under 2% Figs. 9a–c), that the failure probably occurs in a region that differs ±90° from the load direction, showing
that the main cause of the failure must be the shear stress Fx. It is important to remember that the Fx stress is the responsible
F
for a small amplitude momentum, which can be considered negligible (distance t equal to 2.4073 mm). In the situations of Fy
between 2% and 5%, the failure tend to occur in a region that differs 180° from the load appliance direction, on this case the
momentum Mz must be considered, once it has intensity to dislocate the failure region 90° away from the prior failure loca-
tion, so now it occurs aligned to the loading vector (Fig. 7b).

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