Technology & Engineering
Material Failure
Material failure refers to the loss of structural integrity or functionality of a material due to excessive stress, fatigue, corrosion, or other factors. It can result from a variety of causes, such as manufacturing defects, design flaws, or environmental conditions. Understanding material failure is crucial in engineering to develop reliable and durable products and structures.
Written by Perlego with AI-assistance
Related key terms
1 of 5
12 Key excerpts on "Material Failure"
eBook - PDFMaterials Science and Engineering
An Introduction
- William D. Callister, Jr., David G. Rethwisch(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
(a) (b) Neal Boenzi/New York Times Pictures/Redux Pictures (c) Courtesy of Star Bulletin/Dennis Oda/© AP/ Wide World Photos. © William D. Callister, Jr. C h a p t e r 8 Failure • 209 The design of a component or structure often calls upon the engineer to minimize the possibility of failure. Thus, it is important to understand the mechanics of the various failure modes—fracture, fatigue, and creep— and, in addition, be familiar with appropriate design principles that may be employed to prevent in-service failures. For example, in Sections M.7 and M.8 of the Mechanical Engineering Online Support Module, we discuss material selection and processing issues relating to the fatigue of an automobile valve spring. WHY STUDY Failure? Learning Objectives After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following: 1. Describe the mechanism of crack propagation for both ductile and brittle modes of fracture. 2. Explain why the strengths of brittle materials are much lower than predicted by theoretical calculations. 3. Define fracture toughness in terms of (a) a brief statement and (b) an equation; define all parameters in this equation. 4. Make a distinction between fracture toughness and plane strain fracture toughness. 5. Name and describe the two impact fracture testing techniques. 6. Define fatigue and specify the conditions under which it occurs. 7. From a fatigue plot for some material, determine (a) the fatigue lifetime (at a specified stress level) and (b) the fatigue strength (at a specified number of cycles). 8. Define creep and specify the conditions under which it occurs. 9. Given a creep plot for some material, determine (a) the steady-state creep rate and (b) the rupture lifetime. The failure of engineering materials is almost always an undesirable event for several reasons; these include putting human lives in jeopardy, causing economic losses, and interfering with the availability of products and services.
eBook - PDF- Lokesh Pandey(Author)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Arcler Press(Publisher)
As a consequence of this, the idea of failure may be understood in a variety of ways and could be defined in a variety of ways, even though the loss is a prevalent subject within engineering as well as regardless of the significance of the idea of failure (Eini et al., 2015). According to all these initiatives, an agreement, however incomplete, has emerged around the language issued in 1990 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as well as later used by several foreign standards. A citation from the IEC description of failure may be found in so many technical books and publications that relate to loss in one form or the other (Shariff & Zaini, 2013): Failure is defined as the loss of a product’s capacity to carry out a task that was intended for it. This concept has the potential to be considered “the conventional definition of failures.” It has been demonstrated that engineers seem to be able to explain as breakdowns situations which do not best suit the above classic definition but besides the applicability of the term and its capacity to properly capture a broad variety of experiences. This is because the term has the opportunity to collect properly a broad variety of experiences (Qi et al., 2012). These troubling situations lend credence to the idea that some of the fundamental assumptions which underpin the conventional approach may not be supported at all. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to do a deep examination of the conventional method and to investigate the potential of conceiving a more expansive concept that can cope with difficult circumstances. As a result of this, the purpose of this study is to provide the morality of engineering with more precise and up-to-date knowledge of failures in engineering, which will enhance its examination of duty, culpability, and hazards (Leong & Shariff, 2009).
