SEMM 3622 (MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY)

Semester 1, Session 2022/2023

DR. ABDUL HAKIM MD YUSOP

Bachelor’s degree (Mech. Engineering, UTM)
Master’s degree (Biomedical Engineering, UTM)
Ph.D (Biomedical Engineering, UTM)
Post-doctoral fellow (Ibnu Sina Institute, UTM)
E-mail: abdul.hakim@utm.my
Phone: 013-7348327
Room: C25-323
INSPIRING CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE MINDS
2
3
4
 Chapter 1- Metal Fracture
SEMM3622 – Material Technology
Lesson 1

Photo by Giancarlo Revolledo on Unsplash Photo by Joseph Barrientos on Unsplash

Learning outcomes
To understand the
principal of fracture.
AHMY
Describe the process
of fracture of metals,
and differentiate
between ductile and
brittle
fracture.
6
Introduction

• Regardless of the extreme

care taken in design,
manufacturing, and materials
selection for machines and
components, failures are
unavoidable.
Crash site of Turkish Airlines flight TK 1951 at Schiphol, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands. February 26, 2009; Copyright Fred Vloo / RNW

AHMY 7
Introduction

• When a metallic body is

subjected to a stress it
withstands the applied stress.
• When the body is no longer
able to withstand the applied
stress it starts cracking.

Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dr. Abdul Hakim 8

 Metal fracture
• Any metal fracture process
involves two steps crack initiation
and propagation in response to an
imposed stress.
• Fracture is the separation of a body
into two or more pieces as a result
of an imposed stress.

Zhang, L., et al., In-situ SEM Study of Slip-controlled Short-crack

Growth in Single-crystal Nickel Superalloy. Materials Science and
Engineering: A, 2018. 742. 9
Metal Fracture
• A majority of component failures Artistosteles, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

is due to fracture and therefore an

understanding of this
phenomenon forms an important
aspect of failure analysis.
• Fractures can be classified
broadly as ductile fractures and
brittle fractures
Titanic Disaster, 1912

AHMY 10
Failure of engineering materials is an undesirable occurrence!!
– can lead to loss of human life
- Economic losses

11
Ductile Fracture
Extensive plastic deformation
• The ductile fracture of a metal occurs after extensive
plastic deformation and is characterized by slow crack
propagation.

• Can be a cup-cone failure

(© ASM International)

• Energy required to fail is substantially high

• The interior surface is fibrous, irregular, which signify

plastic deformation

• Crack is “stable”: resists further extension unless

applied stress is increased
AHMY12
Stages of Ductile Fracture
3. Void growth and coalescence to
form crack

1. Non-uniform 1 2 3 4
deformation caused
necking
Cone

Cup

2. Void
nucleation
(formation)
4. Separation
(fracture)
Cdang, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia
Commons

AHMY 13
 A B C

A. Very ductile, soft metals (e.g. Pb, Au) at room temperature

B. Moderately ductile fracture, typical for ductile metals (e.g. Fe, Cu, Steel)

C. Brittle fracture, cold metals (ductile-to brittle transition temp.), ceramics. 14

Different metals have different ductility

15
Fractography of Ductile fracture
• Fracture surface of a ductile
fracture when examined
under a scanning electron
microscope (SEM) reveal,
what are called, ‘dimples’. Dimples

AHMY 16
Fractography of Ductile Fracture (Tensile loading)

Fracture surface of ”cone” tensile side

Equiaxed and
spherical dimples

AHMY 17
Fractography of Ductile Fracture (Shear loading)

Fracture surface of ”cone” shearing side Elongated and parabolic dimples / shearing
dimples

AHMY 18
Fractography of Ductile Fracture

Tearing Dimples

AHMY 19
Dimples (microvoids)
 The shape of the dimples can be related to the type of loading;
 can be viewed via SEM at 2500x magnification.
 more traction originates spherical dimples.
 more shear loading causes the dimples to be more parabolic.

Tension loading Shear loading

20
 Fractography of Ductile Fracture

Particles or inclusions serve

as void nucleation sites

Courtesy of MatSE 280: Introduction to Engineering Materials

©D.D. Johnson 2004,2006-2008
21
Brittle Fracture

• A brittle fracture is characterised No plastic deformation

observed. Dimension remains
by very little micro-deformation and negligible gross almost roughly the same
deformation.
• In a brittle fracture the rapid rate
of crack propagation ultimately results in fragmentation.
• Crack propagates perpendicular to the direction of applied
stress
• Required less energy to fracture Sigmund, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

AHMY 22
 Many metals that are ductile under some conditions become brittle if the conditions are
altered (e.g. at low temperature)
Fracture at low temperature:
- Theoretically, plastic deformation is governed by the dislocations at room temperature.
- Accumulation of dislocations can hinder crack propagation at room temperature.
- At low temp., the nearby atoms in the crystal lattice don’t easily slip, the dislocations are
less able to move compared to at room temperature, and eventually long cracks can
form more easily.

