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Failure Analysis of Metallic Structures and Components: Part I - Methodology and Tools
Failure Analysis of Metallic Structures and Components: Part I - Methodology and Tools
Failure Analysis of Metallic Structures and Components: Part I - Methodology and Tools
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This is the first of two papers dealing with failure analysis of metallic structures and
components. In this paper, an overview for a generalized approach for the determination
of main cause(s) of failure is illustrated. Failure analysis is vital to both profitability and
liability. The general characterization of the failure surfaces as related to load and
environment has been shown for metallic materials. It is shown that the combination of
both load and environment may alter the behavior of some materials, such as steel, from
ductile to brittle resulting in catastrophic failure. Failure analysis requires the knowledge
in many diverse fields.
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to show the typical failure surface for the usually better to have more than one opinion
different loading and environmental conditions in this regard.
to be used as tools for failure identification. The main step in the failure analysis proc-
These tools will help in recognizing the failure ess is analyzing the data by logically deduce
causes especially where crack initiation and the failure data through a cause-effect relation.
propagation in metallic structures and compo- At this point, a hypothesis for the failure and
nents are involved. More emphasis will be de- a rational plan of attack should be proposed.
voted to the identification of crack causes Several approaches are available and they
leading to the failure of metallic materials. mainly identify the causes through experimen-
tal results, examining the failure surface, ex-
2. What is failure? ploring the failure consequences, and
conducting a comprehensive stress analysis if
An engineering system, a structure, or a needed. An approach will be utilized in the
machine component fails if it does not func- second part of this paper illustrating a plan of
tion according to its intended design. This is attack for the failure analysis of a case study.
the most common definition of failure and will Communicating the findings and recom-
be considered throughout this paper. However, mendations of the previous analyses to the
this definition is considered vague by some appropriate party (usually the client) is
researchers in different fields. For instance, in critical; otherwise, the analysis will be worth-
the reliability analysis for code development, less. The main benefits of failure analysis are
the "limit states" are considered as the failure to improve design or determine liability, thus
criteria [4]. Three limit states are always conveying this information is of utmost impor-
considered in this regard: the ultimate, tance. For the failure analysis to be successful,
serviceability, and fatigue limit states. Even in it is important to be implemented and to track
this respect, exceeding the deflection limits for the effect of corrective measures taken in the
example, as proposed by any code, does not recommendation part.
mean that the structure fails.
4. Tools for failure analysis
3. A generalized failure analysis approach
A structure or a component may fail due to
A successful approach for failure analysis several factors that can be classified into load-
should consider the following steps: (a) failure related and environmental-related. Some tools
data preservation, (b) formation of the analysis exist which help in determining the cause(s) of
team, (c) analyzing the data and proposing a failure and these tools are the typical shapes
hypothesis, (d) communicating findings and or characteristics of failure surface and are
recommendations, and (e) tracking results. categorized into load-related and environmen-
Many researchers have implemented similar tally related. Only metallic materials will be
approaches (e.g. Latino [5]). considered in this paper especially steel, as it
Preserving the failure data is essential for is one of the most commonly used construc-
determining the main cause(s). Typical failure tion material.
data include parts from the failure scene, tim-
ing of failure, all corresponding data such as 5. Load related tools
position, loading, and any other records.
The diversity of the professions of the fail- Generally, steel structures or components
ure analysis team is crucial in determining the are designed and operated in the elastic zone
failure causes. One major mistake is to of the material behavior. However, if overload-
concentrate the effort of searching on certain ing occurs, it may lead to failure. One should
team with unique background (e.g. metallurgy differentiate between ductile overloading and
or structural only). For some simple cases, brittle overloading since this may reveal the
failure analysis could be conducted by one cause(s) of failure. In the former, there is a
person with diverse background, however, it is substantial distortion in the material due to
yielding dislocation leading to a well recog-
nized plastic deformation [6]. On the contrast, called "fracture toughness KIc". The main
brittle failure is always associated with very difference between overloading and fatigue is
little deformation and is caused mainly by the the magnitude of the stress intensity factor.
initiation and propagation of cracks. Example The value of the stress intensity factor in the
of the overloading due to an earthquake is general form is,
shown in fig. 1 as crack formation at a joint of
a steel frame. K I = Qσ ∞ πa . (1)
Another vital observation is the identifica-
Where Q is a geometric function of crack
tion of the plane of failure with respect to the
axis of the member. This will reveal the direc- length and member configuration, σ∞ is the
tion and type of loading at failure moment, remote stress, and a is the crack length. In
keeping in mind that cracks always propagate the case of overloading, the remote stress σ∞
perpendicular to the direction of maximum increases to the value that KI = KIc and failure
tensile stresses. For instance, a plane of fail- is catastrophic. On the other hand, in case of
ure perpendicular to the element axis means fatigue loading, the remote stress magnitude
high tensile loading or torsion. Inclined plane itself is not enough to cause fracture. With
of failure, in pipes for example, leads to the load repetitions, the crack propagates a cer-
conclusion of applied torsion or torsion and tain length after each load cycle till reaching
tension pending on the inclination. It is worth the critical value then fracture occurs. This
mentioning that the material may be ductile, simple introduction to fatigue failure is neces-
however, it may fail prematurely in a brittle sary for fatigue failure surface identification.
fashion. For instance, Liberty Ships [1] were Fatigue failure is always recognized by a series
made of ductile steel; nevertheless, they failed of concentric half-moon or straight and paral-
due to fracture as other factors entered into lel shaped lines. As the crack advances in
the picture. each cycle, it marks a new line and the final
Other causes of failure in metals through fracture surface may appear as in fig. 2.
crack initiation and propagation related to Sometimes this type of fractured surface is
load are fatigue and stress concentration. called "beach marks".
