Fracture Mechanisms

and
Micro-Fractographic Features

Syed Wilayat Husain

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Part I
Failure by overloading (for given material in given condition)
Ductile vs. brittle fracture
Mechanisms and features

Part II
Failure affected by environment and service conditions
 Fatigue (cyclic stresses)
 Creep (time dependent deformation)
 Temper Embrittlement
 Stress Corrosion Cracking
 Hydrogen Embrittlement
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 Microfractography in Failure Analysis

Remember

‘Structure-Property-Processing’ Relationship

To study and correlate Microstructure and Fractographic

features in understanding the cause of failure – and CQI

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 Failure

How do Materials Break?

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 Shear or cleavage!

Shear Cleavage
Movement Sliding Snapping apart
Occurrence Gradual Sudden
Deformation Yes No
Behavior Ductile Brittle
Fracture Appearance Dull, Fibrous Shiny, Granular
Micro-fractography Dimpled rupture Cleavage

Is life so simple ?
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• NAVY Air Force Army*
 Temperature
• Increasing temperature...
-- increases %Elong and Kc
• Decreasing Temperature
• Ductile-to-Brittle Transition Temperature (DBTT)...

FCC metals (e.g., Cu, Ni)

Impact Energy

BCC metals (e.g., construction steel)

polymers
Brittle More Ductile

High strength materials ( s y > E/150)

Temperature
Ductile-to-brittle
transition temperature

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 Factors Promoting Brittle Fracture

1. Notches (design or metallurgical defects)*

2. Tensile Stress (Residual Stresses!)*
3. High Strain Rate (impact)
4. Low temperature (Below DBTT)*

Technology development to get clean, stress free

steels and improved design
Development of the concept ‘Fracture Toughness’

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 Brittle Fracture - Crack Path
A. Transgranular Fracture:
Cracks pass through
grains. Fracture surface
shows faceted texture
because of different
orientation of cleavage
planes in grains.

B. Intergranular Fracture:
Crack propagation is along
grain boundaries

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Intergranular cracks are not very common
Grain boundary weakening
impurity segregation
Grain Boundary Oxidation, infiltration
GB melting
Very strong matrix
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 Intergranular cracks are not very common

Grain boundary weakening by:

impurity segregation
Grain Boundary Oxidation, infiltration
GB melting
Very strong matrix

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Grain Boundaries

Good or Bad?

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Ant
 Ant Eye

Control theory in nature

Disorder in order
 Points to Ponder
‘Disorder in Order’
Practical strengths are much higher than theoretically
calculated values : Because

• Lower Yield strengths explained by dislocations which

make slip easy in metals

• Lower fracture strengths explained by presence of

microcracks:
Present in brittle nonmetals
Caused by deformation in metals
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SEM fracture surface of an Al2O3
Non-metal - Cracks already present
How cracks may form in metals due
to deformation: One mechanism
Cracks may form in metals due to deformation
 Ductile Fracture

Deformation - A life saver

How deformation occurs in metals?

Slip

Twinning

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 Crystal structures of pure metals

Most pure metals exhibit one of three types

1. Cubic close packing (fcc)

2. Hexagonal close packing (hcp)
3. Body centered cubic (bcc)
Crystal structures of pure metals

cubic close-packed (fcc)

close-packed plane of atoms

Crystal structures of pure metals

"bcc" metal structure

almost close-packed atom planes

Fe, V, Cr, Mo, W, Ta…… some empty space

 SLIP

• Parallel levels of material move past each

other along specific crystallographic
directions.
• Slip occurs in tension when the shear stress
exceeds the critical resolved shear stress.
• The slip bands are very distinct and at the
about 45 degree. Upon closer inspection,
each slip band contains tiny slip lines within.

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 Slip

• Slip is due to movement of line defects called

dislocations.

• There are basically two types of dislocations, edge and

screw. However, in practice we get mixed dislocations.

• Theory of dislocations was thoroughly developed much

before they were actually observed in TEM.

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Schematic showing mixed dislocation and the
resulting deformation
Dislocations are real things – TEM observations
Dislocations are real things – TEM observations
A screw dislocation is required for growth of a crystal
Dislocations are real things – Atomic Level
HRTEM observations
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 Ductile Fracture in commercial metals

45O -
maximum
shear stress

(a) Necking (b) Cavity Formation

(c) Cavities coalesce  form crack
(d) Crack propagation (e) Fracture
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 Ductile Fracture
• This is a common mechanism in materials that slip. Voids form when
the material is pulled apart internally.
• These voids gradually expand and join other voids to form the fracture
surface, which has a dimpled appearance to it. For the most part, these
voids form at second-phase particles. In some instances, these
particles can be found lying in the dimples on the fracture surface.

