Kuwait University

College of Engineering and Petroleum

ME241 MATERIALS SCIENCE & METALLURGY

CHAPTER 8: FAILURE OF MATERIALS

Prof. Khaled Al-Fadhalah

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 Lecture Plan

ISSUES TO ADDRESS...
• What are major types of failure?
• 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?

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 Failure of Materials

• Preventing in-service failure is critical step in engineering design.

• Reasons for studying and preventing failure:
o Human and economic loses
o Product and service availability
• Reasons for failure:
o Improper materials selection/processing
o Bad design
o Misuse Cyclic loading caused brittle
fracture of oil tanker
• Failure prevention is not guaranteed
• Studying materials behavior and failure is important design process.
• Several mechanisms can cause failure and the major ones are:
o Fracture: overloading (static load, time independent)
o Fatigue: cyclic loading (dynamic load over a period of time)
o Creep: static load plus excessive heat (over a period of time)

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 Fracture
• Fracture resistance: ability to deform
and absorb energy before fracture.
• Fracture is related Ductility & Toughness
Fracture modes (tensile test):
1. Brittle fracture: little or no plastic
deformation, low energy absorption,
flat fracture surface
Ductile Fracture Brittle Fracture
2. Ductile fracture  large plastic
deformation, high energy absorption,
cup-and-cone fracture surface
• Fracture process involves:
i) Crack formation
ii) Crack propagation Aluminum Mild Steel

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 Example: Fracture of Pressurized Pipe

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

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

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 Ductile Fracture
TA =Tensile Axis
Fracture stages:
a) Necking.
b) Void formation.
c) Voids coalescence to form crack.
d) Crack propagation.
e) Final shear fracture

Macroscopic features:
Cup-and-cone at neck. Final fracture
by shear deformation 45º with TA.

Microscopic features:
Voids of dimple shape. Particles serve as
void nucleation sites

Characteristics:
- Slow crack propagation  Stable
- Plastic Deformation  Warning
- Ductile materials  Tough

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 Brittle Fracture
origin
Fracture stages: Fan-like
origin V-shaped
no necking, crack formation, rapid
crack propagation up to fracture.
Macroscopic features:
- Flat fracture surface with crack
propagation perpendicular to TA. Transgranular Intergranular

- Surface features:
 V-shaped markings
 Fan-like markings from crack origin

Microscopic features: 60 μm 1 mm

- Transgranular: cracks across grains.

- Intergranular: cracks along boundaries.
Characteristics:
- Rapid propagation  Unstable
- Sudden failure  No warning
- Brittle materials  Low toughness

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 Fracture Mechanics
Stress Concentration:
• For brittle solids, theoretic strength
TSth= E /10 o  
max  o 2 a  1
 t 
TSengineering<< TS perfect
materials

materials

• Micro and macro-cracks (flaws) act 2a t

as stress raisers
• Stress concentration factor Kt :
Kt   max / o
0 = applied tensile stress
m = maximum stress at crack tip NOT
a = crack half length SO Kt=3 BAD! Kt>>3
= radius of curvature of crack tip BAD
• Large Kt (small ) promotes failure.

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 Fracture Mechanics
Stress Concentration:
• Stress Concentration depends on crack geometry & size
• Avoid sharp corners
 max
Stress Conc. Factor, Kt = 
o o
2.5
w Kt
max
2.0 increasing w/h
r, h w/h = 1.50
Kt = 1.6
w/h = 1.25
fillet 1.5 w/h = 1.0
radius
1.0 r/h
0 0.2 0.5 1.0
sharper fillet radius

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 Fracture Mechanics
Griffith Fracture Theory:
  mc
• For brittle solids, there is a storage
of elastic strain energy.
• To create crack (new free surfaces), 
stored strain energy is transformed to
surface energy (2s).
• Energy balance: Stored Strain Energy
 Strain energy release rate should Stored Strain Energyatatfracture
th
exceed the resistance to create new No Stored Strain Energy
fracture surfaces New surfaces created at fracture
having a surface energy (2γs)
 Critical stress:
Elastic stored
E = modulus of elasticity energy (energy
s = specific surface energy (energy/area) per volume)
a = one half length of internal crack

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 Fracture Mechanics
Example 8.1:

