Engineering Failure Analysis 12 (2005) 746754 www.elsevier.

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Failure analysis of the M16 rie bolt

V.Y. Yu *, J.G. Kohl, R.A. Crapanzano, M.W. Davies, A.G. Elam, M.K. Veach
Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY 10996, USA Received 12 July 2004; accepted 13 December 2004 Available online 1 April 2005

Abstract Recently, there have been several occurrences of failure in the bolt of the Ml6 rie at a United States Army installation. Near the failure location, the bolt was subjected to repeated loading as the Ml6 was red. In order to determine the stress distribution of the bolt due to the ring process, a geometric element analysis was performed using ProMechanica. The fracture surface was examined using both an optical stereomicroscope and a scanning electron microscope in order to determine failure initiation and failure mode. It was discovered that the fracture initiated at a localized corrosion pit and propagated by fatigue. A controlled experiment was conducted where 1800 and 3600 rounds were red using new bolts. After 1800 rounds, a region of wear was observed near the site where fracture occurred in the failed bolt. After 3600 rounds, a notch was observed in this wear region. This suggests two possibilities: rstly, exposure of the base metal may have facilitated the formation of the observed corrosion pits; and secondly, the presence of a notch may facilitate the fracture of bolts in general. In addition, Vickers microhardness proles were taken on cross-sectional areas near the llet region and 10 mm away from the failed locking lug. Disparities between microhardness proles near the llet region and 10 mm away from this region revealed that the bolt may not have been uniformly case hardened. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Failure analysis; Abrasive wear; Corrosion; Geometric element analysis

1. Introduction The M16 rie was elded into the US Army in 1968 during the Vietnam War. The rie has since been the primary assault rie used by US soldiers. The Ml6 has been through several modications in its more than 30 years of service in the military. In July 2003, an increasing trend in the amount of M16A2 bolt failures was observed at a US Army installation. Fig. 1 displays the data of bolt failures observed over a ve year
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 845 938 5507; fax: +1 845 938 5522. E-mail address: Victor.Yu@usma.edu (V.Y. Yu).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter. Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2005.01.004

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Fig. 1. Historical data of M16 bolt failures at a US Army installation.

span. These ries were used over the past nine years during summer military training. As a result, this paper investigates the leading cause of catastrophic fracture of the bolt under ring conditions. This study used both a geometric element analysis and a metallurgical analysis of the bolt. The goals of the methodology used are that: (1) the geometric element analysis would reveal whether any elevated stresses existed in the bolt which would facilitate crack initiation and propagation; and (2) the metallurgical analysis would determine the fracture origin and failure mechanism. The metallurgical analysis would also determine whether mechanical properties of the material were insucient for the designed operation of the bolt. In order to get an understanding of how and when failure may have initiated in the bolt, a controlled experiment was conducted which consisted of ring 1800 and 3600 rounds using new bolts. These quantities represent an average usage of three and six years, respectively, at a US Army installation. The combined analysis of nite element, metallurgical, and experimental results provide an explanation of the failure mechanisms which occurred in the fractured Ml6 bolt.

2. Geometric element analysis 2.1. Procedure In order to analyze the stresses that the bolt experienced while ring, a three-dimensional model of the bolt generated in Pro-Engineer was used [1]. Fig. 2 displays the three-dimensional model of the bolt. Subsequently, Pro-Mechanica was used to post-process the model in order to calculate the von-Mises stresses in the bolt. Pro-Mechanica diers from traditional nite element packages in that it does not use linear shape functions. Instead, Pro-Mechanica ts polynomials up to 9th order as the shape function and is

Fig. 2. Model of M16 bolt generated in Pro-Engineer.

