Chapter 1 - Failure Mechanics 1

9/28/2019
Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

University of Technology Department of Engineering Mechanics
Tran Kim Bang

Department of Engineering Mechanics (DEM),
Faculty of Applied Sciences,
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology,
Email: tkbang@hcmut.edu.vn
Failure Mechanics 1 1

Chapter 1
1.1. Structural Design, an Overview
1.2. Fracture Mechanics
1.3. Fatigue
1.4. Creep
1.5. Failure Mechanics
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1.1. Structural Design, an Overview

The ultimate goal in the field of applied solid mechanics is to be able to design
structures or components that are capable of safely withstanding static or
dynamic service loads for a certain period of time.
Partitioning Integration
User
User Tests Acceptance
Requirements
System
System Tests Verification
Requirements
Integration
Architecture Assembly
Tests
Sub-Systems
Detail Design Sub-Systems
Tests
Manufacture
Fig 1.1. Structural Design

• Most of the engineering decisions are based on semi-empirical design

rules, which rely on phenomenological failure criteria calibrated by means
of standard tests. The failure criteria are derived based on extensive
observations of failure mechanisms, together with theoretical models that
have been developed to describe these mechanisms.
• What Constitutes Mechanical Failure?
• In general, various failure mechanisms may be classified into the two

broad fields of Deformation and Fracture. A more detailed list is:
o Excessive Elastic Deformation
o Unstable Elastic Deformation (Buckling)
o Plastic Deformation
o Fracture
o Fatigue
o Creep
o Stress Corrosion Cracking
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1.1.1. Strain

=
L
Fig 1.2. Deformed bar

1.1.2. Elastic Deformation
Fig 1.3. Elastic deformation Fig 1.4. Stress – Strain Curve
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1.1.3. Plastic Deformation
Fig 1.5. Plastic deformation during spoon bending

Fig 1.6. Stress – Strain Curve
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Fig 1.7. Engineering Stress vs True Stress

1.1.4. Fracture
Fig 1.8. Side Bend Specimen At 20x Fig 1.9. Fracture Shaft
Microscope
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1.1.5. Cyclic load
Fig 1.10. Cyclic loading experiment


Fig 1.11. Cyclic loading experiment
Fig 1.12. Cyclic loading diagram

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1.1.6. Fatigue Failure
Fig 1.16. Shaft failure due to fatigue Fig 1.17. Bolt failure due to fatigue cracking
cracking followed by fast final fracture
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Fig 1.18. Low cycle fatigue vs High cycle fatigue

Fig 1.19. Static failure vs low and high cycle fatigue
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1.1.7. Creep
Fig 1.20. Creep deformation vs time

Fig 1.21. Failed toilet float – creep failure due to overtightening
Fig 1.22. Creep crack tip

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Fig 1.23. AB in the high stress creep curve indicates the failure phase where
actual fracture can occur.

Fig 1.24. Viscoelastic materials exhibit a time delay in returning the material to
original shape and some energy is lost
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1.1.8. Stress Corrosion Cracking
Fig 1.26. Stress corrosion cracking

occurred on Condenser tube
Fig 1.25. Branched cracking in

pipe cross section, characteristic
Fig 1.27. Inter granular stress corrosion
of stress corrosion cracking
cracking of a pipe

1.1.9. Unstable elastic deformation (Buckling)
Fig 1.28. Unstable elastic deformation
Pcrit is the called critical buckling load

• If the axial load P is less than Pcrit, bending is caused by lateral load only
• If P is greater than Pcrit, the ruler bends even without lateral load
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Fig 1.29. Shell after buckling Fig 1.30. Buckling deflection pattern of cylindrical
shell compare experiment with theory

