EAS 203

Fundamentals of Corrosion & Fracture Mechanics (Experiment 2)

EAS 203 Fundaments of Corrosion and Fracture Mechanics EXPERIMENT 2 Fractography by SEM

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the session, you will be able to: 1. 2. examine the fracture surfaces using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). interpret SEM fractography to identify the typical features e.g. dimples, cleavage and intergranular.

Introduction:
The ability to recognise characteristic markings of fracture simplifies the resolution of a failure analysis. The term Fractography is often used in a failure analysis. It is the study of the characteristics of fracture surfaces is an important tool in failure analysis and it provides new information regarding the micromechanisms of fracture and internal structural features. Fractures often leave characteristic markings. Identification of the type of the fracture with a scanning electron microscope becomes simple because each type of fracture often leaves characteristic markings. Ductile fracture is characterized by dimples, which are formed by plastic deformation. Dimples can be recognised by hemispheroidal cavities (see A and B in the Figure 1). Often particles were seen inside the dimples (see B).

A B A

A B

Figure 1 2

Brittle fracture often showed two characteristic features: cleavage or intergranular Figure 2 shows the typical appearance of cleavage. Cleavage can be identified by river pattern, tongues and microtwins. River pattern as shown in Figure 2 below (C) represent steps between different local cleavage facets and they join like river tributaries in the direction of crack propagation.

Figure 2

Intergranular fracture results from brittle separation of grain boundary. Intergranular fracture is identified by the presence of separated-grain facets, and it is usually easy to identify triple points (Arrows in Figure 3) at which three grain boundaries meet.

Figure 3

Procedure
1. 2. 3. 4. Use the Scanning Electron Microscope to examine the fracture surfaces of the three specimens (please refer to the operation procedure of SEM). Perform micrography of the fracture surfaces and interpret the features. Identify the fracture mode of the three specimens. Write down your learning points below.

EXPERIMENT 2: Fractorgraphy using SEM

Name :_________________________________________________ Date:_______________ UNSIM Adm No:_____________________________ Class:_____________________

Write down what you think would be the most likely type of fracture (ductile or brittle) for the respective characteristic marking of dimples, cleavage and intergranular ?

Identify the characteristic markings observed using SEM in samples 1,2 and 3.

Write down the visual comparison features of samples 1, 2 and 3.

Attach the SEM micrographs in samples No.1 to No.3

Write down the learning points you have gathered in todays lab