CHAPTER 10:

FAILURE
ISSUES TO ADDRESS...
• How do flaws in a material initiate failure?
• How is fracture resistance quantified; how do different
material classes compare?
• How do we estimate the stress to fracture?
• How do loading rate, loading history, and temperature
affect the failure stress?

Ship-cyclic loading
from waves. Computer chip-cyclic Hip implant-cyclic
thermal loading. loading from walking.
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 DUCTILE VS BRITTLE FAILURE
Very Moderately
Fracture behavior: Brittle
Ductile Ductile

%AR or %EL: Large Moderate Small

• Ductile fracture is Ductile: Brittle:

desirable! Because warning before No warning
fracture
2
DUCTILE VS BRITTLE FAILURE

cup-and-cone fracture brittle fracture

3
 EXAMPLE: FAILURE OF A PIPE

• Ductile failure:
--one piece
--large deformation

• Brittle failure:
--many pieces
--small deformation

4
 MODERATELY DUCTILE FAILURE
• Evolution to failure:
void void growth shearing
necking fracture
nucleation and linkage at surface


• Resulting
fracture
surfaces
(steel)
particles
serve as void 50 mm 100 mm
nucleation
sites. 5
 BRITTLE FRACTURE SURFACES
• Intergranular (between • Intragranular (within
grains) grains)

316 S.
304 S. Steel Steel
(metal) (metal)

4 mm
160mm

Al Oxide
Polypropylene (ceramic)
(polymer)

1 mm 3mm
6
 IDEAL VS REAL MATERIALS (at Room T)
TS TS perfect >> TS engineering
materials materials
perfect mat’l-no flaws
E/10

carefully produced glass fiber

typical ceramic
E/100 typical strengthened metal
typical polymer

0.1 e
7
 IDEAL vs REAL MATERIALS

• DaVinci observed
(500 yrs ago!)...
 the longer the wire,
the smaller the load to fail it.

• Reasons:
 Flaws cause premature failure.
 Larger samples are more flawed!

8
FLAWS ARE STRESS CONCENTRATORS!
• Elliptical hole in a • Stress distrib. in front of a
plate: hole:
 a 
max  o 2 rt + 1


 2 o a for sharp
cracks
rt

rt

• Stress concentration factor:

• Large Kt promotes failure:

9
 ENGINEERING FRACTURE DESIGN
• Avoid sharp corners!

max
O Stress Conc. Factor, Kt= 
O

2.5

w
max 2.0 increasing w/h
r, h
fillet 1.5
radius
1.0
0 0.5 1.0
r/h
sharper fillet radius
10
 WHEN DOES A CRACK PROPAGATE?
For brittle fracture,
Elastic energy release vs
energy of surface created,

2E = K a-1/2
c  c
 a
K
crack tip radius is very small!  tip  tip 
crack tip stress is very large. 2 x

• Crack propagates when: increasing K

the tip stress is large
enough to make:
distance, x,
K ≥ Kc from crack tip

11
WHEN DOES A CRACK PROPAGATE?
• Condition for crack propagation:
K ≥ Kc Kc = c a1/2
Stress Intensity Factor: Fracture Toughness:
--Depends on load & --Depends on the material,
geometry. temperature, environment, &
rate of loading.
• Values of K for some standard loads & geometries:

units of K :
MPa m
a
or ksi in

K   a K  1.1 a 12
Different fracture toughness values for different loading types

Mode I Mode II Mode III

Tensile Sliding Tearing

13
FRACTURE TOUGHNESS

increasing
Composite reinforcement geometry
is: f = fibers; sf = short fibers; w =
whiskers; p = particles. Addition
data as noted (vol. fraction of
reinforcement):
1. (55vol%) ASM Handbook, Vol. 21, ASM
Int., Materials Park, OH (2001) p. 606.
2. (55 vol%) Courtesy J. Cornie, MMC, Inc.,
Waltham, MA.
3. (30 vol%) P.F. Becher et al., Fracture
Mechanics of Ceramics, Vol. 7, Plenum
Press (1986). pp. 61-73.
4. Courtesy CoorsTek, Golden, CO.
5. (30 vol%) S.T. Buljan et al., "Development
of Ceramic Matrix Composites for
Application in Technology for Advanced
Engines Program", ORNL/Sub/85-22011/2,
ORNL, 1992.
6. (20vol%) F.D. Gace et al., Ceram. Eng.
Sci. Proc., Vol. 7 (1986) pp. 978-82.

14
 FRACTURE THOUGHNESS, Kc , DEPENDS ON:

Temperature, Strain Rate, Microstructure, Strength, Grain Size

TEMPERATURE

STRAIN RATE

K Ic
y
WHEN

G.S.