1.1.10. Design Philosophies

• For many applications, it’s sufficient to determine the maximum
static or dynamic stress that the material can withstand, and then
design the structure to ensure that the stresses remain below
acceptable limits.
• More critical applications require some kind of defect tolerance
analysis.
• The material or structure is considered to contain flaws, and we
must decide whether to replace the part; or leave it in service under a
more tolerable loading for a certain period of time. This kind of
decision is usually made using the disciplines of Fracture
Mechanics.
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• In general, we may distinguish three different design philosophies as follows

o Safe Life: The component is considered to be free of defects after
fabrication and is designed to remain defect-free during service and withstand
the maximum static or dynamic working stresses for a certain period of time.
If flaws, cracks, or similar damages are visited during service the
component should be discarded immediately.
o Fail Safe: The component is designed to withstand the maximum static or
dynamic working stresses for a certain period of time in such a way that its
probable failure would not be catastrophic.
o For example a pressure vessel designed to work under the leakbefore-
burst (LBB) condition should show leakage as a result of crack propagation.
The aim is to prevent catastrophic failure by detecting the crack at its
early stages of growth and also reducing the internal pressure.
o Damage Tolerance: The component is designed to withstand the
maximum static or dynamic working stresses for a certain period of time even
in presence of flaws, cracks, or similar damages of certain geometry and
size.

1.2. Fracture Mechanics

Fracture mechanics is a field of solid mechanics that deals with the
mechanical behavior of cracked bodies.
Fig 1.31. Engineering Applications of Fracture Mechanics
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• The first major step in the direction of quantification of the effects of

crack-like defects was taken by a professor of Naval Architecture, C. E.
Inglis.
• In 1913 he published a stress analysis for an elliptical hole in an infinite
linear elastic plate loaded at its outer boundaries. By making the minor
axis very much less than the major, a crack-like discontinuity can be
modeled.
Fig 1.32. Stress around an elliptical crack

• A. A. Griffith, who was studying

the effects of scratches and
similar flaws on aircraft engine
components, transformed the
Inglis analysis by calculating the
effect of the crack on the
strain energy stored in an
infinite cracked plate.
• He proposed that this energy,
which is a finite quantity, should
be taken as a measure of the
tendency of the crack to
propagate.
Fig 1.33. A. A. Griffith
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• The mechanics of fracture progressed from being a scientific curiosity

to an engineering discipline, primarily because of what happened to the
Liberty ships during World War II.
• The Liberty ships had an all-welded hull, as opposed to the riveted
construction of traditional ship designs.
Fig 1.34. Liberty ships in World War II

Of the roughly 2700 liberty ships build during World War II, approximately 400
sustained fractures, of which 90 were considered serious. In 20 ships, the failure
was essentially total, and about half of these broke completely in two.
Fig 1.35. Liberty ships broke completely in two in World War II
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• After World War II, the fracture

mechanics research group at the
Naval Research Laboratory was led
by Dr. G.R. Irwin.
• Irwin’s first major contribution was to
extend the Griffith approach to
metals by including the energy
dissipated by local plastic flow.
Fig 1.36. George R. Irwin

In 1956, Irwin developed the energy release rate concept, as the total
energy that is released during cracking per unit increase in crack size,
which is related to the Griffith theory but is in a form that is more useful for
solving engineering problems.
d
G R
dA

Westergaard approach was

used to show that the
stresses and displacements
near the crack tip could be
described by a single
parameter that was related
to the energy release rate.
This crack tip characterizing
parameter later became
known as the stress
intensity factor.
Fig 1.37. Stress analysis near the crack tip
1 sin sin 3 

 xx  2 2
  cos 

2   3 
 yy   KI 2 r 1 sin 2 sin 2 Where KI    a
 xy   sin cos 3 
 
 2 2 
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• All this work was largely ignored by

engineers as it seemed too
mathematical and it was only in the
1970's that fracture mechanics, as
we now know it, came to be accepted
as a useful and even essential tool.
• The development of non-destructive
examination methods which revealed
hidden cracks in structures and raised
the problem of what to do about them, Fig 1.38. Non-destructive
the space industry which demanded examination method
high-strength, high integrity pressure
vessels.
• The increasing use of welding and
the severe duty experienced by
offshore structures, etc.
• Most of the practical development of
fracture mechanics has occurred in the
last forty years.
Fig 1.39. Weld cracking

