Assignment 4

Materials engineering
Causes of failure
1)
Fracture
Fracture occurs when a material breaks into two or more pieces. This may result from
compressive, shear, torsional or tensile loads. Fracture may also be ductile or brittle.
Fractures main cause is cracking (crack formation and crack propagation).
When a crack is formed from many things such as stress and compression etc. it creates stress
on the material at the weakest point.
Ductile fracture
Ductile materials under tension undergo steps that lead to fracture. These are:
1. Plastic deformation produces necking
2. The cavities join to form a crack
3. The crack spreads
4. Fracture occurs, typically at a 45
degree angle to the tension as this is
the angle of maximum shear stress.
Ductile materials demonstrate large amounts
of plastic deformation while brittle materials
show little or no plastic deformation before
fracture.
Brittle Fracture
Brittle fracture shows little if any plastic deformation and is a
result of rapid crack propagation. Brittle fracture occurs
perpendicular to the applied tension and often has a relatively
flat fracture surface. The origin of the crack may be indicated
by V shaped markings that point toward the origin of the
crack, or by a set of lines that radiate outward from the origin
of the crack.
Common material/ material types affected by brittle fracture.
Ceramics such as glass are very brittle so they do not strain
much before braking; this is because the material. Brittle
materials do not exhibit identifiable yield strength. Cast iron is another material that is quite
brittle so it usually fractures due to brittle failures. But most non-metallic fail due to this.

Creep
Creep is a type of failure that is caused by an
amount of stress being forced upon the
material, if force is applied to the material
over a certain amount of time then that
material undergoes stress causing a fracture to
occur. The weak point may be where there is

Assignment 4

an impurity within the material. High temperatures affect the materials by weakening the
internal structure due to expansion and contraction. Weight is another factor that affects the
creep within the material this means that if the material is at a certain angle where there
weight is then the creep occurs under its own stress for example lead sheet place on an incline
will be thicker at the bottom over a certain period of time due to creep in the grain structure.
Common material/ material types affected by creep.
Creep affects a lot of materials that have a low melting point in metals such as aluminium and
lead and other low melting temperature metals as a material type. Other metals are also
affected by creep when the material is exposed to higher heat this is what is said above, when
the temperature is higher the creep rate is higher they are related within the failure of that
material due to creep.
2)
How to identify if a material is being affected by
ductile fracture.
.
The overall steps to this are:

Necking.
Void nucleation.
Void growth and linkage. Shearing at
surface.
Fracture.

How to identify if a material is being affected by fatigue failure.

There are three stages in the life of a fatigue failure; 1. Initiation, 2. Crack Growth
(propagation), and 3. Final Fracture.
1. In some cases, the root cause of a fatigue failure can only be discovered by an
analysis of internal characteristics of a component at the crack location.
2. Repetition of these cycles produces an advancing repetition of shallow cracks. This
process is characterized by the term, fatigue crack propagation.
3. Then when the crack grows large enough there is an abrupt failure in that material.

How to identify creep failure within a material.

Creep is observed upon tension, compression, torsion, and other forms of stress. Under the
actual conditions of use of a heat-resistant material, creep occurs under very complex stress
conditions.
Creep in a material can be shown by the material deforming such as stretching or elongating
this is the area which is weakest and at the point where it will break from failure, both sides
of the week point may enlarge and after higher temperatures are upon the material this crack
can rapidly occur causing the material to fail.

Assignment 4

4)
a) Rotating and oscillating mechanisms.
Rotating and oscillating systems should be properly looked after when in surface
making sure they have a longer life and do not
fail after a certain amount of time because of
movement and friction.
One procedure to increase the systems service
life is to add grease or oil as an additive to the
system this will cause less friction when the
system is moving such as bearings rotating, if
grease is not added to these components it
causes more failures due to overheating or
friction causing wear through the material.
Methods to prevent failure in these systems is to perform preventative maintenance
such as re-greasing the bearings and checking for failure on a period timescale such as
daily, weekly and monthly checks.

b) Vibrating mechanisms.
Vibration is a characteristic found in virtually all industrial machines. When vibration
increases beyond normal levels, it may indicate normal wear - or it may be showing
the source of trouble and signal the need for further assessment to identify any
underlying causes, or for immediate maintenance action to be taken. To determine
this, accurate vibration analysis using vibration monitoring equipment is required.
To constantly ensure proper machine condition, some companies stop running
machines according to predetermined schedules to adjust and replace parts regardless
of whether or not the machines are malfunctioning. As a result, machines are often
stopped unnecessarily to replace parts that are still good and to correct problems that
do not exist.
C) Components subjected to atmospheric conditions (Metals and Non metals).

There are many ways of protecting equipment and materials from certain conditions
in the environment such as this list.
Metal
No metal is immune to corrosion in all environments, but through monitoring and
understanding the environmental conditions that are the cause of corrosion, changes to
the type of metal being used can also lead to significant reductions in corrosion.
Cathodic protection works by converting unwanted anodic (active) sites on a metal's
surface to cathodic (passive) sites through the application of an opposing current. This

Assignment 4

opposing current supplies free electrons and forces local anodes to be polarized to the
potential of the local cathodes.
Paints and other organic coatings are used to protect metals from the degradative
effect of environmental gases.
Electroplating: A thin layer of metal - often nickel, tin or chromium - is deposited on
the substrate metal (generally steel) in an electrolytic bath. The electrolyte usually
consists of a water solution containing salts of the metal to be deposited.
Mechanical plating: Metal powder can be cold welded to a substrate metal by
tumbling the part, along with the powder and glass beads, in a treated aqueous
solution. Mechanical plating is often used to apply zinc or cadmium to small metal
parts
Electroless: A coating metal, such as cobalt or nickel, is deposited on the substrate
metal using a chemical reaction in this non-electric plating method.
Hot dipping: When immersed in a molten bath of the protective, coating metal a thin
layer adheres to the substrate metal.

Other materials.
Other materials can corrode from diffent conditions in the environment such as plastics which
can be damaged from extensive UV radiation so some additives or different ways are
protection are required to increase the service life of that materials.
Polymers used in outdoor applications tend to degrade as they are prone to ultra violet and
infra red radiation from the sunlight. Protection from UV radiation is important in polymer
products, as UV radiation can stimulate molecules to an extent so as to break their chemical
bonds that can release highly reactive radicals, capable of destroying other molecules. This
reaction leads to formation of further radicals, hence degradation of the polymer proceeds
indefinitely in a chain reaction, which if not interrupted, leads to the plastic component to
lose its mechanical, optical and colour properties. This can be prevented by polymer additives
which produce a range of ultra-fine metal oxides which deliver superior UV protection and
significantly improved transparency compared to traditional metal oxide powders.
Wood materials can be protected from degrading by certain varnishes that coat the wood and
make them resistant to moisture, heat and radiation.