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2. Failure

2. FAILURE MECHANISMS
(This section is based largely on Juvinall and Marshek)

When machines in generating plant fail there is a cause and a failure mechanism which involves materials and their properties. This section addresses failure mechanisms.

2.1 Some Terms for Elastic Materials Elastic materials deform linearly under load and return to their original shape after the load is removed. Consider a bar of elastic material deformed under a tensile load P.

= axial stress = = axial strain =

E=

P (pascals, Pa) A L (dimensionless) L

= modulus of elasticity, or Youngs modulus (Pa)

Area, A

Consider a cube of elastic material deformed under shear forces.

yx
1 xy 2

xy

xy
1 xy 2

yx

= shear stress = (shear force)/area, (Pa)

= shear strain, (dimensionless)

G=

xy = modulus of rigidity, or shear modulus (Pa) xy

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2.2 Fracture Mechanics 2.2.1 Types of Failure

Failure of a loaded member can be regarded as any behaviour that renders it unsuitable for its intended function. Static loading can result in objectionable deflection and elastic instability, as well as plastic distortion and fracture. Distortion, or plastic strain, is associated with shear stresses and involves slipping along natural slip planes. Failure is defined as having occurred when the plastic deformation reaches an arbitrary limit. Fracture, on the other hand, is clearly defined as the separation or fragmentation of a member into two or more pieces. It normally constitutes a pulling apart, associated with tensile stress.

In general, materials prone to distortion failure are classed as ductile, and those prone to fracture without significant prior distortion as brittle. Unfortunately, there is an intermediate grey area wherein a given material can fail in either a ductile or a brittle manner, depending on circumstances. Normally ductile materials can fracture in a brittle manner at sufficiently low temperatures. Other factors promoting brittle fracture are sharp notches and impact loading.

2.2.2 Basic Concepts

The fracture mechanics approach begins with the assumption that all real materials contain cracks of some size even if only submicroscopic. If brittle failure occurs, it is because the conditions of loading and environment (primarily temperature) are such that they cause an almost instantaneous propagation to failure of one or more of the original cracks. If there is fatigue (cyclic) loading, the initial cracks may grow very slowly until one of them reaches a critical size, at which time total fracture occurs

2.2.3 Stress Concentration

g = gross-section tensile stress

=
P 2wt

2w

Stress concentration

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However, stress is much higher at the base of a crack (stress concentration factor). If radius of crack root approaches zero, stress concentration factor approaches infinity. This means that ductile yielding will occur in a small volume of material at the crack root, and the stress will be redistributed. Thus the stress concentration factor is considerably less than infinity.

In the fracture mechanics approach, a stress intensity factor K is evaluated theoretically (more soon) and is compared with a limiting value of K that is found from standard tests to be necessary for crack propagation in that material. The limiting value is called fracture

toughness or critical stress intensity factor K c . Failure occurs when K exceeds K c .

Values of K c are substantially lower for thick members (plane strain) than for thin members (plane stress), so it is conservative to assume thick members. Thick members offer less opportunity for redistributing high crack root stresses by shear yielding.

Table 2.1 contains typical mechanical properties of 25.4 mm thick plates made of common aircraft structural materials. Note:

The relatively high fracture toughness of the titanium alloy in comparison to its ultimate strength Su ;

The room temperature comparison of K c for the two steels of nearly equivalent ultimate strengths; and

The reduction in K c with temperature for the high-toughness D6AC steel.

Yield strength S y is the tensile stress at which plastic yielding first occurs in a specimen tensile test. Ultimate stress Su is the stress in the tensile stress specimen when it is carrying the maximum possible load before failure. Sy and Su are defined below.

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Table 2.1 Strength properties of 25.4 mm thick plates values of Ultimate Stress Critical Stress Intensity Factor

Su , Yield Stress S y

and

Kc .
Temperature

Material

Su
MPa 538 896 1517 1565 1793

Sy
MPa 483 827 1310 1358 1496

Kc
MPa(m)1/2 29.67 71.44 76.90 49.46 57.15

7075-T651 aluminium alloy Ti-6A1-4V (annealed) titanium alloy D6AC high toughness steel D6AC high toughness steel 4340 steel

Room Room Room -40C Room

Cracks generally begin in thick members at the surface, and have a somewhat elliptical form, as shown adjacent. Research has established that if:

2w >6 t a = about 0.26 2c w >3 c a < 0.5 t

t

g
Sy

< 0.8

Then at the edge of the crack, K is given approximately by:

g a
0.39 0.053 ( g / S y )
2

Fracture would be predicted for K > K c .

2.3 Fatigue

Fatigue failure might better be described as progressive fracture under fluctuating or repeated loading. Fatigue fractures begin with a minute (usually microscopic) crack at a critical area

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of high local stress. This is almost always at a geometric stress raiser. Fatigue failure results from repeated plastic deformation, such as breaking of a wire by bending it back and forth. Whereas a wire can be broken after a few cycles of gross plastic yielding, fatigue failures typically occur after thousands or even millions of cycles of minute yielding. Fatigue failure can occur at stress levels far below the conventionally determined yield point or elastic limit.

Notch

Small region behaves plastically

Main body behaves elastically

The initial fatigue crack usually results in an increase in local stress concentration. As the crack progresses, the material at the crack root at any particular time is subjected to the destructive localised reversed yielding. As the crack deepens, thereby reducing the section and causing increased stresses, the rate of crack propagation increases until the remaining section is no longer able to support a single load application and final fracture occurs.

Engineering practice relies on empirical fatigue data from the standardised R.R. Moore fatigue test rotating beam, shown diagrammatically below.

S-N curves are generated for materials. The figure below is typical. (S = stress, N = number of cycles to failure at the amplitude S of oscillatory stress.)

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The adjacent figure is a typical S-N curve for steel and shows an endurance limit. This is the stress below which fatigue failure does not occur, even for an indefinitely large number of loading cycles. For a low carbon steel the

endurance limit is about one-half of the ultimate strength.

2.4 Surface Damage

More machine parts fail through surface damage than breakage. Various mechanisms for surface damage are described briefly.

2.4.1 Corrosion

Corrosion is the degradation of a material (normally a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with its environment. It can combine with static or fatigue stresses to produce a more destructive action than would be expected by considering the actions of corrosion and stress separately.

2.4.2 Cavitation Damage

Cavitation damage is the formation of bubbles in a liquid that is moving with respect to a nearby solid surface. Bubbles are formed when the liquid pressure drops below its vapour pressure. When these bubbles subsequently collapse at or near the solid surface, pressure waves impinge upon the surface causing local stresses that can be great enough to cause plastic deformation of many metals. A surface damaged by cavitation appears roughened, with closely spaced pits. In severe cases, enough material is removed to give the surface a spongy texture. Cavitation commonly occurs in centrifugal pumps and turbine blades.

2.4.3 Adhesive Wear

When two surfaces slide across each other, the contact pressure and frictional heat of sliding are concentrated at the small local areas of contact (asperities). Local temperatures and pressures are extremely high and conditions are favourable for welding at these points. These welds fail in shear, and new welds form, and so on. This is called adhesive wear. Loose particles resulting from the wear can cause further damage. 2-6

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2.4.4 Surface Fatigue

When curved elastic bodies, such as parts of a rolling-element bearing, are pressed together, finite contact areas are developed because of deflections. These contact areas are so small that very high compressive stresses can result in a cyclic manner. Fatigue failures can be initiated by minute cracks that propagate to permit small pieces of material to separate from the surfaces. This is pitting or spalling.

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