1.3. Fatigue
• It has long been known that a component subjected to fluctuating stresses
may fail at stress levels much lower than its monotonic fracture strength,
due to a process called Fatigue.
• Fatigue is an insidious time-dependent type of failure which can occur without
any obvious warning. It is believed that more than 95 percent of all mechanical
failures can be attributed to fatigue.
• There are normally three distinct stages in the fatigue failure of a component,
namely: Crack Initiation, Incremental Crack Growth, and the Final Fracture.
Fig 1.40. Fatigue failure, detail with striations
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1.3.1. Classical Fatigue

• The classical approach to fatigue, also referred to as Stress Controlled
Fatigue or High Cycle Fatigue (HCF), through S/N or Wöhler diagrams,
constitutes the basis of the SAFE LIFE philosophy in design against fatigue.
• The number of the stress cycles to failure can be approximated by the
WOHLER or S-N DIAGRAM, a typical example of which is given below.
Fig 1.41. Wohler or S-N diagram

1.3.2. Low Cycle Fatigue

Based on the local strain philosophy, fatigue cracks initiate as a result of
repeated plastic strain cycling at the locations of maximum strain
concentration.
Reversals to failure (log scale)

Fig 1.43. Multiple low cycle fatigue
Fig 1.42. Schematic representation of cracks in a AM355 stainless steel
cyclic strain-life curves compressor disc bolt hole
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1.3.3. Fatigue Crack Propagation

• If a crack exists in the component before
it goes into service, for example due to
weld fabrication or from some other
cause, the ‘initiation’ stage is by-passed.
• Most fatigue failures in practice are in
the low stress region, much less than
the yield stress, where the LEFM is
likely to be valid.
• Hence, the LEFM principles can be
applied to predict incremental fatigue
crack propagation.
Fig 1.44. Microstructural fatigue crack

propagation in AISI F51 duplex steel Fig 1.45. Typical da/dN versus ΔK curve

• Figure below shows the cracked Girth-Gear of an industrial Ball-Mill.

• These gears are up to 12 meters in diameter and over 90 tones in weight,
with a manufacturing cost exceeding $500,000.
• These types of gears are expected to have fatigue lives of 20 years and
more.
Fig 1.46. Industrial Ball-Mill
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• In this case history, within the first two years of operation, a few cracks
initiated from certain locations between the gussets and the gear flange,
and propagated towards the lightening holes.
• It was decided to perform a complete stress analysis of the mill using the
finite element method.
• The analysis results clearly revealed the cause of failure, i.e., high stress
built-up in specific locations adjacent to the gear flange,
• Conformed to various characteristics of the existing cracks, including
their propagation paths.
• This work also concerned the assessment of the remaining life of the
gear through modeling of crack growth in the high-stress region.
• The calculated crack growth rates were used to estimate the remaining
life of the gear.
• Such information is vitally important as it gives the mill operators a
timeframe to order a new gear and plan the replacement procedure.
• They can safely operate the mill and save thousands of dollars per
working day.

1.4. Creep
• Creep can be defined as a time-dependent deformation of materials under
constant load (stress). The resulting progressive deformation and the final
rupture, can be considered as two distinct, yet related, modes of failure.
• For metals, creep becomes important at relatively high temperatures, i.e.,
above 0.3 of their melting point in Kelvin scale. However, for polymers
substantial creep can occur at room temperature.
Fig 1.47. Stages of creep
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• Generally, an elevation of temperature in most materials induces a decrease of

their strength and a sensitivity to the strain rate.
• Creep and creep-fatigue failures are associated with temperature and time.
They are associated with temperature because these phenomena are thermally
activated from mid to elevated temperatures that are above about one third of the
absolute melting temperature for metals.
• From a physical point of view, creep damage in metals is essentially the
nucleation and growth of intergranular microcracks up to crystals triple
points where the coalescence of microcracks induce a mesocrack.
Fig 1.48. Intergranular microcracks Fig 1.49. Crystals triple points