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 Fracture Mechanics

Crack Displacement Modes:

• Mode I: opening tensile

Represents least resistance
to cracking

• Mode II: sliding in-plane shear

• Mode III: tearing out-of-plane shear

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 Fracture Mechanics
Stress Intensity Factor:
• Need a relation that includes K
 tip  tip 
information about: materials, 2 x
geometry, loading.
increasing K
K  Y a
K = stress intensity factor
σ = applied stress (MPa)
MPa m distance, x,
from crack tip
a = crack length (m)
Y= geometric factor

Fracture Toughness Kc :
a measure of material’s resistance
to brittle fracture
• Crack propagates when the tip
stress is large enough to make:
K > Kc
Depends on load & Depends on the material,
geometry. temperature, environment,
& rate of loading.

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 Fracture Mechanics

Plane Strain Fracture Toughness (KIC):

• For thin specimens (Plane stress, Kc depends on thickness B.
• For thick specimens (Plane strain, Kc is minimum  KIc (material property)
• KIc decreases with: 1) alloying, and 2) reduction in temperature.

K Ic  Y a

KIc is
independent
of thickness B

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 Fracture Mechanics
Graphite/
Metals/ Composites/
Ceramics/ Polymers
Alloys fibers
Semicond
100
C-C(|| fibers)1
70 Steels
60 Ti alloys
50
40
Al alloys
30 Mg alloys
KIc(MPa · m0.5)

20
metals
Al/Al oxide(sf) 2
Kc

increasing
Y 2O 3/ZrO2(p)4
C/C( fibers)1
10 comp
7 Diamond
Al oxid/SiC(w)3
Si nitr/SiC(w)5 Kc
Al oxid/ZrO2(p)4
6 Si carbide Glass/SiC(w)6
poly
K cer
5 Al oxide PET

c  Kc
4 Si nitride
PP
3 PVC

2 PC

1 <100>
Si crystal PS Glass6
<111>
0.7 Glass-soda
0.6 Polyester
Concrete
0.5

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 Fracture Testing
Impact Fracture Testing:
• Impact tests represent most
severe fracture conditions:
a) Relatively low temperature
b) High strain rate  material less ductile
c) Stress concentration around notch.

• Impact Tests:
a) measure toughness or impact energy
(difference in energy between h and h')
b) V-notched (or smooth) specimens of
square cross section.
c) Test Types: Charpy and Izod tests
(difference is in loading condition)

h = initial height
h' = final height

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 Fracture Testing
Ductile-to Brittle Transition Temperature (DBTT):
• Impact tests are used to study (e.g., Cu, N
i)
FCC metals
material transition from ductile to

Impact Energy
BCC metals (e.g., iron at T < 914C)
brittle fracture with decreasing polymers
temperature. Brittle More Ductile

• In general, Kc & %EL increases High strength materials (y>E/150)

with increasing temperature.

Temperature
• High impact energy for ductile
Ductile-to-brittle
fracture, and low impact energy transition temperature
for brittle fracture.
• Materials exhibiting DBTT are: T(C°)

steels, some BCC and HCP

metals, ceramics and polymers.
• FCC metals remain relatively
ductile even at low temperature.
Shiny Dull

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 Fracture Testing

Ductile-to Brittle Transition Temperature (DBTT):

Pre-WWII: The Titanic WWII: Liberty ship

Problem: Steels that were used have DBTT just below room temperature.

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 Fatigue
• Fatigue: lowering of strength by repetitive “cyclic”
stresses leading to material failure after a period of time. Rotating-bending Fatigue Test
• Fatigue usually occurs at stresses lower than yield
strength and, in general, requires a long period of
repeated cyclic stresses or strains.
• Occurs in brittle manner (sudden failure) even for a
ductile material.
• Responsible for about 90% of mechanical engineering
failures.
• Examples: Bridges, aircrafts, rotating shafts. 
max
• Applied cyclic stress can be: S
m
1. Axial (tension-compression) min time