15
DESIGN AGAINST CRACK GROWTH
• Crack growth condition: K ≥ Kc
Y a
• Largest, most stressed cracks grow first!
--Result 1: Max flaw size --Result 2: Design stress
dictates design stress. dictates max. flaw size.
Kc 
1  K c 
2
design  a max   
Y a max  Ydesign 


16
 DESIGN EX: AIRCRAFT WING
• Material has Kc = 26 MPa-m0.5
• Two designs to consider...
Design A Design B
--largest flaw is 9 mm --use same material
--failure stress = 112 MPa --largest flaw is 4 mm
Kc --failure stress = ?
• Use... c 
Y a max
• Key point: Y and Kc are the same in both designs.
--Result:
112 MPa 9 mm 4 mm

c a max A  c a max B

Answer: c B  168 MPa
• Reducing flaw size pays off!
17
 LOADING RATE

• Increased loading rate... TS
y
--increases y and TS larger e
--decreases %EL TS
• Why? An increased rate y
gives less time for disl. to smaller e
move past obstacles. e

• Impact loading: sample

--severe testing case
--more brittle
--smaller toughness

final height initial height

18
 TEMPERATURE
• Increasing temperature...
--increases %EL and Kc
• Ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT)...

FCC metals (e.g., Cu, Ni)

Impact Energy

BCC metals
polymers
Brittle More Ductile

High strength materials (y>E/150)

Temperature
Ductile-to-brittle
transition temperature
19
 DESIGN STRATEGY:
STAY ABOVE THE DBTT!
• Pre-WWII: The Titanic • WWII: Liberty ships

Dr. Robert D. Ballard, The Discovery of the

Titanic.)

• Problem: Used a type of steel with a DBTT ~ Room temp.

20
 FATIGUE
• Fatigue = failure under cyclic stress.

• Stress varies with time.

--key parameters are S and m

• Key points: Fatigue...

--can cause part failure, even though max < c.
--causes ~ 90% of mechanical engineering failures. 21
 FATIGUE DESIGN PARAMETERS
• Fatigue limit, Sfat: • Sometimes, the
--no fatigue if S < Sfat fatigue limit is zero!
S = stress amplitude
case for
unsafe Al (typ.)

safe

103 105 107 109

N = Cycles to failure

22
 FATIGUE MECHANISM
crack origin
• Crack grows incrementally
typ. 1 to 6
da
 
 K
m
dN ~   a
increase in crack length per
loading cycle

Fatigue striations

Failed rotating shaft

•crack grew even though
Kmax < Kc
•crack grows faster if
•  increases
• crack gets longer
• loading freq. increases.
23
 IMPROVING FATIGUE LIFE
1. Impose a compressive
surface stress
(to suppress surface
cracks from growing)

--Method 1: shot peening --Method 2: carburizing

shot
C-rich gas
put
surface
into
compression

2. Remove stress bad better

concentrators.
bad better 25
 CREEP
• Occurs at elevated temperature, T > 0.4 Tmelt
• Deformation changes with time.

INCREASING T

strain, e
tertiary

primary secondary

elastic T < 0.4 Tm

0 time

26
 SECONDARY CREEP
• Most of component life spent here.
• Strain rate is constant at a given T, 
--strain hardening is balanced by recovery
stress exponent (material parameter) ~ 4
. n  Q c 
es  K 2 exp   activation energy for creep
strain rate  RT  (material parameter)
material const. applied stress

200 Stress (MPa)

427C • Strain rate
100
538C increases
40
for larger T, 
20
649C
10
10-2 10-1 1
Steady state creep rate, es (%/1000hr) 27
 CREEP FAILURE
• Failure: • Estimate rupture time
along grain boundaries. S 590 Iron, T = 800C,  = 20 ksi
g.b. cavities

applied
stress

24x103 K-log hr
• Time to rupture, tr
T(20 + log t r )  L T(20 + log t r )  L
temperature function of 1073K
applied stress
time to failure (rupture) Ans: tr = 233hr
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 SUMMARY
• Engineering materials don't reach theoretical strength.
• Flaws produce stress concentrations that cause
premature failure.
• Sharp corners produce large stress concentrations
and premature failure.
• Failure type depends on T and stress:
-for noncyclic  and T < 0.4Tm, failure stress decreases with:
increased maximum flaw size,
decreased T,
increased rate of loading.
-for cyclic :
cycles to fail decreases as  increases.
-for higher T (T > 0.4Tm):
time to fail decreases as  or T increases.
29