Ductile Fracture and Brittle Fracture

Related terms:

Plastic Deformation, Mechanical Fracture, Brittle Fracture, Ductile Fracture, Cast

Iron, Crack Tip, Cyclic Strain, Macroscopic, Strip Thickness

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Fracture processes of aerospace materi-

als
In Introduction to Aerospace Materials, 2012

18.2.1 Modes of fracture

There are two types of fracture: brittle fracture and ductile fracture. Brittle fracture
involves crack growth with little or no ductile deformation of the material around
the crack tip. This is an undesirable mode of fracture because brittle cracking can
lead to complete failure of the material very rapidly when a critical load is reached.
Ductile fracture, in contrast, involves plastic deformation of the material at the crack
tip. This often results in a stable and predictable mode of fracture in which crack
growth can only occur under an increasing applied load; when the load is reduced
the crack stops growing. As a result, ductile fracture is the preferred failure mode for
damage-tolerant materials. Whether brittle or ductile fracture occurs, the mode of
fracture depends on many factors, including the stress level, type of loading (static,
cyclic, strain rate), presence of pre-existing cracks or defects, material properties,
environment and temperature.

Aerospace structural metals including aluminium, magnesium, titanium, high

strength steel and nickel-based superalloys usually fail by ductile fracture processes
which involve a certain amount of ductility. In contrast, crack growth in fibre–polym-
er composites and ceramic aerospace materials (such as heat shields) occurs with
less ductility and therefore is a more brittle fracture process. This chapter considers
the mechanisms of ductile and brittle fracture of aerospace metals and the brittle
fracture of fibre–polymer composites.
> Read full chapter

Wear
Luiz Otávio Amaral Affonso, in Machinery Failure Analysis Handbook, 2006

6.2.2 Abrasive Wear Mechanism

The abrasive wear mechanism involves plastic deformations, ductile fractures, and
brittle fractures. The ductility of the material and the wear conditions determine the
prevailing mechanism. Most materials used for machine construction are ductile,
and this section describes the plastic deformation wear mechanism only. The brittle
fracture wear mechanism can be found in materials like ceramics or carbides.
Although carbides wear can be important in mechanical seal failures, the mechanism
is not discussed here.

Abrasive wear happens due to indentation of a surface by a hard particle, followed by

the lateral movement of the particle, which extends the deformation and, ultimately,
causes material removal. A simple mathematical model results in a wear equation
similar to Archard's equation, introduced earlier.

The quantity of material removed in an abrasive wear situation is directly propor-

tional to the distance covered by the hard particle and inversely proportional to the
surface hardness. Relative resistance to wear is the inverse of the quantity of material
removed. Figure 6.17 illustrates the relationship between relative wear resistance
and the hardness of pure metals. An almost linear relationship is immediately
obvious. Metal alloys show somewhat different behavior, depending on the heat
treatment provided to the component.

FIGURE 6.17. Relative wear resistance and hardness of pure metals.

Even though plastic deformation and strain hardening increase the hardness of
the material, the effect of the strain-related hardness on the wear resistance of a
metal usually is small. This behavior can be explained by the wear mechanism itself,
considering that the abrasive wear on ductile metals causes local plastic deformation
to the point of rupture of the material. The introduction of alloying elements that
increase hardness are useful only if the element can increase hardness in an extreme
plastic deformation situation. Carbide precipitations in steel are an example of a
wear resistance improving an alloying element. Heat treatment to increase hardness
generally increases wear resistance.

The effect of lubricants can be somewhat surprising. If the particle size is bigger than
the lubricant film thickness, lubrication increases wear, as friction between the hard
particles and the surface are reduced, which makes lateral movement and material
removal easier.

Figure 6.18 shows a typical example of two-body abrasion; in this case, the picture
shows the surface resulting from the grinding of a welded hard-facing deposit on
a 410 stainless steel plate. The hardness of the weld overlay is approximately 57–59
RC (Rockwell C). The individual scratches made by each hard particle can be seen
easily.

