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Ductility, Fatigue
and Creep of Steel

Presentation Layout
 Ductility of steel
 Fatigue behavior of steel
- Nature of fatigue
g
- Fatigue loading
- The S-N diagram
- Improvement techniques
 Creep mechanism in steel

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Ductility of Steel
Ductility is defined as the amount of permanent strain (i.e.
strain exceeding proportional limit) up to the point of fracture.

Ductility is important because it permits yielding locally due to

hi h stresses
high t andd thus
th allows
ll th stress
the t di t ib ti to
distribution t change
h
uniformly without concentrating at a point.

A ductile material shows large deformation before failure

which serves as a warning sign. So to ensure safety, all
construction materials should posses sufficient ductility.

Design procedures based on ultimate strength behavior

require large inherent ductility, particularly for treatment of
stresses near holes or abrupt changes in member shape, as
well as for design of connections.

Ductile Fracture
Ductile fracture is normally preceded by extensive plastic
deformation. It is slow, and generally results from the
formation and coalescence of voids.

Ductile
D til fracture
f t usually
ll goes through
th h the
th grains
i but
b t in
i some
cases, it may follows the boundaries giving a fibrous or ductile
intergranular fracture.

The fracture path of a ductile crack is often irregular and the

presence of a large number of small voids gives the fracture
surface a dull appearance.
surface, appearance

A ductile fracture ensures safety against design oversight,

accidental overloads, failure by cracking due to fatigue,
corrosion or creep.

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Ductile Fracture

Transgranular Necking Shearing

Different types of ductile fractures [Ref. 1]

Brittle Fracture
Brittle fracture is a fast unstable fracture and may result in a
catastrophic failure. It is due to the rapid propagation of cracks
without any excessive plastic deformation at a stress level
below the yield stress of the material.

In practice, most brittle fractures show very limited plastic

deformation ahead of the crack tip. Brittle fracture may be
transgranular (cleavage) or intergranular.

It is important to note that metal which often show ductile

behavior can,
can under certain circumstances,
circumstances behave in a brittle
fashion leading to fast unstable crack growth. This may
happen due to sudden drop in temperature or stress
concentrations near the holes or welds which are the areas of
high susceptibility.

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Brittle Fracture

Cleavage Intergranular

Different types of brittle fractures [Ref. 1]

Factors Influencing Ductile-Brittle Transition

1. Atomic or Molecular Structure
The effects of atomic structure can be described in terms of
the relationship between the tensile strength (xy) and the
shear stress (xy) of the interatomic bonds.
bonds

Generally, a crack in a material under stress introduces stress

concentrations ahead of the crack tip. If the ratio of the tensile
stress () to shear stress () is greater than the ratio of the
tensile stress to shear stress of the interatomic bonds, then
the bonds stressed in tension will break first, and the material
will fail in a brittle manner.

In the reverse case, the bonds stressed in shear will fail first.
These bonds will break and re-form allowing the atoms to slip,
and the ductile failure will result.

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Factors Influencing Ductile-Brittle Transition

Crack

Brittle failure
Ductile failure

Influence of atomic structure on ductile-brittle fracture [Ref. 2]

Factors Influencing Ductile-Brittle Transition

2. Service Conditions
There are three service conditions that mostly determine
whether a material will fail by yielding or by brittle fracture.
• Temperature
The ductility increases with increasing temperature due to increase
in the fracture energy of the material (energy absorbed in the
process of fracturing).

• Rate of loading
The yield stress increases with increasing strain rate and results in
a brittle fracture.

• Degree of Triaxiality
An increase in triaxiality forms a brittle fracture due to increase in
the yield strength of the material.

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Factors Influencing Ductile-Brittle Transition

Influence of service conditions on ductile-brittle fracture [Ref. 2]

Measurement of Ductility of Steel

Measurement of ductility is obtained from the tension test by
determining the percent elongation of the specimen, which is
the permanent elongation of the gage length after fracture
g of the original
expressed as a percentage g gage
g g length.
g

100( Lu  Lo )
Percent elongation 
Lo

Where: Lu = gage length after fracture

L0 = original gage length

There is no limiting value of percent elongation to demarcate

brittleness or ductility. However, most ductile materials show
percent elongation above 15 which can be used as a
reference.

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Behavior of Steel
under Fatigue Loading

Fatigue
A component or structure which survives a single application
of load may fracture if the application is repeated a large
number of times in short interval. This is called the fatigue
failure.
Examples of structures and the loads which can cause
fatigue are:
Bridges: commercial vehicles, goods trains
Cranes: lifting, rolling and inertial loads.
Offshore structures: waves
Slender towers: wind gusting
Slender structures, with natural frequencies low enough to
respond to the loading frequency are more susceptible to
fatigue due to dynamic magnification of stresses.