2. Flexural (bending)
3. Torsional (twisting)

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 Fatigue

Symmetric (reversed) asymmetric

Mean stress:
 max   min
m 
2
Stress amplitude:

 max   min
a 
2

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 Fatigue
S-N Curve:
S = stress amplitude
• Curves are generated using rotating-bending
and reversed-cycle tests. unsafe
• Ferrous “iron-base” alloys exhibit fatigue Fatigue
Sfat
Limit
“endurance” limit, defined as a stress amplitude safe
value below which fatigue cannot occur
• Fatigue limit does not occur for non-ferrous 103 105 107 109
alloys (e.g. aluminum) N = Cycles to failure
• Fatigue strength: stress level at which fatigue
occurs for specific number of cycles. S = stress amplitude
• Fatigue life Nf: number of cycles at failure for unsafe
specific stress level.
• low-cycle fatigue: limited plastic deformation
accompanies elastic deformation ( N f  105 ). safe
• high-cycle fatigue: totally elastic deformation
( N f  105 ). 103 105 107 109
N = Cycles to failure

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 Fatigue
S-N Curves for some metals Example:
A cylindrical 1045 steel bar is subjected to axial
tension–compression stress testing with reversed-
cycling. If the load amplitude is 10,000 N, compute:
- Minimum allowable bar diameter to ensure that
Fatigue limit: fatigue failure will not occur.
Assume a factor of safety of 2.5.
Se ≈ 0.5 σTS (Steels)

310

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 Fatigue

Fatigue Steps:
1) Crack initiation: usually occurs at
high stress concentration points.
2) Crack propagation: incrementally, a
crack advances with each stress cycle.
3) Final fracture: rapid crack propagation
at critical crack length.

• Nf = Ni+Np

Nf = total number of cycles during fatigue life

Ni= number of cycles during crack initiation
Np= number of cycles during crack propagation

Crack Propagation
Repetition of plastic blunting and sharpening

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 Fatigue Markings

origin

Stage II
crack
propagation

striations in Al using TEM Beachmarks in Steel Rotating Shaft

region of crack
Rapid (final) initiation and
fracture propagation

dull and fibrous fracture

surface. No signs of
beachmarks

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 Improving Fatigue Life
1) Decrease Mean Stress m : 2) Remove Stress Concentration:
less mean stress  higher fatigue life. surface notches/scratches and sharp corners
acts as stress raisers sites for crack nucleation

bad better

Nf3 Nf2 Nf1 sharp corner: point of stress rounding corner reduces
concentration stress concentration

3) Impose Compressive Surface Stresses:

To suppress surface cracks from growing. shot peening Carburizing
Two common methods are: shot
C-rich gas
put
A) Shot peening: introducing compressive residual surface
stresses on the outer surface layer reduces m into
compression
B) Carburizing of Steels:
surface carburizing increases carbon concentration
in steel  introduces compressive residual stresses
 enhances hardness & fatigue life

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 Environment-Assisted Fatigue

1) Thermal Fatigue:
occurs by fluctuating thermal stresses, which
are the result of expansion/contraction
restraints on a structural member:
   l E T f  T0    l TE
 l = thermal expansion coefficient (1/Temp)

2) Corrosion Fatigue:
- Occurs by cyclic “mechanical” stress and
Corrosion fatigue
chemical attack. Pits form due to the reaction
cracks nulceate at pits
between the corrosive environment and
material, and act as stress raisers.
- Fatigue life is enhanced using surface cracks have little
coatings, corrosion-resistant materials, and branching
less corrosive environment.

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 Estimating Fatigue Life
Crack Propagation Rate:
• Prediction of crack growth rate da/dN
using principles of fracture mechanics.
• da/dN depends on stress level, crack
da
length, and stress intensity factor:  AK 
m

dN
da
 AK 
m

dN
K  K max  K min  Y  max   min  a
A and m are material constants
• Kmin and min are zero for compressive min
• Crack grew even though Kmax < Kc
• Crack grows faster if
-  increases
- crack gets longer
- loading freq. increases
• Number of cycles to failure:
Nf ac ac
da da
Nf   dN   A  K   
 
m m
0 a0 a0 A Y   a

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 Example: Fatigue Testing of Steel sheet
Given: max = 100 MPa, min = -50 MPa
a0=0.002 m (largest crack before testing)
KIc=25 Mpa.m1/2 , Y = 1, A = 1x10-12, m = 3
Estimate: fatigue life Nf
Compute critical crack length ac (results in final fracture):
2
1  25 MPa m 
2
1K 
ac   Ic      0.02 m
  Y    (1)(100 MPa) 
ac ac
da 1 da
Nf  
A m 2  m  a0 Y m a m 2


