Chapter-1

Introduction

Mechanical failure is any change in the size, shape, or material properties of a structure, machine, or
machine part that renders it incapable of satisfactorily performing its intended function.

Or

Failure of a machine component is a condition at which the component fails to perform its
designated function.
 Modes of Mechanical failure

A failure mode is the physical process or processes that take place or combine their effects to
produce failure.

Failure modes are classified in to three categories.

 Manifestations of failure

 Failure-inducing agents

 Locations of failure
 Manifestations of mechanical failure

The four manifestations of mechanical failure are:

• Elastic deformation

• Plastic deformation

• Rupture or fracture

• Material change (e.g. metallurgical, chemical, nuclear)

 Failure-inducing agents

Force : Steady, Transient, Cyclic, Random

Time : Very short, Short, Long

Temperature : low, room, elevated.

Reactive environment: Chemical, Nuclear.

 Locations of failure

• Body force
• Surface force
 Failure modes observed in practice
1 Force and/or temperature-induced elastic deformation 14 Thermal shock failure
failure
2 Yielding failure 15 Galling failure
3 Ductile rupture failure 16 Spalling failure
4 Brinnelling failure 17 Radiation damage failure
5 Brittle fracture failure 18 Buckling failure
6 Fatigue failure 19 Creep buckling failure
7 Corrosion failure 20 Stress corrosion failure
8 Wear failure 21 Corrosion wear failure
9 Impact failure 22 Corrosion fatigue failure
10 Fretting failure 23 Combined creep and fatigue failure
11 Creep failure 24 Compressive failure
12 Thermal relaxation failure, or stress relaxation failure
13 Stress rupture failure
• Force and/or temperature-induced elastic deformation failure: occurs whenever the
elastic(recoverable) deformation in a machine member, induced by the imposed operational loads or
temperatures, becomes large enough to interfere with the ability of the machine to perform its
intended function satisfactorily.

• Yielding: failure occurs when the plastic (unrecoverable) deformation in a ductile machine member,
brought about by the imposed operational loads or motions, becomes large enough to interfere with
the ability of the machine to perform its intended function satisfactorily.

• Brinnelling: failure occurs when the static forces between two curved surfaces in contact result in
local yielding of one or both mating members to produce a permanent surface discontinuity of
significant size.
Ductile rupture: failure occurs when the plastic deformation in a machine part that exhibits ductile
behavior is carried to the extreme so that the member separates into two pieces. Initiation and
coalescence of internal voids slowly propagate to failure, leaving a dull, fibrous rupture surface.

Brittle fracture: failure occurs when the elastic deformation in a machine part that exhibits brittle
behavior is carried to the extreme so that the primary interatomic bonds are broken and the member
separates into two or more pieces. Preexisting flaws or growing cracks form initiation sites for very rapid
crack propagation to catastrophic failure, leaving a granular, multifaceted fracture surface.
Fatigue failure: is a general term given to the sudden and catastrophic separation of a machine part
into two or more pieces as a result of the application of fluctuating loads or deformations over a period
of time. Failure takes place by the initiation and propagation of a crack until it becomes unstable and
propagates suddenly to failure. The loads and deformations that typically cause failure by fatigue are
far below the static or monotonic failure levels.

When loads or deformations are of such magnitude that more than about 10,000 cycles are required to
produce failure, the phenomenon is usually termed high-cycle fatigue.

When loads or deformations are of such magnitude that less than about 10,000 cycles are required to
produce failure, the phenomenon is usually termed low-cycle fatigue
Corrosion failure, a very broad term, implies that a machine part is rendered incapable of
performing its intended function because of the undesired deterioration of the material as a result of
chemical or electrochemical interaction with the environment. Corrosion often interacts with other
failure modes such as wear or fatigue. The many forms of corrosion include the following.

Direct chemical attack, perhaps the most common type of corrosion, involves corrosive attack of the
surface of the machine part exposed to the corrosive media more or less uniformly over the entire
exposed surface.

Galvanic corrosion is an accelerated electrochemical corrosion that occurs when two dissimilar
metals in electrical contact are made part of a circuit completed by a connecting pool or film of
electrolyte or corrosive medium, leading to current flow and ensuing corrosion
Wear is the undesired cumulative change in dimensions caused by the gradual removal of discrete
particles from contacting surfaces in motion, usually sliding, predominantly as a result of mechanical
action. Wear is not a single process, but a number of different processes that can take place by
themselves or in combination, resulting in material removal from contacting surfaces through a
complex combination of local shearing, plowing, gouging, welding, tearing, and others.