Another aspect related to the beach-marks
5.1. Fatigue failure. associated with fatigue loading is the load type.
If the beach-marks are parallel, it indicates
According to linear elastic fracture that the loading direction is constant (one way
mechanics (LEFM) (e.g. Broek [7]), fracture is loading, either bending or tension) as shown
imminent when the crack length (a) reaches a in fig. 3-a. However, if the beach-marks are
critical value where the stress intensity factor inclined as shown in fig 3-b, it reflects the
" KI" (where I stands for the tensile mode of introduction of torsion (rotation). Furthermore,
fracture) due to loading and member configu- the size of the Instantaneous Zone (IZ), which
ration reaches a critical material property carries the load just before fracture, reflects
the intensity of loading. Heavy loads result in
larger IZ zone while light loading is indicated
by small IZ zone as shown in fig. 3-c.
Fig. 4. Typical SCC patterns. One of the most severe damage, especially
to high strength carbon steel, is due to the
exposure to hydrogen. Hydrogen embitterment
and blistering are encountered in several fields.
Examples include oil, aircraft, petrochemical,
and many others. This type of damage and its
corresponding failure mechanism will be dis-
cussed in detail in the second part of this pa-
per. A typical sign of hydrogen blistering,
which may split the metal, is shown in fig. 7.
Several other forms of SCC exist. For in-
stance, fretting corrosion occurs at the inter-
face between contacts and highly loaded metal
surface subjected to slight vibratory motion.
Also, a combination of an aggressive chemical
Fig. 5. SCC in carbon steel frame.
environment and high fluid surface velocity profitability and liability such that prospective
may result in erosion corrosion. structure or component can be better engi-
neered or the liability of the failure can be
8. Analysis of failure data evaluated.
3. Some load and environmental tools for the
After collecting all the data of the failure identification of failure surface are presented.
analysis, one should start analyzing the data These tools are vital to failure analysis as it
through the determination of the most prob- helps in characterization of the failure surface,
able cause(s). At this point, a clear hypothesis and hence, building a solid hypothesis of fail-
regarding the failure cause and failure mecha- ure.
nism should be proposed. In order to support 4. Although most metals conform to ductility
this hypothesis, several types of analyses standards upon the construction of a struc-
should be conducted starting from simple ture or a component, they might fail in a brit-
calculations using general engineering formu- tle fashion under certain conditions. The
lae to the detailed fracture mechanics analysis combination of both stresses and hostile envi-
and computer simulation of crack propagation. ronment may alter the material behavior from
In some cases, simple calculations may suffice, ductile to brittle.
however in others; more sophisticated tech-
niques may be required. This step depends in References
large on the experience of the analysis team
with previous cases, and the understanding of [1] J.E. Gordon, The New Science of Strong
the actual failure mechanism. Usually the Materials, Princeton University Press,
main emphasis of this step is to provide a Princeton, NJ. (1984).
theoretical support to the original hypothesis. [2] FEMA-353, Recommended Specifications
Furthermore, experimental testing (chemical, and Quality Assurance Guidelines for
mechanical, or physical) is an essential step in Steel Moment-Frame Construction for
most failure analyses for the determination of Seismic Applications, prepared by the
material properties or any other chemical SAC Joint Venture for the Federal Emer-
reaction. gency Management Agency, Washington,
DC. (2000).
9. Communicating findings and recommen- [3] E. Kaufmann, J. Fisher, R. Julio and J.
dations Gross, Failure Analysis of Welded Steel
Moment Frames Damaged in the North-
After arriving at the main cause(s) of fail- ridge Earthquake. Report No. NISTIR
ure, findings should be presented in the form 5944, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD. (1997).
of recommendations for redesign, changing [4] A. Nowak and K. Collins, Reliability of
the material to suit the environment, special Structures, McGraw Hill Inc., N.Y. (2000).
coatings for the structure protection, or deter- [5] R. Latino, The essentials of Conducting a
mining the liability of the failure. This is cru- Successful Root Cuase Failure Analysis",
cial to failure analysis as it helps the client for presented at the Paper Industry Manage-
prospective actions. ment Conference, Atlanta, Georgia (1998).
[6] I. Shames and F. Cozzarelli, Elastic and
10. Conclusions Inelastic Stress Analysis Prentice- Hall,
Inc. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. (1992).
In this paper, a simple and generalized ap- [7] D. Broek, Elementary Engineering Frac-
proach for failure analysis is presented. The ture Mechanics, 4th edition, Kluwer Aca-
following conclusions can be drawn: demic Press, Boston (1991).
1. Failure analysis is a diverse engineering [8] M. Fontana, Corrosion Engineering, 3rd
field requires interdisciplinary communica- Edition, McGraw-Hill International,
tions to arrive at the main cause(s) of failure. Materials Science and Engineering Series
2. Conducting failure analysis always reveals (1986).
important information leading to both