eBook - PDFFundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering
An Integrated Approach
- William D. Callister, Jr., David G. Rethwisch(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Stress cycling of the fuselage resulted from compression and decompression of the cabin chamber during short-hop flights. A properly executed maintenance program by the airline would have detected the fatigue damage and prevented this accident. (a) William D. Callister, Jr. (b) Neal Boenzi. Reprinted with permission from The New York Times. (c) Star Bulletin/Dennis Oda/AP Images 10.1 Introduction 379 The failure of engineering materials is almost always an undesirable event for several reasons; these include putting human lives in jeopardy, causing economic losses, and interfering with the availability of products and services. Even though the causes of failure and the behavior of materials may be known, prevention of failures is difficult to guarantee. The usual causes are improper materials selection and processing and inadequate design of the component or its misuse. Also, damage can occur to structural parts during service, and regular inspection and repair or replacement are critical to safe design. It is the responsibility of the engineer to anticipate and plan for possible failure and, in the event that failure does occur, to assess its cause and then take appropriate preventive measures against future incidents. The following topics are addressed in this chapter: simple fracture (both ductile and brittle modes), fundamentals of fracture mechanics, brittle fracture of ceramics, impact fracture testing, the ductile-to-brittle transition, fatigue, and creep. These discussions include failure mechanisms, testing techniques, and methods by which failure may be prevented or controlled. 10.1 | | INTRODUCTION WHY STUDY Failure? The design of a component or structure often calls upon the engineer to minimize the possibil- ity of failure. Thus, it is important to understand the mechanics of the various failure modes— fracture, fatigue, and creep—and, in addition, to be familiar with appropriate design principles that may be employed to prevent in-service failures.
- William D. Callister, Jr., David G. Rethwisch(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
(a) Neal Boenzi/New York Times Pictures/Redux Pictures (b) Neal Boenzi/New York Times Pictures/Redux Pictures (c) Courtesy of Star Bulletin/Dennis Oda/© AP/ Wide World Photos. © William D. Callister, Jr. C h a p t e r 8 Failure • 227 The design of a component or structure often calls upon the engineer to minimize the possibility of failure. Thus, it is important to understand the mechanics of the various failure modes—fracture, fatigue, and creep— and, in addition, be familiar with appropriate design principles that may be employed to prevent in-service failures. For example, in Sections M.7 and M.8 of the Mechanical Engineering Online Support Module, we discuss material selection and processing issues relating to the fatigue of an automobile valve spring. WHY STUDY Failure? Learning Objectives After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following: 1. Describe the mechanism of crack propagation for both ductile and brittle modes of fracture. 2. Explain why the strengths of brittle materials are much lower than predicted by theoretical calculations. 3. Define fracture toughness in terms of (a) a brief statement and (b) an equation; define all parameters in this equation. 4. Make a distinction between fracture toughness and plane strain fracture toughness. 5. Name and describe the two impact fracture testing techniques. 6. Define fatigue and specify the conditions under which it occurs. 7. From a fatigue plot for some material, determine (a) the fatigue lifetime (at a specified stress level) and (b) the fatigue strength (at a specified number of cycles). 8. Define creep and specify the conditions under which it occurs. 9. Given a creep plot for some material, determine (a) the steady-state creep rate and (b) the rupture lifetime.
eBook - PDFFundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering
An Integrated Approach
- William D. Callister, Jr., David G. Rethwisch(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
8. From a fatigue plot for some material, determine (a) the fatigue lifetime (at a specified stress level) and (b) the fatigue strength (at a speci- fied number of cycles). 9. Define creep and specify the conditions under which it occurs. 10. Given a creep plot for some material, determine (a) the steady-state creep rate and (b) the rupture lifetime. The failure of engineering materials is almost always an undesirable event for several reasons; these include putting human lives in jeopardy, causing economic losses, and interfering with the availability of products and services. Even though the causes of failure and the behavior of materials may be known, prevention of failures is difficult to guarantee. The usual causes are improper materials selection and processing and inadequate design of the component or its misuse. Also, damage can occur to structural parts during service, and regular inspection and repair or replacement are critical to safe design. It is the responsibility of the engineer to anticipate and plan for possible failure and, in the event that failure does occur, to assess its cause and then take appropriate preventive measures against future incidents. The following topics are addressed in this chapter: simple fracture (both ductile and brittle modes), fundamentals of fracture mechanics, brittle fracture of ceramics, impact fracture testing, the ductile-to-brittle transition, fatigue, and creep. These discussions include failure mechanisms, testing techniques, and methods by which failure may be prevented or controlled. 9.1 INTRODUCTION Concept Check 9.1 Cite two situations in which the possibility of failure is part of the design of a component or product. [The answer may be found in all digital versions of the text and at www.wiley.com/college/callister (Student Companion Site).] Tutorial Video: What Are Some Real-World Examples of Failure? • 287