Impact failure results when a machine member is subjected to nonstatic loads that produce in the part
stresses or deformations of such magnitude that the member no longer is capable of performing its
function. The failure is brought about by the interaction of stress or strain waves generated by dynamic
or suddenly applied loads, which may induce local stresses and strains many times greater than would
be induced by the static application of the same loads. If the magnitudes of the stresses and strains are
sufficiently high to cause separation into two or more parts, the failure is called impact fracture.
Fretting : action may occur at the interface between any two solid bodies whenever they are pressed
together by a normal force and subjected to small-amplitude cyclic relative motion with respect to each
other. Fretting usually takes place in joints that are not intended to move but, because of vibrational
loads or deformations, experience minute cyclic relative motions.

Creep: failure results whenever the plastic deformation in a machine member occurs over a period of
time under the influence of stress and temperature until the accumulated dimensional changes interfere
with the ability of the machine part to satisfactorily perform its intended function.

Thermal relaxation: failure occurs when the dimensional changes due to the creep process result in the
relaxation of a prestrained or prestressed member until it no longer is able to perform its intended
function.
• Stress rupture: failure is intimately related to the creep process except that the combination of stress,
time, and temperature is such that rupture into two parts is ensured.

• Thermal shock: failure occurs when the thermal gradients generated in a machine part are so
pronounced that differential thermal strains exceed the ability of the material to sustain them without
yielding or fracture.

• Galling: failure occurs when two sliding surfaces are subjected to such a combination of loads,
sliding velocities, temperatures, environments, and lubricants that massive surface destruction is
caused by welding and tearing, plowing, gouging, significant plastic deformation of surface
asperities, and metal transfer between the two surfaces.
• Spalling failure occurs whenever a particle is spontaneously dislodged from the surface of a machine
part so as to prevent the proper function of the member.

• Radiation damage failure occurs when the changes in material properties induced by exposure to a
nuclear radiation field are of such a type and magnitude that the machine part is no longer able to
perform its intended function.

• Buckling: failure occurs when, because of a critical combination of magnitude and/or point of load
application, together with the geometrical configuration of a machine member, the deflection of the
member suddenly increases greatly with only a slight change in load. This nonlinear response results in
a buckling failure if the buckled member is no longer capable of performing its design function.
Theories of failure
Von-Mises Stress theory (Distortion energy theory)
Even and Uneven Materials

Some wrought materials, such as fully hardened tool steel, can be brittle. These materials
tend to have compressive strength equal to their tensile strengths. They are called EVEN
materials.

Many cast materials, such as gray cast iron, are brittle but have compressive strengths much
greater than their tensile strengths. These are called UNEVEN materials.
 Mohr’s circles for both compression and tensile tests of an even and uneven materials are
shown below.

The lines tangent to these circles constitute failure lines for all combinations of applied stress between the
two circles. The area enclosed by the circles and the failure lines represent a safe zone.
On observation of the Mohr’s circle both for even and uneven material we can conclude the following
points.
 In the case of even material, the failure lines are independent of the normal stresses and are defined by
the maximum shear strength of the material.
 For the uneven material, the failure lines are a function of both normal stresses and shear stresses.
 For compressive regime, of the uneven material as a compressive stress increases shear stress will
also increases.
Mohr’s Coulomb theory of failure

To account for interdependence between shear and normal stress is confirmed by experiment in
cases of the uneven material like grey cast iron. This theory is proposed. It is an extension of
maximum normal stress theory.
The maximum normal stress theory is adapted here to draw the Mohr’s coulomb envelope.

The fig shows normal stress theory for even and uneven material, the even material has
symmetric square whereas a uneven material has asymmetric square.
In order to develop the Coulomb-Mohr theory join the opposite corner of the quadrants (I and IV) by
means of diagonals and now this forms a hexagon (irregular) called the Mohr’s coulomb envelope.
The Figure shows some gray cast-iron experimental test data superposed on the theoretical
failure envelopes.
 The failures in the first quadrant fit the maximum normal-stress theory line.
 The failures in the fourth quadrant fall inside the maximum normal-stress line (indicating its
unsuitability)
 Also experimental data fall outside the Coulomb-Mohr line (indicating its conservative
nature).
This observation leads to a modification of the Coulomb-Mohr theory to make it better fit the
observed data.
The actual failure data in the above figure follow the even material maximum normal stress theory
envelop down to a point Sut, -Sut below the σ1 axis and then follow a straight line to 0, -Suc. The set of lines
shown by a solid line is the Modified-Mohr failure theory envelop. It is the preferred failure theory for
uneven, brittle materials in static loading.