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 Ductile Fracture

(Cup-and-cone fracture in Al)

Scanning Electron Microscopy. Spherical “dimples”  micro-

cavities that initiate crack formation.
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 Dimples
Size and shape of the dimples is determined by the
characteristics of the loading and the material.

If the material is strong or the failure somewhat brittle, the

dimples will be shallow.

Also the direction the sample is pulled apart matters.

If sample failed in straight tension, the dimples are round

and equiaxed.

If sample was torn or sheared apart, the dimples might look

like tear drops.

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Shape of Dimples

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Dimples on fracture surface
 Twinning

• Mechanical twins are formed by plastic deformation that

rearranges an entire lattice along a specific plane.
• The structure does not change shape but shifts orientation
• Twinning occurs mostly in BCC or HCP metals, rarely in FCC
metals.
• Intersection of fracture path with twins create features on the
fracture surfaces

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T81: Solution heat treated, cold
worked and then artificially aged.
Applies to 2024-T3 artificially aged to
T-81.

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 Brittle Fracture

Who likes it!

How Brittle fracture occurs in metals?

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 Cleavage
• Cleavage occurs when the normal stress exceeds atomic bonds
strength. Planes with large spacing.
• Rare in FCC metals. However, in BCC or HCP metals, cleavage
is much more likely.
• Usually, slip and cleavage surfaces have offsets on them due to
lattice defects

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“Textbook” Brittle Cleavage
One pattern typically found is the ‘River’ pattern. The crack
propagation is in the ‘downstream’ direction.
• A Herringbone pattern is often seen when mechanical twins
interact with a fracture surface. The Chevrons that are visible
on the fracture surface are very important because they ‘point’
back to the fracture origin.
 Summary

• Fractography is an integral part of failure analysis

Ductile fracture could be a life saver while brittle

fracture gives no warning.

Life usually is not simple. We need to carefully

analyze the fracture surface.

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See you tomorrow

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 Part II
Metallography in Failure Analysis

Let us look at the real world

Vibrations, cyclic stresses

High Temperature
Corrosive Environments
Enemies of High Strength Alloys
Enemies joining hands

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 Fatigue

Cyclic stresses cause fatigue.

At the microscopic level, the stress may be higher around

discontinuities and this is where fatigue cracks typically
begin.

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 Fatigue

– Stage I - crack initiation stage.

Surface irregularities or defects are
usually the initiation points.

– Stage II – Crack propagates in a

direction perpendicular to the axial
load.

– Stage III - the component fails,

usually catastrophically and with
little or no plastic deformation.

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Fatigue Crack Nucleation Process
Fatiuge Crack Growth
Fatigue Fracture Features

Fine striations

Beach Marks

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 Fatigue - Striations
During each period of loading, another striation is formed.
Size and spacing of these striations is directly related to the
amount of load the component is subjected to and the time
between each cycle

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 Introduction to Materials Science, Chapter 8, Failure

University of Virginia, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

Thanks

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 Introduction to Materials Science, Chapter 8, Failure

Thanks

University of Virginia, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering 66

Creep
 FRACTURE MECHANISMS
• There are basically two types of cracks due to creep, creep voids and
wedge cracks. Creep voids form at the grain boundaries while wedge
cracks form at grain boundary junctions.

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 FRACTURE MECHANISMS
High Temperature Fracture Topography

• Often involve melting in the grain boundaries.

• Fractures are usually by intergranular separation.

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 FRACTURE MECHANISMS
• One common problem is that the fracture surface is very sensitive to
the environment.
• Here we see how a fracture surface can be affected by oxidation.
This can make identification of the fracture mechanism difficult.

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 Temper Embrittlement
Alloy steels becoming brittle when tempered in a certain
temperature range.
Avoid dangerous temperature range.
Decrease impurties.
Add small amount of Mo.
:

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 Hydrogen Embrittlement
• High Strength BCC and HCP metals become very brittle by
even very low H content.
• H may be from melting or heat treatment or electroplating or
welding or pickling
• Revealed in slow strain rate test only and reasonable
temperature (require H diffusion)
• Baking around 200C is beneficial

:
Hydrogen embrittlement may
show intergranular fracture features

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 Stress Corrosion Cracking
Combined effect of Stress (internal or applied) and corrosive
environment

Certain alloys in certain media

copper alloys in Ammonia
steel in caustic
SS in salt water

Fracture may be transgranular or intergranular

Branching cracks are visible.
:

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Never Forget residual stresses
 FA Approach

Happy if find evidence of Fatigue

Otherwise fight specially between H-Embrittlement

and Stress Corrosion Cracking

Some failures due to manufacturing

Some due to misuse
Litigation – Insurance claims

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T81: Solution heat treated, cold worked and then
artificially aged. Applies to 2024-T3 artificially
aged to T-81.

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