eBook - PDFSystem Reliability Theory
Models, Statistical Methods, and Applications
- Marvin Rausand, Anne Barros, Arnljot Hoyland(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Some laws and standards (e.g. EU-2006/42/EC) require that foreseeable misuse shall be considered and compensated for in the design and development of the item, and be covered in the operating context of the item. The categories of failures listed above are not fully mutually exclusive. Some control failures may, for example, also be due to systematic causes. Remark 3.2 (Functionally unavailable) The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) introduces the term functionally unavailable for an item that is capable of operation, but where the function nor- mally provided by the item is unavailable due to lack of proper input, lack of support function from a source outside the component (i.e. motive power, actu- ation signal), maintenance, testing, the improper interference of a person, and so on. The NRC-term is seen to cover failures/faults of several of the categories above, most notably input/output and control failures. ◻ Failures Named According to the Cause of Failure Failures are sometimes named according to (i) the main cause of the failure, such as corrosion failure, fatigue failure, aging failure, calibration failure, systematic failure, and so forth, (ii) the type of technology that fails, such as mechanical fail- ure, electrical failure, interface failure, and software bug, and (iii) the life cycle phase in which the failure cause originates, such as design failure, manufacturing failure, and maintenance failure. When using this type of labeling, we should remember that the failure descrip- tion does not tell how the failure is manifested, that is, which failure mode that occurs. The same failure mode may occur due to many different failure causes. 3.6.3 Failure Mechanisms A failure mechanism is a physical, chemical, logical, or other process or mecha- nism that may lead to failure. Examples of failure mechanisms include wear, cor- rosion, fatigue, hardening, swelling, pitting, and oxidation.
eBook - ePub- Abdel Salam Hamdy Makhlouf, Mahmood Aliofkhazraei(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Butterworth-Heinemann(Publisher)
Chapter 4Construction failures due to improper materials, manufacturing, and design
Goutam Mukhopadhyay Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, IndiaAbstract
Various engineering components and equipment are used in the construction industry, be it large scale or small scale. The construction industry generally includes buildings, structures, roads, dams, bridges, and other industrial constructions like power generation, mills, manufacturing, and chemical plants. Several kinds of equipment like earth moving, material handling, and construction vehicle are used for different operations that are involved in any construction project, that is, excavation and digging of massive quantities of earth, compacting and leveling, transfer of materials and heavy loads, and placement of construction materials. Failure of these components or equipment in the construction industry causes fatalities, property loss, degrading of the company image or loss of credibility, and many legal issues; therefore, it is of great concern to the construction industry. The causes of failures can be categorized mainly as design deficiencies, material and manufacturing deficiencies, maintenance deficiencies, service abuse, and aggressive environment. Failure of some engineering components as well as accessories used in various construction industries, such as, beams, wire rods, foundation bolts, chains and hooks, wire ropes, conveyors, excavators, and cranes have been investigated to find out its root cause of failure. This chapter includes description of the different failures, visual details of the failed component, testing and characterization, root cause analysis, and recommendations to prevent recurrence of such failures in the future.Keywords
construction crane hooks and wire ropes chain links design weld materials and manufacturing metallurgical and mechanical properties1. Introduction
Failures of engineering components, equipment, and accessories are very often encountered in any construction industry. The functional areas of a construction industry generally involve buildings, structures, roads, dams, bridges, and other industrial constructions like power generation, mills, and manufacturing and chemical plants. Failure in any of these industries causes fatality, property loss, humiliation of company image or reputation, and many other legal issues and, therefore, is a great concern. Various failures in the industry could finally be attributed to some deficiencies introduced at different stages of designing, material sourcing, its manufacturing, fabrication, operation in service, and maintenance.
