MME 293 Lecture 03

Mechanical Properties
part-2

Department of MME Sudipta Mondal

BUET, Dhaka Lecturer
Dept. of MME
Instantaneous Impact Fracture
500 T2 tankers and 2700 Liberty
ships were built during WW2
 prefabricated all-welded construction
with brittle steel
 one vessel was built in 5 days !!

SS John P. Gaines split in two (1943)

 initially, some 30% of Liberty ships suffered

catastrophic failure
 cracks started at stress concentrations
(e.g., hatchways) and propagated rapidly
through the steel hull as the metal became
too brittle at low temperature
Brittle fracture of SS Schenectady (1943)
Fatigue and Delayed Fracture
De Havilland Comet, first
commercial jet aircraft, had five
major crashes in 1952-54 period
Caused by fatigue cracks
initiated at square windows,
driven by cabin pressurisation
and depressurisation

Aloha Airline Boeing 737, in route from

Hilo to Honolulu (April 1998) undergoes
explosive decompression – 1 fatality
Caused by a weakening of the fuselage
due to corrosion and small cracks
 Ductile vs.
Brittle Fracture

A. Very ductile fracture

Ductile fracture soft metals (e.g. Pb, Au) at room temperature; other
very extensive plastic deformation metals, polymers, glasses at high temperature.
ahead of crack tip B. Moderately ductile fracture
Brittle fracture typical for ductile metals
very little or no plastic deformation
ahead of crack tip C. Brittle fracture
cold metals, ceramics.
 Ductile vs.
Brittle
Ductile Failure Fracture
Brittle Failure
Extensive plastic deformation Very little plastic deformation at
ahead of advancing crack the crack front

High energy absorption before Little energy absorption before

failure (high toughness) failure (low toughness)

Process proceeds relatively slowly Crack advances extremely

as the crack length extended rapidly

Such crack is stable (i.e., it resists Such crack is unstable and crack
any further deformation unless an propagation, once started,
increased stress is applied) continues spontaneously
 Ductile Fracture
Dislocation mediated

crack grows
perpendicularly
to applied stress

Steps in ductile fracture

(a) Necking
(b) Cavity formation
45° maximum (c) Cavity coalescence to form
shear stress
elliptical crack
(d) Crack propagation at 45 deg.
(e) Fracture
 Ductile Fracture
Dislocation mediated

Tensile loading Shear loading

Typical Cup-and-Cone fracture

in ductile aluminium Fractographic studies at high resolution using SEM
Dimples (spherical shaped in tensile, parabolic in shear)
correspond to micro-cavities that initiate crack formation
 Brittle Fracture
Limited dislocation mobility

Brittle fracture in a mild steel Scanning electron

fractograph of brittle failure
 No appreciable plastic deformation
 Crack propagation is very fast
 Crack propagates nearly perpendicular to the direction of applied stress
 Crack often propagates by cleavage – breaking of atomic bonds along
specific crystallographic planes (cleavage planes)
Brittle Fracture
Limited dislocation mobility

intergranular fracture transgranular fracture

fracture crack propagated fracture cracks pass

along grain boundaries through grains
 Impact Fracture
Testing of fracture characteristics under high strain rate
Testing
Two standard tests, the
Charpy and Izod, measure
the impact energy (that
required to fracture a test
piece under an impact
load), which is also called
the notch toughness.
 Ductile-to-Brittle
Temperature dependency of absorbed impact energy of material
Transition

impact energy drops

suddenly over a narrow
temperatures range
(DBTT)

BCC and HCP metals FCC metals

 Show DBTT  Remains ductile even at
 Depends on composition and microstructure extremely low temperatures
(grain size   DBTT)  DBTT  -100 to +100 °C
 Fatigue Failure
Failure under Fluctuating Load
 Failure occurs at prolonged application of dynamic and
fluctuation stress, the value of which is much lower than tensile or
yield stress of material (for a static load)
bridges, aircrafts, machine components

 Single largest cause of material failure (90% of all material failure)

 It is catastrophic and insidious, occurring very suddenly and without

warning
Brittle-like failure, even in ductile materials

 Failure process occurs by the initiation and propagation of surface-

initiated crack, and the fractured surface is usually perpendicular to the
direction of the applied stress.
 Fatigue Failure
Laboratory fatigue test
rotating bend test

periodic and symmetrical about zero axis

LOAD

Result is commonly plotted as:

periodic and asymmetrical about zero axis S (stress) vs. N (# of cycles to failure) graph

Low cycle fatigue

high loads, plastic and elastic deformation
High cycle fatigue
low loads, elastic deformation (N > 105)
random stress fluctuation
 Fatigue Failure
The S-N Curve
Example: Steel
Fatigue limit, or endurance limit, Sfat
stress below which fatigue failure
would not occur
for steels, Sfat  35-60% of TS

Most nonferrous materials do not Example: Aluminium

show any fatigue limit (i.e., Sfat = 0 !!)

Fatigue strength, Sf Sf
stress to cause fracture after specific # of cycles
Fatigue life, Nf Nf
number of cycles to cause failure at a specific stress
 Fatigue Failure
Fractograph of Fractured Surface

crack origin

smooth circular
“beachmark”

dull, fibrous final

brittle failure rupture
direction
of rotation
practical example of fatigue failure
Fatigue Failure
Factors Improving Fatigue Life

 Reducing working stress

(magnitude, amplitude)

 Imposing compressive surface

stress (by shot peening, case hardening, etc.)
(to suppress crack growing)

 Improving
Improvingquality
qualityof
ofsurface
surface
(removing defects e.g., sharp edge, notch,
groove, etc.; applying surface treatments)

 Removing environmental effects

(thermal fluctuations, corrosive environment)
 Creep Failure
Failure under Constant Load
At High Temperature

 Creep is a time-dependent and permanent deformation

of materials when subjected to prolonged constant load
at a high temperature (T > 0.4 Tm).

 Objects commonly failed under creep:

turbine blades, steam generators, etc.
 Creep Failure
Obtaining creep (e-t) curve
in laboratory experiment

1 Instantaneous deformation
mainly elastic.
2 Primary creep
decreasing creep strain with time due to work-
Constant load hardening
3 Secondary (steady-state) creep
Steady-state rate of straining is constant: balance of
creep rate, De/Dt hardening and recovery
(longest stage in duration)
4 Tertiary creep
rapidly accelerating strain rate up to failure due
Time of to microstructural changes
rupture, tr (formation of internal cracks, voids, cavities,
grain boundary separation, necking, etc.)
 Creep Failure
Effect of Temperature and Applied Stress

Dependency of steady-state
creep rate on s and T:
.
es = K 1 s n
. - Qc
es = K 2 s n
RT
K1, K2 and n = materials constant
Qc = activation energy for creep

With increasing stress or temperature:

 The instantaneous strain increases
 The steady-state creep rate increases
 The time to rupture decreases
 Creep Failure
Factors reducing creep rate/failure
 High-melting point of material
 Increased Young’s modulus
 Coarse-grained structure
(reduces grain boundary sliding) (Opposite effect to strength !!)

Materials resilient to creep (high temperature alloys)

 Stainless steels
Steels containing Cr and/or Ni.
 Refractory metals
High melting point elements, like Nb, Mo, W, Ta.
 “Superalloys”
Co, Ni-based alloys: solid solution hardening and secondary phases.
Directional solidification producing highly elongated grains or single crystals.