If the 2-D principal stresses are ordered σ1 >σ 3, σ2 = 0, then only the first and fourth quadrants need to
be drawn as shown in Figure. The figure depicts three plane stress conditions labeled A, B, and C.
Point A represents any stress state in which the two non-zero principal stresses σ1, σ3 are positive. Failure
will occur when the load line OA crosses the failure envelop at A1. The safety factor for this situation can be
expressed as N = Sut / σ1.

If the two nonzero principal stresses have opposite sign, then two possibilities exist for failure, as depicted
by points B and C. The only difference between these two points is the relative values of their two stress
components σ1, and σ3. The load line OB exits the failure envelop at B1above the point (Sut,-Sut ) and the
safety factor for this case is the same as the previous equation
 If the stress state is as depicted by point C, then the
intersection of the load line OC and the failure envelop
occurs at C1 below the point (Sut, -Sut). The safety factor
can be found by solving for the intersection between the
load line OC and the failure line and is given by

If the stress state is in the fourth quadrant both of these equations should be checked and the
resulting smaller safety factor used.

Dowling proposed the use of equivalent stress for modified coulomb Mohr’s theory by developing
factors called the Dowling factors. C1, C 2, C3 are the Dowling factors 𝜎ത is the equivalent stress or
effective stress which is given by (𝜎ത =Max (C1, C 2, C3 σ1, σ2, σ3)
Dowling factors
 Fatigue of materials
• The word fatigue refers to the behavior of materials under the action of repeated stress or strain as
distinguished from their behavior under monotonic or static stresses or strains.
 Definition (ASTM)
“The process of progressive localized permanent structural change occurring in a material subjected to conditions
that produce fluctuating stresses and strains at some point or points which may culminate in cracks or complete
fracture after a sufficient number of fluctuations.”

Progressive implies that the fatigue process occurs over a period of time.

Localized implies that the fatigue process operates at local areas rather than through the entire component.

Permanent implies that once there is a structural change due to the fatigue process it is irreversible.

Fluctuating implies that the process of fatigue involves stresses and strains that are cyclic in nature and requires
more than sustained load.

Fracture implies the last stage of the fatigue process. i.e. the separation of component or structure in to 2 or more
parts.
Types of Fluctuating stresses
Categories of fatigue
Fatigue Design Method

It was created by SAE fatigue design

and evaluation SAE FDE
 Fatigue Design criteria

1. Infinite life Design

2. Safe life Design
3. Fail safe Design
4. Damage tolerant Design
 Infinite life Design

• Unlimited safety is the oldest criterion.

• It requires local stresses or strains to be essentially elastic and safely below pertinent fatigue limit.

• For parts subjected to millions of cycles like engine valve springs this is a good design criteria

• However most parts experience significant variable amplitude loading and the pertinent fatigue limit is
difficult to define or obtain.

• In addition this criterion may not be economical or practical in many design situations.
 Safe life design

 The maximum load or stress in a suspension spring or a reverse gear may occur only occasionally during the
life of a car.

 Designing for a finite life in such cases is quite satisfactory.

 The practice of designing for a finite life is known as safe life design
 Fail safe design

 When a component, structure or vehicle reaches its allowable safe life it must be retired from service. This
can be inadequate since all the fleet must be retired before the average calculated life or test life is attained

 This practice is very costly and wasteful

 Also testing and analysis cannot predict all service failures. Thus fail safe design was developed by aircraft
engineers

 Fail safe design recognizes that cracks may occur and structures are arranged so that cracks will not lead to
failure of the structure before they are detected and repaired . Multiple load paths, load transfer between
members, crack stoppers built at intervals in to the structure and inspection are some of the methods used
to achieve fail safe design
 Damage tolerant Design

 In damage tolerant design it is assumed that there is a presence of crack and principles of fracture
mechanics are used to detect whether the crack grows large enough.

 Few important factors like residual strength, crack growth behavior are the key.

 The strength of the member is the function of crack size which is dependent on material, crack
configuration, crack growth rate .

 Residual strength is usually obtained from fracture mechanics concepts.

 Inspection schedule should be such that the stresses are kept below the residual strength so that it is easier
to repair the crack or replace the component

 The material should have high fracture toughness and slow crack growth rate.
Mechanism of fatigue failure
Fatigue failures always begin at a crack. The crack may have been present in the material since its manufacture
, or it may have developed overtime due to cyclic straining around stress concentrations.
• The three stages of fatigue failure are
• Crack initiation
• Crack propogation
• fracture
• Crack initiation

• Assume that the material is a ductile metal and as manufactured has no cracks present but has the usual
collection of particles, inclusions, etc. that are common to engineering materilas.

• At a microscopic scale, metals are not homogenous and isotropic.

