ME 605: Fracture, Fatigue and Failure Analysis

Assignment # 7
Submit Assignment on or before 10-5-16
Q1. An NDT examination of a wide steel component reveals the presence of 5 mm
long edge crack. If plane strain conditions prevail ( = ) (i) what

would be the residual service lifetime of the steel part if it were subjected to
repeated stresses of 400 MPa? Assume the following data for this material

=
( ) =

(ii) If the inspection procedure is scheduled in 6 months time should the

component be replaced now or retained in service given that the stresses
fluctuate every 8 Hrs?
(iii) Show that when the number of loading cycles is 400-crack growth is
subcritical i.e., KI < KIC at 400 cycles.
Ans: Nf=559 cycles; component should be removed;

Q2. The Paris law of fatigue growth of a crack is known to have the form

= ( )
where a is in meter and . The center crack initially of length a=4 mm

grows to a=5 mm in 2000 load cycles when a constant amplitude fluctuating load
is applied with = and = . Determine the life of the

component beyond a=5mm if the same amplitude load continues on the

component and the maximum allowable crack length in the damage tolerant
design is a=25mm.
ANS: C=2.927 x 10-28; Nf=9367

Q3. For finding material constants of Paris law it was found that an already
nucleated center crack grows from a=2.8 mm to a=3.5 mm in 10,000 cycles of a
constant amplitude load. When the same load is continued the crack grows from
a=16 mm to a=18.4 mm in 1400 cycles. If = and = find

the constants C and m.

Ans: m = 3.75; C=2.94x 10-15

Q4.An edge crack of length 3.1 mm is detected (using NDT techniques) on a large
plate of thickness 50 mm which is under constant amplitude cyclic load having
mean = 241 MPa and stress amplitude a = 69 MPa . The plate is made of a ferrite
pearlite steel with yield stress 1200 MPa and KIC=165 MPa m1/2
(a) Estimate the number of cycles required to grow the crack to final failure.
(b) Assume that this member is an engineering component that is expected to be
subjected to 800,000 cycles in its service life. What is the factor of safety on life?
Is the design adequate?
(c) Average striation widths of 7.26 x 10-4 mm and 1.56 x 10-3 mm were found
(with the help of electron microscope) at distance of 30 and 50 mm respectively
from the origin of the crack. Are the above measurements a valid data? Justify
(d) What are the units of the constants C and m in the present case?

da
= 6.8 10 12 (K )
3.0
Assume for ferrite-pearlite steel
dN
where a is meter and KI is in MPa m1/2. State clearly if you are making any
assumption regarding SIF of the component.