Fracture of Materials

Simple fracture is the separation of a solid into two or more parts in

response to an applied stress (semi-static).
Stress can be tensile, compressive, shear or torsional.
• Fracture is a critical aspect of any mechanical design because failure of
engineering materials causes economic loss, jeopardizes human life, and
interferes with availability of products or services.
• Two types of fracture generally occur in engineering materials, which are
based on the ability of the material to experience plastic deformation:
• Ductile fracture – in cases where much more plastic deformation and
hence energy absorption occur before fracture (most metals and some
polymers)
• Brittle fracture – very little plastic deformation before fracture (ceramics,
semiconductors, intermetallic compounds and some plastics).
• Any fracture process involves two steps in response to applied stress:
– 1) Crack formation
– 2) Crack propagation
 Fracture of Materials
Fracture can be classified according to the path of crack propagation:
• Transgranular – the crack travels directly through the grains of the
material (sometimes called cleavage because it occurs along certain
crystallographic planes). It can be ductile or brittle.
• Intergranular – the crack propagates along grain boundaries. This is
primarily brittle fracture.
A variety of Loading Conditions can lead to fracture:
• Static Overloading (s > syield) and (s > Tensile Strength)
• Dynamic Overloading (impacting)
• Cyclic loading (fatigue)
• Loaded at elevated temperatures (creep)
• Loading at cryogenic temperatures (ductile to brittle transition)
• Loading in a corrosive environment (stress corrosion)
Fracture Toughness
One important reason for the big difference in theoretical and experimental
values in fracture strength is cracks.
• There always exists cracks or flaws in solid materials. Why?
• Stress is enlarged at the crack tip (stress raisers).
Fracture Toughness
What is fracture toughness?
The stress intensity at the crack tip is dependent on both the applied stress
and the length of the crack.
• A new mechanical variable, Stress Intensity Factor, KI, is used to describe
the relationship:

K I  fs a
Where,
f is a dimensionless constant (related to geometry of specimen and flaw)
s is the applied stress
a is the crack length or half the length of an internal crack
KI is a variable but NOT a materials property
KI has unusual unit of Mpa(m)½ or psi(in)½ .
Fracture Toughness
Fracture Toughness
When the stress intensity, KI is increased to a critical value, KIC , crack
propagation will occur, which will lead to fracture.
It is written as:

K IC  fs a
Where,
KIC is a measure of a materials resistance to crack propagation.
It is a material property.
KIC is dependent on temperature, microstructure, and strain rate.
KIC usually increases with a reduction in grain size.
Fracture Toughness
How to use KIC ?
• Fracture toughness is most useful in mechanical designs involving
materials with limited toughness or ductility.
• Usually s < syield/n is good enough for ductile materials, which are
statically loaded.
• Design criterion using KIC :
K I  K IC
taking into account KIC , which is a material property, the allowable stress
(s) and/or the allowable flaw size (a) can be determined.
Material Selection:
• If the maximum applied stress, smax , and maximum crack length are
specified for a certain application, then only the materials with KIC
greater than KI can be used:
K IC  fs max amax
Fracture Toughness
Allowable stress design (if “a” and KIC are specified by application
constraints) K
s max  IC

f amax

Allowable crack size design (if the stress level, smax , and KIC are specified)
then,
1/ 2


K
IC  1
amax
fs  
 max 
Allowable crack size design is possible if the stress level, smax , and KIC are
specified).
 GENERACIÓN DE GRIETAS
Defectos típicos introducidos durante el procesado del material
Moldeo Soldadura
 GENERACIÓN DE GRIETAS

Defectos típicos introducidos durante el procesado del material

Deformación plástica Tratamientos térmicos
 GENERACIÓN DE GRIETAS
Generación de grietas por concentración de dislocaciones:

•Concentración de
dislocaciones en un •Concentración de dislocaciones en
mismo plano de borde de grano
deslizamiento

Concentración de
dislocaciones en
borde de macla
 PROPAGACIÓN DE LA GRIETAS:

