Lecture 1-1

FUNDAMENTALS OF FRACTURE
David Wilkinson

Lecture 1-2



Course Outline:

This quarter course consists of one day of lectures that will introduce fundamental aspects of fracture (May 9),
followed by a 2-day workshop on Fracture (May 10-11).
Students taking this course for credit are required to attend all three days.

Introductory lectures will cover:

1. Overview of fracture modes in solids, mechanisms and mechanism maps (Broek, Ch. 2; Ashby et al., Acta metall. 27
(1979), 699)

2. Introduction to linear elastic fracture mechanics, Griffith condition, energy vs. stress based approaches, crack tip stress
fields, stress intensity factor K, effect of geometry on K, elliptical cracks (Broek. Ch. 1, 3, 5.1-5.2)

3. Crack growth resistance (R-curve), dynamic fracture, fatigue crack propagation (Broek, Ch. 4, 5.3, 6 (esp. 6.1 and 6.3),
10)

4. Fracture behavior of brittle materials

5. Fracture behaviour in brittle solids, mechanisms of fracture, toughening approaches, statistical nature of fracture (Lawn,
selected readings)

6. (Time permitting): Introduction to creep fracture



Lecture 1-3



Books and reference materials:

Broek, Elementary Engineering Fracture Mechanics (3rd Edition), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1982
Knott, Fundamentals of Fracture Mechanics
McClintock and Argon, Mechanical Behaviour of Materials (1966)
Lawn, Fracture of Brittle Solids, 2
nd
Ed. (1993)
Ashby, Gandhi and Taplin, Acta Metallurgica, 27 (1979), 699-729
Barsom and Rolfe, Fracture and Fatigue Control in Structures, 2
nd
Ed. (1987)
Davidge, Mechanical Behaviour of Ceramics (1979)
Kingery, Bowman and Uhlmann, Introduction to Ceramics (1976)
Suresh, Fatigue of Materials, 2
nd
Ed. (1998)

Also of interest is a video lecture series, Concepts in Fracture Mechanics by Paul Paris.



Student assessment:

Students are required to submit the following for grading:

A 2 page synopsis of the fracture workshop which summarizes the topics and highlights some of aspects of fracture that you
think you learned 20%

An essay of 10-15 pages which addresses the state of the art in some area of fracture research.

Both of these items are due on Monday June 6, 2011


Lecture 1-4



FUNDAMENTALS OF FRACTURE
Overview

Focus of course: failure of materials and structures made from materials
- final event in failure process is the separation of a component into two or more parts, but what leads up to this
event?
- is failure catastrophic or gradual (or a combination of these)?
- are the events preceding failure detectable
- (i.e. is lifetime predictable)?
- is failure due to a single overload event or an accumulation of time or strain?
(e.g. though cyclic loading, fatigue or stress corrosion cracking)
- answers depend on:
- material (e.g. metal or ceramic, b.c.c. or f.c.c. structure, etc.)
- microstructural state (fabrication process, heat treatment)
- test or working conditions
- temperature
- stress state
- scale of the structure
- prior history

Lecture 1-5




The result is a complex problem in materials engineering, although mechanics plays some role (e.g. effect of scale)

- can also ask:
- can experimental fracture data obtained on
- lab specimens (small scale, simple geometry) be applied to
- components and structures (large scale, complex geometry)
- this is the role of mechanics

Lecture 1-6



Brief History of Material Failures

- use of large beams in engineering is only 150 years old (e.g. Stephensons Menai railway bridge, 1850)

- elastic beam theory was well established but understanding of fracture was not; moreover, materials processing
was unreliable

- mid-1800's increased use of structural plate steels
- several boiler failures (explosions) per week
- many railway accidents due to broken rails, wheels, axles, etc.

- mid-1900's increased use of welded structures
- Liberty ships 5% broke in two, 1/3 had serious failures
- structures often failed under low load (e.g. in dry dock)

Lecture 1-7



Approaches to Avoid and Prevent Fracture
- lessons learned from early failures included
- sharp corners and discontinuities produce stress concentrations
- materials contain processing flaws which also act as stress concentrators
- flaws can grow during service (environment, fatigue, creep)
- crack arresters are useful (riveted vs. welded structures)
- welds are (typically) weaker or more brittle than parent metal

- modern approaches are based on
- understanding of the relationship between flaws (cracks) and fracture stress (this is called fracture
mechanics)
- development of inspection procedures to determine size of flaws
o following initial fabrication
o periodically while in service
- proof testing (eliminates weak components before entering service)
- fracture tolerant design philosophies
o leak before failure
o yield before failure
- modern approaches are based on the Griffith model of brittle fracture

A.A. Griffith, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., A221 (1920), 163-97
Lecture 1-8



Effect of Notches
- Notches act as stress concentrators


















At the end of the ellipse, p =
b
2
u



Therefore, o
mux
= o
u
_1 +2
_
u
p
] = 2o
u

_
u
p



o
mux
o
u
1 +2
o
b
Lecture 1-9



- Effect on strength and fracture?

