Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 13511357

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Failure analysis of a diesel engine gear-shaft

Xiaolei Xu *, Zhiwei Yu, Hongxin Ding
Electromechanics and Material Engineering College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, PR China
Received 2 September 2005; accepted 24 October 2005
Available online 13 February 2006

Abstract
A failure investigation has been conducted on a diesel-engine gear-shaft used in a truck, which is made from 45# steel.
The crack initiated from the root transition region between the cylinder and the platform of the gear-shaft, and propagated
toward the direction with an angle of 45 to the axial direction rst, then toward the direction normal to the axial direction.
Multiply-origin fatigue fracture is the dominant failure mechanism. The oil hole on the cylinder of the gear-shaft was
stopped up by the overlong bolt to lead to the absence of oil lubrication between the cylinder surface and the internal circle
surface of the gear so that the friction force between them increased, which is mainly responsible for the failure of the gearshaft. The absence of the induction-hardened layer in the root transition region between the cylinder and the platform of
the xed plate of the gear-shaft makes the fatigue strength decrease in this region. The fatigue crack initiated and propagated in this region easily under the abnormal stress.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Gear-shaft failure; Multiple-origin fatigue; Induction-hardening

1. Introduction
A diesel engine gear-shaft used in a truck fractured during running. It was reported that the oil hole on
the cylinder of the failed gear-shaft was stopped up by over-long centre bolt. The failed gear-shaft is made
of 45# steel. The cylinder surface and the platform of the xed plate of the gear-shaft is demanded to be
induction-quenched according to the technical specication. The paper describes the detailed metallurgical
investigation and a careful fractographic study on the failed gear-shaft. The possible failure reasons were
assessed.
2. Experimental methods
The chemical composition of the failed gear-shaft was analyzed by spectroscopy chemical analysis method.
The microstructures of the gear-shaft were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on a Philips

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 0411 8472 9613; fax: +86 0411 8472 8670.
E-mail address: xxiaolei@mail.dlmu.edu.cn (X.L. Xu).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2005.10.015

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XL-30 scanning electron microscope. The fractured surfaces were analyzed by visual and SEM observations to
study the failure mechanism.
3. Results
3.1. Visual examination
The failed gear-shaft is shown in Fig. 1. It can be seen that the gear-shaft fractured into two pieces to form
two fractures, fractures P1 and P2. Surface of fracture P1 has a 45 angle to the axial direction of the cylinder
and surface of fracture P2 is vertical to the axial direction. From the crack propagation paths on the fractures,
it can be inferred that the fractures P1 and P2 formed by two crack propagation processes. Fracture P1 produced before the formation of the fracture P2. The crack initiated from the root meeting region between the
platform of the xed plate and the cylinder (by arrows in Fig. 1c and d). The crack propagated toward the
direction with an angle of about 45 to the axial direction rst, then propagating toward the direction normal
to the axial direction after crossing the xed plate. The surface of fracture P1 is relatively smooth and the
beach marks can be observed on the surface of fractures P1 and P2, which are fatigue features [1].
Wear appears on the platform of the xed plate and the region close to the mark A was worn seriously
(marked in Fig. 1b). Detailed observations indicate that the wear marks around the crack on the platform
exhibit continuously. It is suggested that the surface wear of the platform had occurred before the gear-shaft
fractured. Serious wear occurred on the cylinder surface opposite the oil hole (by arrow in Fig. 1a). The wall
thickness of the cylinder opposite the oil hole is 7.28 mm, but another side is 8.27 mm. It is suggested that the
inclined wear took place on the cylinder surface. It is noted that the cylinder surface worn seriously and the
crack origin region are situated at the same orientation.
3.2. Micro-observations
3.2.1. Fracture morphology
SEM observations on the crack origin region of the fracture P1 are shown in Fig. 2. Two fatigue steps can
be observed, which indicates multiple-origin fatigue fracture is the dominant failure mechanism [1] of the gearshaft. The fracture surface of the crack origin region is smooth and no obvious inclusions can be observed.
The crack propagated rapidly after the crack crossed the platform (Fig. 3). In the stable crack propagation
region on the fracture P2, beach marks or fatigue striations can be observed on both sides of the centre hole
(Fig. 4). It indicates further that the fatigue fracture occurred on the gear-shaft.
3.2.2. Wear morphology
SEM observations on the wear morphology of the cylinder surface show that the serious wear occurred on
the cylinder surface opposite oil hole, which attributes to the abrasive wear [2] (Fig. 5a). It is suggested that the
contact compressive force is greater between the internal circle surface of the gear and the cylinder surface in
the region. It should be mentioned that the contact compressive force is agreement with the drive force resulting in the crack propagation on the fracture P1, which would be discussed in Section 4 in detail. Lighter wear
occurred on the cylinder surface opposite the crack origin region, or on the same side as the oil hole, which
attributes to the adhesive wear [2] (Fig. 5b).
3.2.3. Microstructure examination
The microstructure in various zone of the failed gear-shaft was observed by SEM. It indicates that the core
microstructure of the failed gear-shaft is composed of the ne pearlite and ferrite other than tempered sorbite
(Fig. 6a). It is suggested that the material was not conducted by quenching and tempering treatment before
induction-hardening. This leads to the lower whole strength of the gear-shaft. The microstructure of the cylinder in the induction-hardened region is composed of ne martensite (Fig. 6b). However, it is important that
the microstructure in the crack origin region is composed troostite and ferrite (Fig. 6c), which is suggested that
the transition region between the cylinder and the platform was not induction-hardened.