Criterios que indican en qué condiciones una grieta preexistente iniciará su apertura

• Criterio de Griffith
• Criterio de Orowan
• Criterio de Irwin

Grieta elíptica de anchura 2ª Concentración de tensiones en punta de grieta

Fracture Toughness – Crack Surface Energy
When a material has an applied strain, it undergoes an elastic strain related
to the modulus of elasticity, E, of the material.
When a crack propagates, this strain energy is released, which reduces the
overall energy.
However, two new surfaces are created by the extension of the crack, which
increases the energy associated with the surface.
By balancing the strain energy and the surface energy, g, we find that the
critical stress required to propagate the crack is given by:

Eg
s critical  2s
a
This equation shows that even small cracks can severely limit the strength.
This equation is particularly applicable to ceramics, semiconductors and
hard plastics, which fracture by crack mechanisms.
Microstructure of Fracture in Metals
Most often ductile fracture occurs in a transgranular manner, which means
through the grains rather than only along grain boundaries.
Brittle fracture is typically intergranular or along the grain boundaries,
which is enhanced when impurities collect and weaken the grain
boundaries.
In a simple tensile test, ductile fracture begins by the nucleation, growth and
coalescence of microvoids at the center of a sample (in the necked region).
The stress causes separation of the grain boundaries or the interfaces
between the metal and small inpurity particles (inclusions or
precipitates).
As the local stresses increase, the microvoids grow and coalesce into larger
cavities.
Eventually the metal-to-metal contact is too small to support the load and
fracture occurs.
Microstructure of Fracture in Metals

Formation of voids in the necked region during tensile testing, leading to

fracture.
Fractura dúctil de un acero de bajo
carbono. Se notan las cavidades (dimples)
que son la resultante de la coalescencia de
microcavidades iniciadas alrededor de
inclusiones, partículas o discontinuidades
que originan una concentración de
tensiones y un aumento local de la
deformación plástica. Escala : 10 mm.
 Formación de una cavidad a
partir del bucle de
dislocaciones

Fractura dúctil a alta temperatura de un

acero estructural. Una aleación que contiene
un gran número de partículas dispersas
presenta una mayor densidad de cavidades
que un metal puro sin aleantes.
Escala : 10 mm.
Microstructure of Fracture in Metals

Formation of dimples during fracture, which change from round (top right)
to elongated (bottom right) towards the edge of the material sample.
Microstructure of Fracture in Metals

Fracture surfaces of brittle failures showing the intergranular crack

structure. Left side is for a 1010 steel and middle is for a 4340 steel. To
the right, the Chevron pattern indicates the origin of the crack.
Se observa clivaje en metales y
aleaciones bcc y hcp. Es más difícil una
rotura por clivaje en materiales fcc dada
la multiplicidad de sistemas de
deslizamiento y la gran movilidad de
dislocaciones.

Fractura por clivaje. Se pueden observar los

característicos “ríos de clivaje” (river
patterns). Un conjunto de ríos dentro de un
grano cristalino corresponde a escalones
entre planos de clivaje pertenecientes a una
misma familia cristalográfica. Los ríos
convergen según el sentido de propagación
en cada grano cristalino. Escala : 10 mm.
Measuring Fracture Toughness a)Compact Tension test
• How do we measure fracture toughness? • The load is increased until crack propagation
• Two examples: starts: for a large enough
a) - measure the critical stress intensity (KIc) in plane specimen, the stress intensity at this point is the
strain by measuring the stress required to propagate critical stress intensity, KIC. P
a sharp crack. is the load, t is the specimen thickness, b is the
distance from the loading
b) - measure the energy absorbed in a rapid fracture
point to the right-hand face, and Fp is a function
of a bar - the Charpy test. of the crack geometry.
• The first method measures a quantity corresponding
to the values in the equations discussed (but a preexisting
crack is used).
• The second test is a more macroscopic test but it
includes the effect of crack nucleation (which may be
difficult enough to raise the effective toughness).
Fracturetoughness test.
σ Fracture Toughness
Fracture mechanics, “general analysis of failure of
structures with preexisting flaws”, became very
important subject after the serious many failures of
the “Liberty Ship” during WWII.