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termed geometric element analysis [2]. Thus, geometric element analysis oers accurate computational results even if the mesh is coarse, since the polynomials oer better convergence to the shape functions. As a result, the generated model of the bolt does not use purely linear shape functions since it can incorporate complex polynomials to t the shape function. Furthermore, since a coarser mesh can be used to generate an accurate approximation of the model, bi-linear quadrilaterals were not solely used; instead, a mix of triangular elements and bi-linear quadrilaterals were incorporated into the model as shown in Figs. 3(a) and (b). From historical data at the US Armys Testing and Armament Command (TACOM) and the Army Research Laboratory, a stress of 414 MPa was used to model the instantaneous force of the propellant combustion of the 5.56 mm round in the M16 rie on the face of the Ml6 bolt. The conventional method for converting this type of dynamic process to a static analysis assumes that during the actual ring of the weapon, the pressure in the cartridge after combustion is dissipated by the rearward motion of the bolt. In order to conduct a static analysis of the bolt, half of the cartridge pressure was used to model this dissipation of energy [3]. Therefore, a stress of 207 MPa was used as a distributed load on the face of the bolt in the model. This force modeled the impact of the propellant igniting and exploding within the combustion chamber without incorporating the eects of recoil and the buer assembly in the rie. In addition, boundary constraints were placed on the bolt which allowed for minute deformations that the bolt would experience when the cartridge exploded in the combustion chamber. 2.2. Results and discussion The von-Mises stress distribution in the bolt showed high stress concentrations present at the llet of the locking lugs as shown in Figs. 4(a) and (b). In particular, higher stress concentrations were present in the

Fig. 3. (a) Geometric element mesh of entire bolt modeled in Pro-Engineer. (b) Geometric element mesh of locking lugs modeled in Pro-Engineer.

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Fig. 4. (a) Model of von-Mises stress distribution in M16 bolt (above stress values in Pa). (b) Model of von-Mises stress distribution in llet region of locking lugs adjacent to round extractor (above stress values in Pa).

locking lugs which were immediately adjacent to the round extractor. These two specic locking lugs experienced stresses on the magnitude of approximately 1070 MPa as shown in Fig. 4(b). All of the ve fractured bolts analyzed at the Army installation had fractured at these specic locking lugs. Fig. 5(a) shows a picture of a fractured bolt specimen and Fig. 5(b) shows a picture of the fractured specimen at higher magnication. In addition, these extremely high stress concentrations contributed to the crack initiation which is evidenced by the picture of a crack growing from the locking lug next to the round extractor, as shown in Fig. 6.

3. Metallurgical analysis 3.1. Procedure The Ml6 bolt was also analyzed from a metallurgical viewpoint. This analysis determined whether additional factors other than stress concentrations contributed to the bolt failure. A chemical analysis of the

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Fig. 5. (a) Fractured bolt specimen. (b) Close-up of fractured lug.

Fig. 6. Crack initiation and propagation in the bolt specimen.

V.Y. Yu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 12 (2005) 746754 Table 1 Chemical analysis of Ml6 bolt Element Carbon Silicon Nickel Manganese Chromium Iron Material specications [3] 0.10 0.30 3.50 0.50 1.50 Balance

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Percent composition of fractured bolt 0.185 0.22 3.43 0.45 1.39 Balance

bolt was conducted to determine if the material specications were met, as displayed in Table 1. A stereomicroscope and a SEM were used to locate the fracture origin and to evaluate the fracture surface. Vickers microhardness indentation was performed on a cross-sectional area near the llet of the lug and at approximately 10 mm away from the lug on the bolt. Indentation proles, consisting of ve indents for each location, were taken which started 0.5 mm from the surface of the bolt and proceeded inward every 0.5 mm. Hardness readings are shown in Table 2. In addition, a controlled experiment was conducted where three new bolts were subjected to the ring of 1800 and 3600 rounds. These quantities represent the average usage during a three and six year period, respectively, at a US Army installation. The experiment entailed ring the bolts in 300 round increments and then cleaned with Royco 634 cleaner, lubricant, and preservative (MIL-PRF-63460D AM6) after each iteration. After the 1800 and 3600 rounds were red, the surface of each bolt was then examined using a stereomicroscope to detect any surface anomalies which might have occurred. 3.2. Results and discussion Chemical analysis of the bolt composition revealed no signicant dierences between the failed bolt and Carpenter Steel 158 specications [4], as shown in Table 1. Micrographs from a SEM revealed that the Ml6 bolt experienced corrosion in the form of localized pitting, as shown in Fig. 7, near the locking lugs adjacent to the round extractor. It was observed from the SEM micrographs that shear lips were present around the outer edge of the fracture surface except at the fracture initiation site. The formation of a shear lip along the outer edge indicates continuity of the material and ductile failure at the surface. However, the region at the corrosion pit did not have this characteristic shear lip, suggesting that the corrosion pit is where failure initiated. Furthermore, the corrosion pit provides an additional stress concentration which aids in the initiation of the crack. The chevron markings, as shown in Fig. 7, point back to the localized pit which further conrmed that the pit was the site for crack initiation. Near the initiation site, the fracture surface was transgranular with faint fatigue striations indicating fatigue crack growth, as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. Approximately 2.5 mm from the crack initiation site, the fracture surface transitioned from a smooth surface to a dimpled surface. This dimpled surface signied that the crack experienced unstable crack growth, or ductile failure, in this region.
Table 2 Vickers microhardness readings of fractured M16 bolt on the cross-sectional area near lug llet and 10 mm from lug llet Distance from bolt surface (mm) 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 Vickers microhardness reading near lug llet 585.0 582.9 578.8 536.3 543.7 Vickers microhardness reading 10 mm from lug 738.7 781.8 626.6 572.7 560.8