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Fatigue Loadings

Types of fatigue loading [Ref. 1]

Nature of Fatigue Failure

There are two basic stages involved in fatigue failure:

1. Crack initiation
Generally, fatigue cracks initiate on a free surface at a point
off high
hi h stress
t concentration
t ti i the
in th material.
t i l This
Thi may oftenft
be preexisting flaw in the material, or a human-made
discontinuity, such as the root of a thread, a rivet or bolt hole,
or any point at which there is sharp change in size or shape
of the material.

Fatigue cracks nucleate due to the slippage of molecules of

the material. Under cyclic loads, reversed slip on adjacent
slip planes may lead to the formations of intrusions and
extrusions at the surface. This forms a fatigue crack which
will begin to grow in a plane perpendicular to the principal
tensile stress.

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Nature of Fatigue Failure

Schematic diagram of crack

initiation and subsequent crack
growth, first along the slip line
and then at right angles to the
principal tensile stress [Ref. 2]

Nature of Fatigue Failure

2. Crack Propagation
Fatigue crack will propagate under shear or tensile loading
but not under compressive loading, since compression will
close cracks rather than to open them.
them

On each tensile loading, very high stresses occur at crack tip

(due to the stress-concentration effect of a sharp crack),
causing the crack to propagate into the still undamaged
material ahead of it.

This process is
Thi i repeated d untilil the
h crackk reaches
h some
critical length, at which time a sudden failure occurs, in either
a brittle or a ductile manner, depending on the
characteristics of the particular material.

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Nature of Fatigue Failure

Failure surface of a fractured specimen due to fatigue [Ref. 2]

Assessment of Fatigue Life of a Material

In the analysis of a structure for fatigue, there are three main
areas of difficulty in prediction:
1. The operational environment of a structure and the relationship
between the environment and the actual forces acting on it.
it
2. The internal stresses at a critical point in the structure induced
by external forces acting on the structure.
3. The time till failure due to the accumulated stress history at the
critical point.

There are two basic approaches for the assessment of

fatigue life of structural components.
1. S-N approach.
2. Fracture mechanics approach.

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1. S-N Approach
This is the most common method to predict the fatigue life of
a material. It is based on empirically derived relationships
between the applied stress range and fatigue life.

In this method,
method the data is presented in the form of a S-N
SN
curve, where the total cyclic stress range (S) is plotted
against the number of cycles to failure (N).

Fatigue Data
The data is obtained experimentally. For a particular
material a series of specimens is subject to cycles of
material,
constant amplitude to failure. Sufficient specimens are tested
to determine both fatigue life and its standard deviation.
Depending on the design philosophy adopted, design
strength is taken as mean minus an appropriate number of
standard deviations.

S-N Approach
Plotting of S-N Curve
Logarithmic scale is used on both axis to plot the S-N curve,
which is a mean curve among the data points.

To carry out fatigue life predictions, a linear fatigue damage

model is used in conjunction with the relevant S-N curve. In
essence, the model assumes that irreversible damage
accumulates linearly to a fixed level, at which failure occurs.
Mathematically:
Srm = A
N.S
N
Where: N = number of cycles to failure
Sr = applied stress range
m, A = constants depending on the material

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S-N Approach

Fatigue limit

Typical S-N curve and nomenclature used in fatigue [Ref. 5]

2. Fracture Mechanics Approach

This method considers the growth rate of an existing defect
at each stage in its propagation. Thus, if a material contains
a crack, or crack-like flaw, fracture mechanics equations can
be used to predict its fatigue strength, assuming that the
fatigue life consists of crack growth from a pre-existing crack
and the initial crack size is known.

This method is not very practical and mostly used to make

fatigue life models.

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Fatigue Tests
Fatigue tests can be carried out in bending, direct tension
and/or compression, torsion or multiaxial loading. For each
loading, there are two basic types of fatigue machines:
1 Constant load machines: In these,
1. these the loading cycle
remains constant throughout the test while the deflection
gradually increases as the specimen sustains damage.
2. Constant displacement machines: The displacement
cycle remains constant throughout the test while the
resulting stresses may change as the specimen
undergoes
d d
damage.
Because of the large number of cycles till failure and the
number of specimens that must be tested (due to large
scatter in the data), all testing machines run at high speeds,
typically in the range of 25 to 500 cycles per second.

Fatigue Testing Machines

1. Constant Moment Rotating Bending Machine
In this machine, the central portion of the specimen is
subjected to a constant moment. As the specimen rotates,
any point on the surface undergoes a sinusoidally varying,
varying
fully reversed stress cycle, from maximum compression on
the top to maximum tension on the bottom.