FIGURE 6.18. Weld overlay showing signs of two-body wear.

Some wear-resistant materials are composed of a soft matrix with a dispersion of

a hard phase. In these cases, wear resistance depends on the size ratio between
the abrasive particles and the hard matrix particles. If the matrix is finer than the
abrasive, wear resistance increases greatly, as plastic deformation inhibited by the
dispersed particles. On the other hand, if the abrasive is smaller than the dispersed
hard particle, the soft matrix may abrade with a greater wear rate than in the former
case.

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Material Interface of Pantograph and

Contact Line
Jiqin Wu, in Pantograph and Contact Line System, 2018

5.2.1.3 Fracture resistance and toughness

Mechanical fracture of material is caused by disconnection of atomic bonds or
molecular bonds. It is divided into brittle fracture and ductile fracture according to
size of strain at the time of fracturing. Brittle fracture means fracture of material
without plastic deformation or with very small plastic deformation before fracture.
Rock, concrete, glass, and cast iron all have such property, so they are called brittle
materials. Ductile fracture means fracture of material with large plastic deformation
before fracture. Fracture of soft steel and other soft metals, rubber, and plastics is
ductile fracture.

Toughness is the capacity of material to withstand generation and spreading of

cracks. Toughness and brittleness are two concepts that are completely opposite to
each other in terms of meaning. The higher a material’s toughness is, the lower its
brittleness will be, and vice versa.

Toughness is measured by two indices: impact toughness and fracture toughness.

Impact toughness indicates toughness of a material using the value of impact energy
absorbed by the material during fracturing under impact. Such index can be used
to evaluate toughness of high-molecular material, but is usually inapplicable to
material with low toughness, such as ceramics and glass.

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A DAMAGE MODEL OF FATIGUE

ANALYSIS FOR AL ALLOY 2024-T3
Y. Wei, ... B.J. Duggan, in Advances in Engineering Plasticity and its Applications,
1993
1 INTRODUCTION
Since Kachanov published his paper on creep failure in 1958 [1], the theory of
damage mechanics has been well developed. Several damage models [2,3] were
successfully used to characterize such failure problems as brittle fracture, ductile
fracture and creep fracture. However, there are only a few papers available in the
open literature on fatigue failure based on the damage mechanics theory [4,5]. This
is because the fatigue damage is more local than other types of damage, thus much
more complex to describe with the macroscopic variables.

A damage model due to Chow and Wei [6] has recently been proposed based on the
concept of local approach and successfully used to predict fatigue crack initiation
in notched plates [7]. However, as the effects of compressive stress and mean
stress were neglected, the application of this model is thus limited. In addition,
the existence of endurance limit of material is not considered, so the model can
not be used to describe the fatigue failure beyond 106 cycles. In this paper, some
important modifications are made and a more general damage model to cover
tension-compression cyclic loading is developed. The proposed model is validated by
predicting the S-N curves of Al alloy 2024-T3 Alclad. The model is further extended
to predict the fatigue failure of standard tensile specimen and a good agreement
with the experimental results has been achieved for both cases.

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Steam turbine retrofitting for the life

extension of power plants
Y. Enomoto, in Advances in Steam Turbines for Modern Power Plants, 2017

17.2.1.2 Embrittlement
When turbine parts such as rotors are exposed to specific temperatures during
long-term operation, their impact property and toughness will be degraded. This
phenomenon is termed “temper-embrittlement.” There are two types of temper
embrittlement. One is low-temperature temper embrittlement with 200~400°C. This
occurs in the low-pressure (LP) rotor whose inlet temperature is lower than 400°C.
Another is high-temperature temper embrittlement at 450~500°C for HP/IP rotors.

There are two types of fracture, ductile fracture and brittle fracture (see Fig. 17.5).
If a turbine material becomes brittle through temper embrittlement, it is becomes
susceptible to failure or damage in a short time.
Figure 17.5. Ductile fracture and brittle fracture.