eBook - PDFEngineering Design
Papers Given at the University of Nottingham, September, 1964
- T. F. Roylance(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Pergamon(Publisher)
When the point from which the fracture commenced has been located and the mode of fracture determined, in most cases the reason for failure is obvious. In cases where this is not so, investigations may have to be pursued by other methods. These may include a careful study of the mechanism under operating conditions and also attempts to reproduce a similar type of failure under conditions of environment simulating those suspected of being the cause of failure. A fast moving mechanism may be studied by high speed photographic techniques, in particular where the timing of a sequence of operations may be effected by deflections or spring return times. It may be necessary to use strain gauges to find if the stresses in certain parts of a machine are those expected by the designer. Almost always failures of a product in service can be attributed to one or more of the following causes: 1. Metallurgical factors. 2. Material defects. 3. Manufacturing defects. 4. Service conditions. 5. Defective design. In discussing the above causes of failure we are accepting the broad view that the designer should take into consideration all of these factors to ensure his product's satisfactory service performance. Many of the failures considered were due to lack of appreciation by the designer of the properties of the material which he used and the effect on it of the conditions to which it was exposed in service. SOME METAL PROPERTIES WHICH HAVE CAUSED FAILURE The metallurgical factors which contribute to failures are those which effect the physical properties of the metal in an adverse manner. A number of metals are normally considered brittle and the designer using these will make due allowances, but other metals which are normally regarded as being ductile can also, under certain conditions, become brittle and if this is not appreciated then brittle failures can occur.
eBook - PDFReliability Engineering and Risk Analysis
A Practical Guide, Third Edition
- Mohammad Modarres, Mark P. Kaminskiy, Vasiliy Krivtsov(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Often, deficiencies in the electronic device and packaging manufacturing process cause these mechanisms to occur, though the operating environment also has a strong effect on the failure rate. In recent years, semiconductor technology has reached a high level of maturity, with a corresponding high level of control over intrinsic failure mechanisms. As a result, extrinsic failures have become more critical to the reliability of the latest generation of electronic devices. TABLE 1.1 Categorization of Failure Mechanisms Stress-Induced Failure Mechanisms Strength-Reduced Failure Mechanisms Stress-Increased Failure Mechanisms Brittle fracture Wear Fatigue Buckling Corrosion Radiation Yield Cracking Thermal shock Impact Diffusion Impact Ductile fracture Creep Fretting Elastic deformation Radiation damage Fretting 5 Reliability Engineering in Perspective TABLE 1.2 Mechanical Failure Mechanisms Mechanism Causes Effect Description Buckling Compressive load application Dimensions of the items Item deflects greatly Possible complete loss of load-carrying ability When load applied to items such as struts, columns, plates, or thin-walled cylinders reaches a critical value, a sudden major change in geometry, such as bowing, winking, or bending, occurs Corrosion Chemical action on the surface of the item Contact between two dissimilar metals in electrical contacts (galvanic corrosion) Improper welding of certain copper, chromium, nickel, aluminum, magnesium, and zinc alloys Abrasive or viscid flow of chemicals over the surface of an item Collapsing of buckles and cavities adjacent to pressure walls Living organisms in contact with the item High stress in a chemically active environment (stress-corrosion) causing cracking Reduction in strength Cracking Fracture Geometry changes Undesired deterioration of the item as a result of chemical or electrochemical interaction with the environment.
eBook - PDFMaterials Science and Engineering, P-eBK
An Introduction
- William D. Callister, Jr., David G. Rethwisch, Aaron Blicblau, Kiara Bruggeman, Michael Cortie, John Long, Judy Hart, Ross Marceau, Ryan Mitchell, Reza Parvizi, David Rubin De Celis Leal, Steven Babaniaris, Subrat Das, Thomas Dorin, Ajay Mahato, Julius Orwa(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Even though the causes of failure and the behaviour of materials may be known, prevention of failures is difficult to guarantee. The usual causes are improper materials selection and processing and inadequate design of the component or its misuse. Also, damage can occur to structural parts during service, and regular inspection and repair or replacement are critical to safe design. It is the responsibility of the engineer to anticipate and plan for possible failure and, in the event that failure does occur, to assess its cause and then take appropriate preventive measures against future incidents. The following topics are addressed in this chapter: simple fracture (both ductile and brittle modes), fundamentals of fracture mechanics, fracture toughness testing, the ductile‐to‐brittle transition, fatigue, and creep. These discussions include failure mechanisms, testing techniques, and methods by which failure may be prevented or controlled. FRACTURE 8.2 Fundamentals of fracture Simple fracture is the separation of a body into two or more pieces in response to an imposed stress that is static (i.e. constant or slowly changing with time) and at temperatures that are low relative to the melting temperature of the material. Fracture can also occur from fatigue (when cyclic stresses are imposed) and creep (time‐dependent deformation, normally at elevated temperatures); the topics of fatigue and creep are covered later in this chapter (sections 8.7 through 8.15). Although applied stresses may be tensile, compressive, shear, or torsional (or combinations of these), the present discussion will be confined to fractures that result from uniaxial tensile loads. For metals, two fracture modes are possible: ductile and brittle. Classification is based on the ability of a material to experience plastic deformation. Ductile metals typically exhibit substantial plastic deformation with high energy absorption before fracture.