Automatic recording gages are installed in the machine

which takes the data according to the initial settings.

D
Drawbacks
b k
1. It is not suitable for use with a non-zero mean stress
(unbalanced tension and compression loading).
2. It requires a specimen with a circular cross-section.

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Fatigue Testing Machines

Rotating bending fatigue testing machine [Ref. 2]

Fatigue Testing Machines

2. Reciprocating Bending Machine
This type of machine is often used for flat specimens. By
appropriately positioning the specimen with respect to the
mean displacement of the connecting rod,
rod a nonzero beam
stress (unbalanced tension and compression) can be
applied.

3. Direct Stress Machine

This machine is most suitable for direct tension or
compression Stresses are applied by the eccentric drive.
compression. drive By
varying the fixed end of the specimen, a non-zero mean
stress may be applied. Gages are installed to take the data
accordingly.

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Fatigue Testing Machines

Reciprocating bending fatigue testing machine [Ref. 2]

Fatigue Testing Machines

Direct stress fatigue testing machine [Ref. 2]

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Fatigue Life Improvement Techniques

1. Grinding
The improvement of the welded joint and the removal of slag
inclusions can be achieved by grinding, either with a rotary burr
or with a disc. To obtain maximum benefit from this type of
treatment, it is important to extend the grinding to a sufficient
depth to remove all small undercuts and inclusions.

2. Weld Toe Remelting

Weld toe remelting can result in large increase in fatigue
strength due to the removal of undercuts and slag inclusions at
th toe,
the t which
hi h help
h l to
t initiate
i iti t and
d propagate
t the
th crack.
k

3. Hammer Peening
Hammer peening involved the extensive cold-working of the toe
region of the welds and results in a substantial increase in the
fatigue strength.

Creep Mechanism in Steel

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Creep
Creep can be defined as the time dependent increase in
strain (deformation) at constant stress (load).
Steel normally expands under creep, which may result in
loss of prestress in prestressed concrete or localized
buckling at critical sections of steel structures.
For metals, with the exception of soft metals such as lead,
creep strain is negligible at ordinary temperature, but creep
does become significant as the temperature is raised.
As a g
general rule,, it is found that creep
p starts when:
T > (0.3 - 0.4) Tm for metals
T > (0.4 - 0.5) Tm for ceramics
where Tm is the melting temperature in degree kelvins.

Creep Mechanism
The creep mechanism can be best defined with the help of
creep curve as shown below.

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Creep Mechanism
The creep curve is usually divided into three stages: the
primary stage also known as the transient creep, the
secondary stage called as the steady state and the tertiary
stage which is terminated by fracture.

If the loading stress and temperature are sufficiently low, only

the primary stage would occur (i.e. the creep rate for the
secondary stage will be negligible). At higher load and
temperature levels, all three stages will occur, resulting in
fracture of the material at the end of the third stage.

If the stress and temperature levels are intermediate,

intermediate the
tertiary stage may be delayed and occur at time periods
greater than the service life of the materials.

The creep in the steady-state stage is most important from an

engineering point of view because it is the stage in which much
of the creep strain will occur during the service life.

Creep Mechanism

Effect of loading and temperature conditions on creep [Ref. 2]

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Determination of Steady State Creep

At constant temperature, the steady-state creep rate ss is
given by:
ss = B.n
Wh
Where n is
i the
th creep exponent.
t
Also, it is found that ss = Ce -(Q/RT) at constant stress, where
R is the universal gas constant and Q is the activation energy
for creep.
Combining both expression:
ss = A n e -(Q/RT)
(Q/RT)

where A is the creep constant.

The values of the constants A, R and Q vary from material to
material and have to be found experimentally.

Determination of Steady State Creep

Slope = -Q/R

log  1/T

Determination of steady state creep constants [Ref. 2]

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Questions/Queries ???

References of Figures

1. G.W. Owens; P.R. Knowles; and P.J. Dowling. 1992. “Steel Designers Manual
(5th Edition)”. Blackwell Scientific Publications, London.

2. J.F. Young; S. Mindless; R.J. Gray; and A. Bentur. 1998. “The Science and
Technology of Civil Engineering Materials”
Materials . Prentice-Hall
Prentice Hall International Inc.,
Inc New
York.

3. W.J. Patton. 1976. Construction Materials. Prentice-Hall International, New

York.

4. C.G. Salmon and J.E. Johnson. 1980. “Steel Structures (2nd Edition)”. Harper &
Row, Publishers, New York.

5. P. J. Dowling. 1995. “Structural

Structural Steel Design
Design”.. Butterworth Publishers, London.

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