Mechanical Failure

Fracture,
Fatigue,
and Creep
Fracture
 separation of a body into pieces due to
stress, at temperatures below the melting
point.
 Steps in fracture:
 crack formation
 crack propagation
Modes of Fracture
Moderately
Very Ductile Ductile Brittle

%EL Large Moderate Small

Rate Slow Moderate Very Fast
Ductile Fracture
 Extensive plastic deformation ahead of crack
 Crack is “stable”
 High energy absorption
Ductile Fracture
 “Cup-and-cone”
Brittle Fracture
 Relatively little plastic deformation
 Crack is “unstable”
 Low energy absorption
Brittle Fracture

 Chevron
Markings

 Fan-like
Patterns
Fatigue
 Failure occurring under conditions of
repetitive or fluctuating stress and at
stresses lower than the yield stress!
 accounts for at least 90 percent of all service
failures
 insidious because it occurs without any
obvious warning
Types of Dynamic Loading
 Alternating Stress

 Fluctuating Stress
Stages of Fatigue
Crack
Nucleation
 Crack Initiation Point
 High stress regions
(stress concentrators)

 Incremental Crack
Propagation
 characterized by two
types of markings termed
as “beachmarks or
clamshell marks” and
“striations”
Stages of Fatigue
 “Clamshell” marks  “Beach” marks
Stages of Fatigue
 Catastrophic
Failure
 Final, complete
separation
 Rough surface
Creep
 time dependent, permanent
deformation of materials
when subjected to a constant
load or stress
 < σy

 important at high temperatures

(>0.4Tm for metals)
Effect of Grain Size on Creep
Creep Failure

• Failure:
along grain boundaries.

applied
stress

From V.J. Colangelo and F.A. Heiser, Analysis of

Metallurgical Failures (2nd ed.), Fig. 4.32, p. 87,
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1987. (Orig. source:
Pergamon Press, Inc.)