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Fig. 7. SEM micrograph of fractured bolt surface.

Fig. 8. Fatigue striations near fracture initiation site.

The Vickers microhardness indentations taken at both locations show that the hardness reading is higher at the surface than towards the center of the bolt. This demonstrates that the surface was case hardened. However, the Vickers microhardness at the surface near the lugs llet was 100 units less than the hardness readings 10 mm from the llet region, as seen in Table 2. This indicates that the bolt was not uniformly case hardened. Thus, the softer region near the locking lugs is more susceptible to wear. After the initial 1800 rounds were red using the new bolts, wear was observed which exposed the Carpenter steel 158 base metal to the environment, as shown in Fig. 9. This area of observed wear on the surface of the bolt was in the same location as the crack initiation site on the fractured bolt, namely in the llet

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Fig. 9. Micrograph of wear area at llet of locking lug after ring 1800 rounds.

region of the locking lugs adjacent to the round extractor. The base metal exposed due to the wear makes this specic area highly susceptible to corrosion pitting. After 3600 rounds, a notch was observed in this same wear area, as shown in Fig. 10. The presence of a notch may result in higher stresses which facilitates crack propagation and deeper corrosion penetration.

Fig. 10. Micrograph of notch formed after ring 3600 rounds.

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4. Conclusions The fracture of the Ml6 bolt resulted from a cumulative eect of high stress concentrations at the llet radius and the additional stress concentration imposed by the presence of localized pitting at the surface. The bolt possesses many 90 llet regions which impose numerous areas of high stress concentration. In particular, two llets experienced higher stress immediately adjacent to the round extractor due to the noncontiguous feature of the bolt. These two specic areas of high stress concentration also corresponded to the same location where failure of the bolt occurred in all fractured bolt specimens. Micrographs obtained from the scanning electron microscope of the fractured surface showed localized pitting at the failure initiation site. In addition, transgranular crack propagation near the pit formations in the llet regions was observed. The localized pits formed near the locking lugs also served as high stress concentration points. The presence of pits in the material amplied the stresses of the bolt in the locking lug region which already had a high stress concentration due to the irregular geometry of the bolt. This cumulative stress concentration provides a good indicator why the crack initiated and propagated from this region. In addition to the high stress concentrations which were calculated in the nite element model, the primary cause for failure was wear. The wear area exposed base metal to a potentially corrosive environment which resulted in pitting at the fracture origin. As the wear became more severe (i.e. after 3600 rounds), a notch was observed in the wear area, corresponding to the sites of failure. The notch imposes higher stresses and allows for deeper penetration of a corrosive attack to the base metal. One possible countermeasure to prevent wear is to case harden the material. However, Vickers microhardness readings near the llet region show that the bolt was not uniformly case hardened. Comparison of the microhardness readings near the llet region and 10 mm from this region show a disparity of approximately 100 units. The softer, less carburized region near the llet contributes to the formation of a wear area after ring just 1800 rounds.

Acknowledgments The authors thank Mr. Victor K. Champagne, Jr. and the Materials Analysis Group at the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD for helpful discussions and for performing SEM work.

References
[1] Three-dimensional Pro-Engineer model of Ml6 bolt from US Army Testing and Armament Command. Rock Island, IL. [2] Structural and thermal simulation with pro/engineer wildre training guide. Parametric Technology Corporation; 2003. [3] Individual weapon systems and 3-D technical data development team. US Army Testing and Armament Command, Rock Island, IL. [4] Alloy data carpenter no. 158 Alloy. Carpenter Technology Corporation; 1981.