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Fig. 1. Failed gear-shaft and fracture surfaces: (a) failed gear-shaft, (b) macrograph of xed plate surface, (c) matched fractures P1 and
(d) matched fractures P2.

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Fig. 2. SEM fractography of the crack origin region on the fracture P1.

Fig. 3. SEM fractography of the crack propagation region on fracture P1.

3.3. Chemical composition of the gear-shaft material

Table 1 gives the chemical composition of the core material of the failed gear-shaft, compared with the
specied chemical composition of the gear-shaft material. It can be seen that the chemical composition of
the material for the failed gear-shaft is within the specied range.
4. Analysis on failure causes
The diagrammatic sketch of force acting on the gear-shaft is shown in Fig. 7, two forces are acted on the
gear-shaft when practical servicing: the vertical compressive force on the cylinder surface by the gear, F1; and
the tightening force by the xed bolt, F2. The main stress resulting from the two forces is along the bisector of
the root transition llet between the cylinder and the platform, which corresponds to the drive force for crack
initiation and propagation along the fracture P1. In normal servicing, the compressive force acted on the gearshaft by gear should be smaller. However, the oil hole on the cylinder of the failed gear-shaft was stop up by
overlong bolt to lead to the absence of the oil lubrication between the internal circle surface of the gear and the
cylinder surface of the gear-shaft and to make the friction force between them increase. From the wear marks,
the compressive force on the cylinder surface opposite the oil hole is really greater. Microstructure observations indicate that crack origin region was not quenching-hardened, which make the fatigue strength of the

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Fig. 4. SEM fractography of fracture P2 showing fatigue striations: (a) low-power morphology and (b) high-powered morphology.

Fig. 5. SEM observations on worn surface of the cylinder: (a) seriously worn surface showing abrasive feature and (b) lightly worn surface
showing adhesive feature.

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Fig. 6. Microstructure of failed gear-shaft: (a) core region, (b) induction hardened region at the cylinder surface and (c) root transition
region between the cylinder and the xed plate.

Table 1
Chemical composition of the gear-shaft material (wt.%)
Element

Si

Mn

Fe

Analysed
As specied

0.43
0.420.45

0.29
0.170.37

0.51
0.50

0.028
60.035

0.021
60.035

Balance
Balance

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F2

main stress plane

F1

seriously worn cylinder surface

45
P1

P2

oil hole

Fig. 7. Diagrammatic sketch of force acting on the gear-shaft.

crack origin region decrease. Additionally, the root transitional region is usually the stress concentration position. So fatigue crack initiated at the root transitional region, and propagated along the 45 direction in the
region easily by the stress, especially by the greater abnormal stress described above, forming fracture P1.
When crack crossed the whole platform, the action force F2 contributed to the crack propagation along fracture P1 would decrease and the stress acted on the gear shaft corresponds to the bending stress. Crack propagated along the direction normal to the axel to fracture at last, forming fracture P2.
5. Conclusions
(1) The overlong bolt stop up the oil hole on the cylinder of the gear-shaft to lead to the absence of the oil
lubrication between the internal circle surface of the gear and the cylinder surface of the gear-shaft, which
make the friction force between them increase. This is mainly responsible for the failure of the gear-shaft.
(2) Absence of the hardened layer in the root transition region between the platform and the cylinder of the
gear-shaft makes the fatigue strength of the region decrease. The fatigue crack can initiate and propagate
easily in the region under the act of the greater abnormal force. Multiple origin fatigue is the dominant
failure mechanism of the gear-shaft.

6. Recommendations
(1) Decrease the length of the centre bolt the in order not to stop up the oil hole of the gear-shaft.
(2) Improve the shape of the inductor and the technology parameter of the induction-quenching to make
sure that the root transition region between the cylinder and the platform of the xed plate can be induction-hardened.

References
[1] Metal handbook. In: Fractograph and atlas of fractograph. 8th ed. vol. 9. Metals Park (OH): American Society for Metals; 1974.
[2] Bhushan B. Principles and applications of tribology. New York: A Wiley-Interscience Publication; 1999.