MM 362 ASSIGNMENT

OBJECTIVE :-

STUDY THE FRACTURE SURFACES

a) Tensile failure
b) Fatigue failure
c) Creep fracture
d) Failure in corrosive atmosphere
e) Explanation of fractographs experimentally examined in the lab
with
the help of mechanisms of different types of fracture.

SUBMITTED BY :Group 3
(B.Tech)

What is Fracture ?
A fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress.
The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a
displacement develops perpendicular to the surface of displacement, it is called a normal tensile crack; if a displacement
develops tangentially to the surface of displacement, it is called a shear crack, slip band, or dislocation.

Example:The failure of Mississippi River bridge in August 2007, USA has caused terrible losses in life and required high cost of
reconstructions

Fracture of gusset responsible for the collapse

Collapsed Bridge

What is Fractography ?
Fractography is the study of the fracture surfaces of materials. Fractographic methods are routinely used to determine the
cause of failure in engineering structures, especially in product failure and the practice of forensic engineering or failure
analysis.

ALUMINIUM

BRASS

EN8

MILD STEEL

STAINLESS STEEL

A) FRACTURE SURFACE OF TENSILE FAILURE

Depending on the ability of material to undergo plastic deformation before the fracture two fracture modes can be defined
- ductile or brittle
Ductile fracture - most metals (not too cold):
Extensive plastic deformation ahead of crack
Crack is stable: resists further extension unless applied stress is increased
Fracture surfaces of the tensile specimen failed in a ductile mode exhibit a so called cup and cone type
fracture, showing gross plastic deformation on both half of the fracture surfaces
Therefore requires higher energy to create two new fresh fracture surfaces in comparison to energy
required to cleave flat brittle surfaces

Brittle fracture - ceramics, ice, cold metals:

Relatively little plastic deformation
Crack is unstable: propagates rapidly without increase in applied stress
Tensile specimens that have been failed in a brittle failure mode have flat surfaces with limited
plastic deformation
Brittle materials normally exhibit flat fracture surfaces consisting of
transgranular cleavage facets

Brittle vs. Ductile Fracture

Ductile materials - extensive plastic deformation and energy absorption (toughness)
before fracture

Brittle materials - little plastic deformation and low energy absorption before fracture

Brittle vs. Ductile Fracture

A) Very ductile, soft metals (e.g. Pb, Au) at room
temperature, other metals, polymers, glasses at high
temperature.

B)

Moderately ductile fracture, typical for ductile

metals

C)Brittle fracture, cold metals, ceramics

Brittle Fracture

Ductile Fracture
Crack
grows
90o to
applie
d
stress

45O maximum
Shear
stress

Brittle fracture in a mild steel

(Cup-and-cone fracture in
Al)

Cup-and-cone
fracture

Tensile failure

Shear failure

Fracture surfaces showing crack initiation sites eventually leading

to failures

B) FATIGUE FAILURE

Fatigue fracture surfaces possess quite a unique characteristic of flat surfaces with limited plastic deformation
Surface condition is a prime factor in controlling surface crack initiation
Rough surfaces are attractive to stress concentration, leading to easy fatigue crack initiation
study of stage II fatigue fracture surface using SEM technique show striations orientated normal to the fatigue
crack growth direction
Each striation is due to plastic blunting process
When the tensile loading progresses, the crack opens and allows the slips to operate at the top and bottom ends
to produce local plastic deformation
At a higher tensile loading, plastic blunting occurs, which leads to an increase in the fatigue crack length
During unloading, the fatigue crack is then closed and the slips are now operating in the opposite direction
Therefore, after one cycle, the fatigue crack now arrives at the original stage of crack closing with an increase in
one fatigue striation

rust on the fatigue surface observed in an automobile

shaft

a beach mark which indicates the fatigue crack initiation to

have started at the top surface

the fatigue failure can be found to occur in conjunction with corrosive and high temperature environment
Corrosion and high temperature accelerate the rate of the fatigue crack propagation and promote severe fatigue
failures

C) CREEP FAILURE
What is creep? Creep may be defined as a time-dependent deformation at elevated temperature and constant stress. It
follows, then, that a failure from such a condition is referred to as a creep failure or, occasionally, a stress rupture. The
temperature at which creep begins depends on the alloy composition. For the common materials used in superheater and
reheater construction, Table I (see below) gives the approximate temperatures for the onset of creep. It should be pointed
out that the actual operating stress will, in part, dictate or determine the temperature at which creep begins.
creep failures will include the degraded microstructures of graphite or spheroidized carbides along with the grain-boundary
voids and cracks characteristic of these high-temperature, long-time failures.
While creep failures are expected for superheaters and reheaters operating at design conditions, deviations from these
parameters will promote early failures. The steam temperature always varies some from individual tube to tube, and the
design allows for this variability. However, when the range of temperatures is larger than accounted for, the hottest tubes fail
sooner than expected. A more likely cause of premature failure is the slow increase in tube-metal temperatures due to the
formation of the steam-side scale
The microstructures themselves will show the grain-boundary sliding and the resultant creep cracks or voids. For stainless
steels, the microstructures are similar in that the failure is by grain-boundary-sliding and crack formation.

Creep failures are characterized by:

bulging or blisters in the tube
thick-edged fractures often with very little obvious
ductility
longitudinal "stress cracks" in either or both ID and OD
oxide scales
external or internal oxide-scale thicknesses that suggest
higher-than-expected temperatures
intergranular voids and cracks in the microstructure

A SEM micrograph of the crack surface, at left, shows

the intercrystalline fracture mode and voids typical
for creep failures

Creep and creep testing

The voids that form on the grain boundaries in the
early stages

D) Failure in corrosive atmosphere

deterioration of fatigue properties due to corrosion
I.
The influence of corrosion cracks developing in material and thus facilitating the fatigue crack initiation
II.
The decrease of fatigue limit due to the development of surface roughening

The examination of the fracture surfaces of specimens with corroded layer

by means of SEM demonstrates that the fatigue cracks initiate exclusively
on corroded surfaces

 examination of fatigue crack initiation sites

in specimens with corrosion layer brought
an
evidence of initiation at corrosion
dimples
The arrow indicates the dimple, from which
the

An example of a dimple initiating the

crack under loading with R = 0

 The fracture surface of a failed specimen at higher

magnification
The layer of rust contains cracks.
They do not grow further into the base material.
They are not responsible for initiation of fatigue
cracks which determine the lifetime under cyclic
loading.
They very often turn to the rust/base material
boundary and separate the rust from the
un-corroded material

(E) Explanation of fractographs experimentally examined in the lab

with the help of mechanisms of different types of fracture.

Mild Steel Sample

We can see the
necking and reduction
in cross section area.
This was a ductile
fracture as we can
observe the voids

Brass Sample
There is no necking
and fracture surface is
almost planer
Number of voids are
less compared to
ductile fracture and
more planer surface
are present hence is

Aluminium Sample
Necking is visible

Large number of voids

are visible which
occurs in ductile
fracture

Iron Sample
We can see the
fracture origin

Thank You