t
Fracture toughness is the most widely used param-
eter from fracture mechanics, and is expressed, KIC,
which is the critical value of the stress intensity factor
at a crack tip necessary to produce catastrophic
failure under simple uniaxial loading.
Compact test specimen KIC =Yσf √πα (unit : MPa√m) (8.1)
for fracture toughness Explain the use of this equation for design!
measurement
σf : overall applied stress at failure
Y: dimensionless geometry factor on order of 1
KIC is for plane strain condition, [ t ≥ 2.5(KIC /YS )2].

For thin specimen in plane stress condition, the

toughness is express as KC .
Different length scales at
which to view a crack tip
 Fracture Mechanics

 Fracture mechanics - The study of a material’s ability to

withstand stress in the presence of a flaw.
 Fracture toughness - The resistance of a material to
failure in the presence of a flaw.

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internal flaws
Figure 6.30 Schematic drawing of fracture
toughness specimens with (a) edge and (b)
(c)2003 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning ™ is a trademark used herein under license.

Figure 6.31 The fracture

toughness Kc of a
3000,000psi yield strength
steel decreases with
increasing thickness,
eventually leveling off at the
plane strain fracture
toughness Klc

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Figure 6-32 Secondary cracks developed
during hardness testing can be used to
assess the fracture toughness of brittle
materials
Figure 6-33 A scanning electron
micrograph showing crack propagation in
a PZT ceramic. (Courtesy of Wang and Raj
N. Singh, Ferroelectrics, 207, 555–575
(1998).)

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Microstructural Features of Fracture in Metallic
Materials

 Transgranular - Meaning across the grains (e.g., a

transgranular fracture would be fracture in which cracks
would go through the grains).
 Microvoids - Development of small holes in a material.
 Intergranular - In between grains or along the grain
boundaries.
 Chevron pattern - A common fracture feature produced
by separate crack fronts propagating at different levels in
the material.

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 (c)2003 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning ™ is a
trademark used herein under license.

Figure 6.38 Scanning electron micrographs of an annealed 1018 steel exhibiting ductile
fracture in a tensile test. (a) Equiaxed dimples at the flat center of the cup and cone, and
(b) elongated dimples at the shear lip (x 1250)

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Figure 6.39 Scanning electron micrograph of a brittle fracture surface of a
quenched 1010 steel (x 5000). (Courtesy of C.W. Ramsay.)

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Figure 6.40 The Chevron pattern in a 0.5-in.-diameter quenched 4340 steel.

The steel failed in a brittle manner by an impact blow

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license.

Figure 6.41 The Chevron pattern forms as the crack propagates from the origin
at different levels. The pattern points back to the origin

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Figure 6.42 Scanning electron micrographs of fracture surfaces in ceramics. (a) The
fracture surface Al203, showing the cleavage faces (x 1250), and (b) the fracture
surface of glass, showing the mirror zone (top) and tear lines characteristic of
conchoidal fracture (x 300)

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Figure 6.47 Fatigue fracture surface. (a) At low magnifications, the beach mark
pattern indicates fatigue as the fracture mechanism. The arrows show the
direction of growth of the crack front, whose origin is at the bottom of the
photograph. (Image (a) is from C.C. Cottell, ‘‘Fatigue Failures with Special
Reference to Fracture Characteristics,’’ Failure Analysis: The British Engine
Technical Reports, American Society for Metals, 1981, p. 318.) (b) At very high
magnifications, closely spaced striations formed during fatigue are observed
(x 1000)

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 Figure 6.48 Schematic
representation of a fatigue
fracture surface in a steel
shaft, showing the initiation
region, the propagation of
fatigue crack (with beam
markings), and catastrophic
rupture when the crack
length exceeds a critical
value at the applied stress

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