Two Fracture Modes:: Ductile Fracture Is Preferred in Most Applications

 Fracture
- Separation of body into pieces due to stress at temperatures below melting point
Steps:
1. Crack formation
2. Crack propagation
Two fracture modes:

 Ductile fracture
-most metals (not too cold)
-extensive plastic deformation ahead of crack
- Crack is “stable”: resists further extension unless applied stress is increased
 Brittle fracture
- Ceramics, ice, cold metals:
- Relatively little plastic deformation
- Crack is “unstable”: propagates rapidly without increase in applied stress
Ductile fracture is preferred in most applications
A. Very ductile – soft metals (Pb, Au)
B. Moderately ductile fracture - ductile metals
C. Brittle fracture - cold metals, ceramics
“Ductile VS Brittle Materials”

Ductile materials - extensive plastic deformation and energy absorption (“toughness”) before fracture
Brittle materials - little plastic deformation and low energy absorption before fracture
--Ductile Fracture
(a) Necking
(b) Formation of microvoids
(c) Coalescence of microvoids to form a crack
(d) Crack propagation by shear deformation
(e) Fracture
--Brittle Fracture
*No appreciable plastic deformation
*Crack propagation is very fast
*Crack propagates nearly perpendicular to the direction of the applied stress
*Crack often propagates by cleavage – breaking of atomic bonds along specific crystallographic planes
(cleavage planes).
“Types of Brittle Fracture:”
A. Transgranular fracture: Fracture cracks pass through grains. Fracture surface have faceted texture
because of different orientation of cleavage planes in grains.
B. Intergranular fracture: Fracture crack propagation is along grain boundaries (grain boundaries are
weakened or embrittled by impurities segregation etc.)
Impact Fracture Testing (testing fracture characteristics under high strain rates)
Two standard tests, the Charpy and Izod, measure the impact energy (the energy required to fracture a
test piece under an impact load), also called the notch toughness.
 Fatigue
- Failure under fluctuating / cyclic stresses
-Fatigue failure is brittle-like (relatively little plastic deformation) - even in normally ductile materials.
SUDDEN AND CATASTROPHIC!
“Three distinct stages of Fatigue Failure”
1) crack initiation in the areas of stress concentration (near stress raisers),
2) incremental crack propagation,
3) final catastrophic failure.
The total number of cycles to failure is the sum of cycles at the first and the second stages:
Nf = Ni + Np
Nf : Number of cycles to failure
Ni : Number of cycles for crack initiation
Np : Number of cycles for crack propagation
High cycle fatigue (low loads): Ni is relatively high. With increasing stress level, Ni decreases and Np
dominates.
Fatigue properties of a material (S-N curves) are tested in rotating-bending tests in fatigue testing
apparatus:
Result is commonly plotted as S (stress) vs. N (number of cycles to failure)

Low cycle fatigue: high loads, plastic and elastic deformation
High cycle fatigue: low loads, elastic deformation (N > 105 )
Fatigue limit (Endurance Limit) - a maximum stress amplitude below which the material never fails, no
matter how large the number of cycles is.
occurs for some materials (e.g. some Fe and Ti alloys)
In most alloys, S decreases continuously with N.
Fatigue properties are described by:

Fatigue strength: stress at which fracture occurs after a specified number of cycles (e.g. 107 )
Fatigue life: Number of cycles to fail at a specified stress level
----
Fatigue: Crack initiation and propagation
▪Crack initiation at the sites of stress concentration (microcracks, scratches, indents, interior corners,
dislocation slip steps, etc.). Quality of surface is important.
▪Crack propagation
Stage I: initial slow propagation along crystal planes with high resolved shear stress. Involves just a few
grains, and has flat fracture surface
Stage II: faster propagation perpendicular to the applied stress. Crack grows by repetitive blunting and
sharpening process at crack tip. Rough fracture surface. Crack eventually reaches critical dimension and
propagates very rapidly
----
Factors that affect fatigue life:
▪Magnitude of stress (mean, amplitude)
▪Quality of the surface (scratches, sharp transitions).
Solutions:
❑Polishing (removes machining flaws etc.)
❑Introducing compressive stresses into thin surface layer by “Shot Peening”- firing small shot into
surface to be treated.
❑High-tech solution - ion implantation, laser peening.
❑Case Hardening - create C- or N- rich outer layer in steels by atomic diffusion from the surface. Makes
harder outer layer and also introduces compressive stresses
❑Optimizing geometry - avoid internal corners, notches, etc.
▪ Thermal Fatigue - Thermal cycling causes expansion and contraction, hence thermal stress, if
component is restrained.
Solutions:
❑ eliminate restraint by design
❑ use materials with low thermal expansion coefficients
▪Corrosion Fatigue - Chemical reactions induce pits which act as stress raisers. Corrosion also enhances
crack propagation.
Solutions:
❑ decrease corrosiveness of medium, if possible
❑ add protective surface coating
❑ add residual compressive stresses
 Creep
-is a time-dependent and permanent deformation of materials when subjected to a constant load at a
high temperature (> 0.4 Tm). Examples: turbine blades, steam generators.
Stages of creep:
1. Instantaneous deformation, mainly elastic.
2. Primary/transient creep. Slope of strain vs. time decreases with time: work-hardening
3. Secondary/steady-state creep. Rate of straining is constant: balance of work-hardening and recovery.
4. Tertiary. Rapidly accelerating strain rate up to failure: formation of internal cracks, voids, grain
boundary separation, necking, etc.
Parameters of creep behavior
Steady-state creep rate, έs
-most important parameter of the creep behavior in long-life applications.
Time to rupture, or the rupture lifetime, tr
- important in short-life creep situations
Creep: stress and temperature effects

With increasing stress or temperature:
✓The instantaneous strain increases
✓The steady-state creep rate increases
✓The time to rupture decreases
Mechanisms of Creep
The mechanisms include:
• Stress-assisted vacancy diffusion
• Grain boundary diffusion
• Grain boundary sliding
• Dislocation motion
Alloys for high-temperature use

(turbines in jet engines, hypersonic airplanes, nuclear reactors, etc.)
Creep is generally minimized in materials with:

✓ High melting temperature
✓ High elastic modulus
✓ Large grain sizes (inhibits grain boundary sliding)
Following alloys are especially resilient to creep:

❖Stainless steels
❖Refractory metals (containing elements of high melting point, like Nb, Mo, W, Ta)
❖“Superalloys” (Co, Ni based: solid solution hardening and secondary phase

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 Fracture

Two fracture modes:

“Ductile VS Brittle Materials”

Result is commonly plotted as S (stress) vs. N (number of cycles to failure)

Fatigue properties are described by:

Creep: stress and temperature effects

Alloys for high-temperature use

Creep is generally minimized in materials with:

Following alloys are especially resilient to creep:

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