• Assume further that there are some regions of geometric stress concentrations( notches) in locations of
significant time- varying stress that contains a tensile (positive component) as shown in figure.

• As the stresses at the notch oscillate , local yielding may occur due to stress concentration, even though the
nominal stress in the is well below the yield strength of the material.
• The localized plastic yielding causes distortion and creates slip bands (regions of intense deformation due to
shear motion) along the crystal boundaries of the material. As the stress cycles, additional slip bands occur
and coalesce in to microscopic cracks

• Even in the absence of the notch this mechanism still operates as long as the yield strength is exceeded
somewhere in the material. Preexisting voids or inclusion will serve as stress raisers to start the crack.

• Less ductile materials do not have the ability to yield as ductile ones and will tend to develop cracks more
rapidly. They are more notch sensitive.

• Brittle materials which do not yield may skip this initiation stage and proceed directly to crack propogation at
sites of existing voids or inclusions that serve as microcracks.
• Crack propogation

• Once a micro crack is established , the mechanism of fracture mechanics become operable. The sharp crack
creates stress concentrations larger than those of the original notch, and a plastic zone develops at the crack tip
each time a tensile stress opens the crack blunting its tip and reducing the effective stress concentration.

• The crack grows a small amount. When the stress cycles to a compressive stress regime, to zero, or to sufficiently
lower tensile stress as shown in figure respectively the crack closes, the yielding momentarily ceases and the
crack again becomes sharp, but now at its longer dimension .

• This process continues as long as the local stress is cycling from below the tensile yield at the crack tip. Thus crack
growth is due to tensile stress and the crack grows along planes normal to the maximum tensile stress .

• It is for this reason that fatigue failures are considered to be due to tensile stress, even though shear stress starts
the process in ductile materials as described above.

• Cyclic stresses that are always compressive will not cause crack growth as they tend to close the crack.
• Fracture

The crack will continue to grow as long as cyclical tensile stresses and or corrosion factors of sufficient severity are
present.

At some point the crack sizes becomes large enough to raise the stress intensity factor K as the crack tip to the level
of the material’s fracture toughness Kc and sudden failure occurs instantaneously on the next tensile stress cycle.

This failure mechanism is the same whether the condition of K=Kc was reached by the reason of the crack
propagating to a sufficient size or by the normal stress being raised sufficiently.

The former is commonly the case in dynamic loading while the latter is more common in static loading. The result
is the same sudden and catastrophic failure with no warning.
 Fatigue failure models
• Stress life approach
• Strain life approach
• LEFM
 Stress Life Approach

It is the oldest of the 3 Models is the most often used for high cycle fatigue applications
where the assembly is expected to last for than about 103 cycles of stress

It works best when the load amplitudes are predictable and consistent over the life of the
part. It is as stress- based model which seeks to determine a fatigue strength and or
endurance limit.

The part is then designed on the local stresses in notches so low

material’s fatigue strength and a that the crack initiation stage
safety factor never begins.
The assumption is that stresses and strains everywhere remain in the elastic region and no
local yielding occurs to initiate the crack

This approach is fairly easy to implement and large amounts of relevant strength data are
available due to its longtime use.

However it is the most empirical and least accurate of the three models in terms of
defining the true local stress/strain states in the part, especially for low-cycle fatigue
finite-life situations where the total number of cycles is expected to be less than about 103
and the stresses will be high enough to cause local yielding.
 Strain-Life approach
Because of the initiation of the crack involves yielding, a stress based approach cannot adequately
model this stage of the process . A strain based model gives a reasonably accurate picture of the
crack initiation stage.

It can also account for cumulative damage due to variations in the cyclic load over the life of the part, such
as overloads that may introduce favorable or unfavorable residual stresses to the failure zone .

Combinations of fatigue loading and high temperature are better handled by this method, because
the creep effects can be included

This method is most often applied to LCF problems where the cyclic stresses are high enough to
cause yielding.

It is the most complicated of the three models to use and requires a computer solution. Test data are
still being developed on the cyclic –strain behavior of various engineering materials.
 LEFM
• Fracture mechanics theory provides the best model of the crack propagation stage of the process. This
method is applied to LCF, finite-life problems where the cyclic stresses are known to cause the formation of
cracks and is most useful in predicting the remaining parts in service.

• It is often used in conjunction with nondestructive testing in a periodic service-inspection program,

especially in the aircraft industry.

• Its application is fairly straightforward but relies on the accuracy of the expression for the stress intensity
geometry factor and on the estimate of initial crack size a required for the computation.

• It gives more accurate results when a detectable and measurable crack already exists.