eBook - PDF- Allan F. Bower(Author)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
547 9 Modeling Material Failure One of the most important applications of solid mechanics is to design structures, com-ponents, or materials that are capable of withstanding cyclic or static service loads. To do this, you need to be able to predict the conditions necessary to cause failure. Materials and structures can fail in many different ways, including by buckling, excessive plastic flow, fatigue and fracture, wear, or corrosion. Calculating the stresses in a structure or compo-nent can help to design against these failures but is usually not enough; it is also necessary to understand and to be able to predict the effects of stress. Fracture mechanics is a subdiscipline of solid mechanics. The goal of the field is to predict the critical loads that will cause catastrophic failure in a material or component. Much of fracture mechanics is based on phenomenological fracture or fatigue criteria, which are calibrated by means of standard tests. The failure criteria are based on current understanding of how materials fail, which is derived from extensive observations of failure mechanisms, together with theoretical models that describe, as far as possible, these mechanisms of failure. The mechanisms involved in fracture or fatigue failure are complex and are influenced by material and structural features that span 12 orders of magnitude in length scale, as illustrated in Figure 9.1: 10 –10 m 10 –6 m 10 –3 m 10 –1 m 10 2 m Atoms Microstructure Defects Testing Applications Continuum mechanics FIGURE 9.1 Length scales of processes involved in fatigue and fracture. 548 ◾ Applied Mechanics of Solids Most engineering applications involve structures with dimensions of the order of millimeters to kilometers. For many such applications, it is suffi cient to measure the maximum cyclic or static stress (or perhaps strain) that the material can withstand and then design the structure to ensure that the stress (or strain) remains below acceptable limits.
eBook - PDFMetal Failures
Mechanisms, Analysis, Prevention
- Arthur J. McEvily, Jirapong Kasivitamnuay(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Interscience(Publisher)
1 Failure Analysis I. INTRODUCTION Despite the great strides forward that have been made in technology, failures continue to occur, often accompanied by great human and economic loss. This text is intended to provide an introduction to the subject of failure analysis. It cannot deal specifically with each and every failure that may be encountered, as new situations are continually arising, but the general methodologies involved in carrying out an analysis are illustrated by a number of case studies. Failure analysis can be an absorbing subject to those involved in investigating the cause of an accident, but the capable investigator must have a thorough understanding of the mode of operation of the components of the system involved, as well as knowledge of the possible failure modes if a correct conclusion is to be reached. Since the investigator may be called upon to present and defend opinions before highly critical bodies, it is essential that opinions be based upon a sound factual basis and reflect a thorough grasp of the subject. A properly carried out investigation should lead to a rational scenario of the sequence of events involved in the failure as well as to an assignment of responsibility, either to the operator, the manufacturer, or the maintenance and inspection organization involved. A successful investigation may also result in improvements in design, manufacturing, and inspection procedures that preclude a recurrence of a particular type of failure. The analysis of mechanical and structural failures might initially seem to be a relatively recent area of investigation, but upon reflection it is clear that the topic has been an active one for millennia. Since prehistoric times, failures have often resulted 1 2 FAILURE ANALYSIS in taking one step back and two steps forward, but often with severe consequences for the designers and builders.
Index pages curate the most relevant extracts from our library of academic textbooks. They’ve been created using an in-house natural language model (NLM), each adding context and meaning to key research topics.