a 0 A Y  a m

ac
1 2 1 2 a c

A 3 2  3 Y 3 a0
3 2
 a da  a
A 3 2  3 Y 3 ao

2  1 1 
  
A 3 2  max   min  Y 3  a0 ac 
3

2  1 1 
     5 . 49  10 6
cycles
1 10  100  1  0.002 0.02 
12 32 3 3

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 Creep
Turbine blades
• Creep: time-dependent permanent
deformation occurring at constant stress
and at high-temperature applications.
• Creep occurs in all materials.
• Metals: creep occurs for T > 0.4Tm
• Creep tests: commonly consist of
applying constant stress (load) at fixed
temperature and measuring strain
(deformation) during the elapsed time.
• Examples of Creep:
- Turbine blades (in jet engines)
- Steam generators
- High-pressure steam pipes (in Power Plants)

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 Creep Mechanisms
Dislocation Creep:
- At T>0.4Tm diffusion (along with large
applied stress) can unlock dislocations
from obstacles in their path.
- The process requires repetition of
dislocation glide (movement on slip
plane) and climb (out-of-plane motion
of dislocation due to atom diffusion)

Diffusion Creep: GB cavities

- Grain-boundary diffusion occurs at a
applied
temperature range of 0.5Tm<T<0.8Tm.
stress
- Bulk diffusion occurs by atom diffusing
within the crystal bulk (for T > 0.8Tm)
- Both diffusion mechanisms do not involve
dislocations but depend on grain size.

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 General Creep Behavior

Stages of creep test of metals: 

1) Primary (transient) creep:

continuously decreasing creep
0 t
rate due to strain hardening.
2) Secondary (steady-state) creep:
constant creep rate s due to the Most time spent
simultaneous strain hardening in this stage
and recovery.
3) Tertiary (failure) creep: Most time spent
increasing creep rate due to in stage II
grain boundary separation, crack
and void formation leading to
final failure “rupture”. 
 el 
E
* Initial deformation is elastic

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 Factors Affecting Creep

* Increase of stress (or temperature)

results in:
1) increase in elastic strain
2) increases s
3) decrease in tr

* Creep resistance is enhanced by

increasing Tm, E, and grain size.
* Creep resistance is also enhanced
by solid-solution or presence of
precipitates (obstacle to dislocations).
* Single crystals have also better
creep resistance (no grain boundary
diffusion).
* Example: casting of turbine blades
(Conventional casting) (Columnar grain)

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 Creep Test Parameters

Steady-state creep rate s : C-Ni alloy

a creep parameter for designing a
structure or component for long-life or
small-deformation applications.
 Qc 
s  K 2 n exp  
 RT 
Qc = creep activation energy (Jole/mole)
K 2 and n are material constants.
S-590 iron
Example: Nuclear power plant components.
Rupture lifetime tr :
Critical parameter for short-life creep
applications. Larson-Miller (LM) parameter:
LM  T (C  log t r )
C is constant, tr in hours, and T in Kelvin.
Example: Turbine blades.
LM =

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 Ex. Creep of C-Ni alloy
Given: l0=750 mm, =40 MPa @ T=538ºC  
Assume: primary elongation lp=1.5 mm
Compute: final length lf after 5000 hrs. l0
t = 5000 hr

l
Solution:
0.15

s  0.15(% / 1000hr )  1.5  10 6 (1 / hr )

 s  s  time
 1.5  10 6 (1 / hr )  5000 hr
 7.5  10 3
  
ls  l0 s  750 mm 7.5  10 3  5.6 mm
l  ls  l p  5.6 mm  1.5 mm  7.1 mm
l f  l0  l  757.1 mm

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 Ex. Creep of S-590 Iron
S-590 iron
Given: = 140 MPa @ T=800ºC, Ciron=20  
Compute: time to rupture tr (in hours).

Solution: tr = ?

T= 800ºC+273=1073 K

From figure, LM=24X10³ K-hr

LM = T (C+log tr )

24X10³ = 1073(20+log tr ) LM =

log tr =2.37
2.37
tr = 10 = 233 hr ≈ 9.7 days

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