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APL 102

Fracture in Materials
Concepts: Ductile- and Brittle- fracture, fracture surfaces, stress concentration

Lecture 33
 Recap
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Fatigue – Characteristics on S-N curve

Fatigue fracture surface

below which fracture does not occur

at all or only after > 107 cycles

Fatigue life affected by

1. Stress Level “Striations” or
2. Surface finish & Beach marks
3. Environment (T & corrosion)
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Question for thought

What is fracture?
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Fracture
Separation of material in to two or more pieces in response
to a remotely applied force
Al or Steel: two pieces

Glass: many pieces

Ductile
Fracture
Brittle
 Two types of fracture:
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Ductile fracture
Brittle fracture
Which of the two absorb more energy?

stress stress
Brittle

Ductile

strain
 Fundamentals of Fracture
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 A separation of an object in response to active stresses far below the

melting temperature of the material

 Atoms on the surface of a material give rise to a surface energy

- Stems from the open bonds on the outer atoms
- Grain boundaries also contain a surface energy due to the large
number of open bonds

 Two steps in the process of fracture:

- Crack initiation
- Propagation
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Crack Initiation and Propagation
 Cracks usually initiate at some point of stress concentration
 Common areas include scratches, fillets, threads, and dents

What will be preferred crack propagation path??

 Propagation occurs in two stages:

 Stage I: propagates very slowly along crystallographic planes of high shear stress and
may constitute either a large or small fraction of the life of a specimen

 Stage II: the crack growth rate increases and changes direction, moving perpendicular
to the applied stress
 Failure Modes
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 Simple fracture may occur by one of two modes

 Ductile
 Brittle

 Dependent upon the plastic deformation of the material

 Properties which influence the plastic deformation of a material

 Crystal structure
 Modulus of elasticity
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Failure Modes
 Highly ductile fracture

 Moderately ductile fracture with necking

 Called a cup-and -cone fracture
 Most common form of ductile fracture

 Brittle fracture
 No plastic deformation occurring
Highly ductile fracture
 Moderately Ductile Failure – cup and cone fracture
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Evolution to failure:
void void growth shearing
necking fracture
nucleation and linkage at surface

At 45˚, where
shear stress is at a
maximum

• Resulting 50mm
50 mm
fracture
surfaces
(steel)
100 mm
particles Fracture surface of tire
serve as void cord wire loaded in tension
nucleation
sites.
 Brittle Fracture
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 Brittle fracture, catastrophic failure

 Observed in single crystals and polycrystals
 Have been observed in BCC and HCP metals but not in FCC metals
 Brittle Fracture
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Exhibits little or no plastic deformation and low energy absorption before failure

 Crack propagation spontaneous and rapid

• Occurs perpendicular to the direction of the applied stress, forming an
almost flat fracture surface

 Deemed unstable as it will continue to grow without the aid of additional

stresses

Crack propagation across grain boundaries is known as transgranular &

propagation along grain boundaries is termed intergranular
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EX: Failure of a Pipe

Ductile failure:
--one piece
--large deformation

What kind
of failure??

Brittle failure:
--many pieces
--small deformation

Figures from V.J. Colangelo and F.A. Heiser, Analysis of Metallurgical Failures (2nd
ed.), Fig. 4.1(a) and (b), p. 66 John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1987.
 Fracture Surfaces
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Ductile Fracture

Brittle Fracture
 Fracture Surfaces
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Ductile Fracture
 Fracture Surfaces
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Brittle Fracture

Arrows point at the crack origin

 Fracture Surfaces
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Transgranular Intergranular (alloys)

Brittle Fracture
 Brittle Fracture
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Ideal fracture strength in Brittle solids

(similar to shear strength estimation)

Separation or breaking of Bonds, σ = E/6

Also called as cohesive strength of the material

But real materials are failing at the stress of

σ = E/1000
Why??
 Fracture
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The discrepancy is analogous to what we had seen in case of

plastic deformation

Here the presence of stress raisers (e.g. Flaws, cracks, hard

phase) in the material can be attributed to this difference

At the stress raisers, stress value locally reaches to the order

of E/6

e.g. Paper tearing

 Stress concentration
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 app  c
 max   app 1  2 
  
 max
For c = 1 mm ;  =1 Å;
max=201 app

 app
=crack tip
radius

Distance from the crack tip

Magnitude of stress concentration can reach E/6

 Announcement
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 Quiz 2: November 1st (Wednesday) @ 5:30 pm

Syllabus: Minor 1 & Topics after Minor 2 till this Friday ??

 Compensating Class: 25th October (Tomorrow) @ 5:30 to 6:20 pm, LH 325

31st October (Tuesday) @ 6:00 to 6:50 pm

 Attendance uploaded: Last date for informing discrepancies 27th Oct.

 Lab marks & Minor 1, Quiz marks: Will upload today. Last date for
informing any discrepancies is 30th Oct.
E-mail with a picture of the mark (subject: Re: APL 102…)