All engineering components submitted to loadings at elevated temperature may be

subjected to creep damage effects in quasi-static loadings and to creep-fatigue
damage effects in cyclic loadings.
Fig 1.50. Short range effects in rockets components

where the lifetime is of a few minutes
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Fig 1.51. Middle range effects in gasturbines of airplanes or car engines where the
lifetime is on the order of 5000 to 10000 hours.

Nuclear power plant Thermal power plant

Fig 1.52. Large range effects in the chemistry industry and thermal or nuclear power
plants where the lifetime is of the order on 10 to 50 years.
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Fig 1.53. Extremely large range duration as those considered in the conservation of
radioactive wastes – up to 100, 1000, or even 10000 years!

1.5. Failure Analysis

 A failure is often associated
with unexpected costs.
These costs may become
high due to secondary
damages, interrupted
production and legal
liabilities.
 The course of action in order
to minimize costs can be
decided only when the cause
of the failure has been
established.
 This is why failure analysis is
a good investment.
Fig 1.54. Damage on gear teeth
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 A failure analysis starts with

selection of samples for
investigation.
 Determination of the type or
mechanism of the failure is
performed in metallurgical
laboratory.
 Based on the failure mechanism
deducted from data analysis,
together with supplementary
information and results from the
investigation, the cause of the
failure can be determined.
 This again makes it possible to
implement preventive measure
on a rational basis.
Fig 1.55. Failure analysis process flow

Failure analysis today means

Failure Prevention Tomorrow !
Fig 1.56. Catastrophic failure
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References
[1] Anderson, “Fracture Mechanics Fundamentals
and Applications.”
[2] Meguid, “Engineering Fracture mechanics”
[3] Kanninen, "Advanced Fracture Mechanics"
[4] Dowling, "Mechanical Behavior of Materials"
[5] “Structural Integrity Lecture Notes”, by Prof. Gray

Chapter 1 - Failure Mechanics 1

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9/28/2019

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Tran Kim Bang

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.1. Structural Design, an Overview

Fig 1.1. Structural Design

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

• Most of the engineering decisions are based on semi-empirical design

• In general, various failure mechanisms may be classified into the two

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.2. Deformed bar

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.1.2. Elastic Deformation

Fig 1.3. Elastic deformation Fig 1.4. Stress – Strain Curve

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.1.3. Plastic Deformation

Fig 1.5. Plastic deformation during spoon bending

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.6. Stress – Strain Curve

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.7. Engineering Stress vs True Stress

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.1.5. Cyclic load

Fig 1.10. Cyclic loading experiment

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.11. Cyclic loading experiment

Fig 1.12. Cyclic loading diagram

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.13. Cyclic loading diagram

Fig 1.15. Cyclic loading diagram

Fig 1.14. Cyclic loading diagram

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.1.6. Fatigue Failure

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.18. Low cycle fatigue vs High cycle fatigue

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.19. Static failure vs low and high cycle fatigue

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.20. Creep deformation vs time

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Fig 1.21. Failed toilet float – creep failure due to overtightening

Fig 1.22. Creep crack tip

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.1.8. Stress Corrosion Cracking

Fig 1.26. Stress corrosion cracking

Fig 1.25. Branched cracking in

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.1.9. Unstable elastic deformation (Buckling)

Fig 1.28. Unstable elastic deformation

Pcrit is the called critical buckling load

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.1.10. Design Philosophies

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

• In general, we may distinguish three different design philosophies as follows

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

1.2. Fracture Mechanics

Fig 1.31. Engineering Applications of Fracture Mechanics

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of Applied Science

• The first major step in the direction of quantification of the effects of