This slip is reduced

at low temperature

23
Courtesy of G. F. Vander Voort, Carpenter Technology Corporation .
Brittle Fracture
• Brittle fracture involves the
rupture of interatomic bonds
ahead of the crack (cleavage Atomic Bond

fracture).
Cracks Broken Bond
• Two major types of brittle
fractures: transgranular and
intergranular. Atoms

AHMY 24
Transgranular Fracture
• Transgranular fractures, the fracture
travels through the grain of the
material.
• Crack changes direction from grain to
grain due to the different lattice
orientation of atoms in each grain,
following the path of least resistance.

Modified fromBob Clemintime, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

AHMY 25
Transgranular Fracture
• Fracture in most brittle polycrystalline materials usually occurs by cleavage.
• Cleavage is a transgranular-type fracture and occurs within certain cleavage planes within
the grains.

26
Intergranular Fracture
• Intergranular fracture, occurs when a
crack travels along the grain boundaries.
• Normally occur when the phase on grain
boundary is brittle.
• The path of intergranular fracture
typically occurs along the highest-angle
grain boundary (large area of cracks)

AHMY 27
Bob Clemintime, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
 Sources of intergranular fracture
• Microvoid nucleation and coalescence at inclusions or second phase particles located
along grain boundaries
• Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) processes associated with chemical dissolution along
grain boundaries
• Faster nucleation and growth of precipitates at the grain boundaries
• Crack growth following a quenching process (weakened grain boundary and larger grain
size)

Precipitates Microvoids coalescence SCC along grain boundary

at grain boundary along grain boundary

28
Jiang et al., 2018, Sci. Rep. Song et al., 2015, WIT press Source: AMPP
Fractography of Brittle Fracture
• The fracture surface of a
brittle failure is usually
reasonably smooth.
• The fracture surface
normally shows chevron
marks pointing toward the
origin of the fracture.

AHMY 29
V-shaped “chevron”
markings pointed toward
the origin of fracture

30
Fractography of Transgranular Fracture (microscopic
scale)
• Numerous cleavage-crack
segments look like streams,
which ultimately join the main
crack, forming what is called a
“river pattern”.

• River-like: coalescence of
microcracks (crack branching)

AHMY 31
 Fractography of Intergranular Fracture
(microscopic scale)
Grain 4 • Intergranular fracture, sometimes
Grain 2
referred to as “Rock Candy
Fracture along fractures”( large, smooth facets
grain boundary
Grain 1 Grain 3
in the fracture face)

• It has polygonal grain facets.

AHMY 32
Ductile Vs. Brittle Fracture
• Ductile material shows
larger area under the stress-
strain curve indicating its
ability to absorbed more
energy before fracture
(better toughness) compare
to brittle material.

Nicoguaro, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

AHMY 33
Ductile vs. Brittle Fracture
Cuenca Cabrera, C., Ductile failure prediction using phenomenological fracture model for steels: Cui, H., et al., Failure analysis of the brittle fracture of a thick-walled 20 steel pipe in an ammonia
calibration, validation and application. 2018. synthesis unit. Engineering Failure Analysis, 2010. 17(6): p. 1359-1376.

Ductile failure of pipe - one piece and large Brittle failure of steel pipe - many pieces and small
deformation deformation

AHMY 34
Ductile vs. Brittle Failure

Ship hull fracture in ductile manner Ship hull fracture in brittle manner

AHMY 35
Ductile vs. Brittle
• Ductility is a major safety consideration for structural
projects.
• Ductility plays a key role in formability, because excessively
brittle materials may not be able to be formed/worked
successfully.
• Ductility allows structures to bend and deform to some extent
without rupturing.

AHMY 36
 Parameters Ductile Brittle

Plastic Deformation Extensive Very little or no plastic deformation

Crack propagation Slow, need stress Fast

Types of materials Most metals (not too cold) Ceramics, cold metals

Warning Permanent elongation, slow plastic deformation None

Fracture surface Rough Smoother

Necking Yes None

Strain energy (energy stored in Higher Lower

materials due to a elastic
deformation)
Crack propagation Perpendicular to the applied stress Could be 45 degree to the applied stress
(Very ductile) 37
What have we learned?

• Fracture of metallic material happens in 2 stages: 1) Crack

Initiation and 2) Crack Propagation.

• Ductile fracture is accompanied by severe plastic

deformation prior to failure.

• Brittle fracture shows little or no deformation prior to

fracture and is therefore more problematic.
AHMY 38
What have we learned?
• Ductile fracture is normally preferred
because:
• Preventive measures may be taken
inasmuch as evidence of plastic
Ductile failure, sign of failure can be observed
deformation indicate that fracture is before complete fracture
imminent, and
• More energy is required to induce
ductile fracture than for brittle fracture.

AHMY 39
Thank You
abdul.hakim@utm.my