- Consider a notched tensile specimen











- Effect depends on material type



o
nct
=
P
n
4

2

Lecture 1-10




- As the load is increased a plastic zone develops in the notch area

- If the material has little ductility, cracking commences before the notch is fully plastic notch weakening

- If the material has extensive ductility, the notch becomes fully plastic and deformation is constrained by
material outside the notch notch strengthening










Lecture 1-11



Cracks as Sharp Notches

- As 0 the stress concentration due to a notch becomes infinite

- Another approach is needed to predict when fracture occurs

- Developed by Griffith, based on an energy balance

- Crack can only propagate if energy available exceeds the work of fracture

- Result is:
o
]
=
_
2Ey
no



Where is the work of fracture (per unit area)

(Will develop this theory in detail later)

Lecture 1-12



Effect of Scale


- Study of fracture takes place over a wide range of scales

















- Start our study at the macroscopic level and work down from mechanics to mechanisms


- To put everything in context we begin with a brief overview of fracture mechanisms

Lecture 1-13



Broad Classes of Fracture Mechanism

















Ashby et al., Acta metal. 27 (1979) 699
Lecture 1-14



Ideal Fracture Strength

- Ideal crystal fractures by separation of atomic planes in tension or shear
- Requires bond breaking

Potential energy, U












- Force on atoms if F = -
0

F = F
th
sin_
2 nu
z
] , u = r - r
o





Lecture 1-15



- Normalize by area per atom, o = o
th
sin[
2 n u
x


- At small strains o = o
th

2 nu
x
E e = E
u

c
= E

- Total work to separate surfaces is 2
s
per unit area, equal to integrated area under stress-displacement curve

o
th
=
n
x
2 y
s



From which we find that o
th
= _
L y
s

c


For typical values [y
s
= 1
]
m
2
, E = 2uu 0Po, r
o
= u.2 nm o
th
= 2uu uPa

- Also ~ r
o
, from which we get o
th
~ E/t

- A more precise calculation yields o
th
~ E/10

Lecture 1-16



Cleavage Fracture

- at low temperatures all materials (except some f.c.c. metals and alloys) fail by cleavage

- two processes lead to different fracture paths
- transgranular (cleavage)
- intergranular (brittle intergranular fracture, BIF)

- process involves nucleation and growth of a crack
- cracks may pre-exist or be generated by microplasticity
Cleavage


Lecture 1-17



- if crack is prenucleated then propagation proceeds once Griffith criterion is met (cleavage 1)
- this is typical of a highly brittle material such as a ceramic
- fracture stress given by eq. 1.2

- if pre-existing cracks are small or absent, they are generated by twinning or local plasticity once the local yield
stress
y
is exceeded (cleavage 2)
- nucleated cracks have a length equal to the grain size
- crack propagation stress given by eq. 1.2 with a = d, the grain size, i.e.

*
=
2E
d



Lecture 1-18



- two possibilities:
-
if
y
>
*
then crack propagates immediately and
f
=
y
- if
y
<
*
then additional work hardening is required and
f
=
*


- competition between yield and fracture represented by Davidenkov diagram



Lecture 1-19



- pre-nucleated flaws take several forms
















from Lawn, pp. 323-4
Lecture 1-20



- plasticity-induced crack nucleation

















from Lawn, p. 316 and McClintock and Argon, p. 557
Lecture 1-21



- cleavage occurs along crystallographic planes (e.g. cube (100) planes in b.c.c. metals

- microstructural irregularity (e.g. particles) force cracks to deviate
river patterns















McClintock & Argon, p. 566
Lecture 1-22



- crack path is determined by grain shape and grain boundary energy,
gb

- intergranular fracture requires more surface area, esp. if grains are elongated
- to a first approximation = 2
s
for cleavage, while = 2
s
-
gb
for brittle intergranular fracture (BIF)
crack will follow path of lowest total energy

















Lawn, p. 199
Lecture 1-23



Ductile Fracture

- cleavage is generally a catastrophic failure process
- ductile fracture involves damage accumulation
- three stages: nucleation, growth and linkage of voids
voids nucleate at particles (inclusions, precipitates)
they grow under the influence of a far-field strain
voids coalesce when h ~ l, by local shear

Ductile, and Transgranular Creep, Fracture








Ashby et al, Acta metall., 27 (1979), 699

Lecture 1-24



- examples of void nucleation














Broek, pp.46-7

Lecture 1-25



- examples of void growth and coalescence



















McClintock & Argon, p. 521
Lecture 1-26



Intergranular Creep Fracture
- at high temperature voids nucleate on grain boundaries
still a damage accumulation process

Intergranular, Creep Controlled, Fracture







Diffusional Void Growth







Ashby et al, Acta metall., 27 (1979), 699
Lecture 1-27



Fracture Mechanism Maps

Pure f.c.c. metal





















Ashby et al, Acta metall., 27 (1979), 699 & 1602
Lecture 1-28



- Effect of alloying



Lecture 1-29



- Effect of dispersion strengthening

Lecture 1-30



- Maps for brittle materials

Lecture 1-31



- Effect of refractoriness





Lecture 1-32



Failure under Fatigue Loading

- fatigue can cause fracture at stresses below the macroscopic yield point
- crack nucleation due to persistent slip bands


Lecture 1-33



- cracks develop and propagate


















Suresh, Fatigue of Materials, pg. 338