Fig. 17.6 shows a sample of embrittlement fracture of a rotor in 1974. The large rotor
has experienced a complete burst. Major advances in evaluation methods have been
made since this accident.
Figure 17.6. Example of embrittlement failure.

Fig. 17.7 shows the relation between fracture toughness and temperature of the
rotor. The curve on left is virgin material, and the curve on the right side is the
deteriorated material after 20 years of operation. Fracture toughness decreases as
the temperature decreases. For the same metal temperature, the virgin material
has higher fracture toughness than that of deteriorated material which has become
brittle.
Figure 17.7. Temper embrittlement. FATT, fracture appearance transient tempera-
ture.

Fracture appearance transient temperature (FATT) (Fig. 17.7) is the temperature at

which the fracture surface exhibits 50% brittle fracture and 50% ductile fracture.
FATT is an important parameter for steam-turbine operation.

For the initial virgin material, FATT will start low but will increase as the material
deteriorates through long-term operation. The deteriorated material is then more
susceptible to brittle fracture.

Temper embrittlement is challenging on HP/IP rotors where ductility needs to

be maintained throughout start-up operation. For safety, these rotors should be
warmed up to the FATT or higher prior to full speed operation.

As rotors deteriorate with long-term operation and temper-embrittlement becomes

higher, they should be warmed up for a longer time at start-up to ensure that it is
above the FATT. If the FATT of a rotor becomes too high and it is making warm-up
difficult, consideration should be given to rotor replacement.

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CONSTITUTIVE EQUATION OF
DAMAGED MATERIAL UNDER
CYCLIC LOADING
L.Y. Xie, ... D.J. Wang, in Advances in Engineering Plasticity and its Applications, 1993

2 ANALYSIS ON EFFECTIVE STRESS

Krajcinovic[2] reviews some of the existing phenomenological damage mechanics
models emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses, the conclusion is that the
existing phenomenological models are not only different to a significant degree but
that they also have certain weaknesses stemming from their insufficient connection
with the actual processes on the microscale and even the geometry of the microscale.
Concerning to ductile fracture and brittle fracture Krajcinovic points out that the
fundamental difference in which the two classes of microstructural rearrangement
modes influence the macroscopic response of a solid casts a serious doubt on the
applicability of the theory of plasticity or the slip theory to solids responding in a
predominantly brittle mode. The question still remains whether the conventional
fracture mechanics can be applied to solids weakened by a multitude of microcracks
distributed over a large portion of the volume.

Considering the irreversible defects appeared in damage process, there is obvious

distinction among different failure modes, for instance, intergranular cavities in
creep, dimensions of cavities in ductile fracture and surface microcracks in fatigue.
As to material deterioration, fatigue damage is also different from ductile damage
or creep damage. It can be said that ductile damage and creep damage lead to the
change of entire material behavior, while fatigue damage possesses local character,
therefore it is reasonable to give the effective stress with different definitions for
the two types of damage problems.

Firstly, let us discuss the applicability of the effective stress defined by Kachanov
in fatigue problem. As we know, the mathematical treatment to model fatigue
damage is more complicated than that to ductile damage or creep damage, because
several effects such as nonlinear accumulation, effect of mean stress etc, are im-
portant. Fatigue damage differs from the other two kinds of damage in microscopic
mechanism, too. Ductile damage and creep damage evolve accompanying with the
nucleation and growth of micro-cavities and the like defects. Since serious plastic
yield occurs during damage process, local stress concentration has little effect on
the damage rate. Therefore these kinds of failure belong to overall fail. While fatigue
is brought about by the nucleation and propagation of micro-cracks, damage occurs
in local critical area and local stress has a great influence on failure process, while
the nominal stress is not the most important controlling parameter. So we think that
the suitability of Kachanov effective stress for fatigue, which is defined by effective
resisting area and suitable for ductile damage as well as creep damage, is needed
to be further discussed and verified. Now, we analyze this problem at the point of
cumulative fatigue damage law.

–Nf (stress-life) curve and residual –N f (stress-residual life) curve are the most
direct means of describing material properity and damage degree, and the law of
residual –N f curve has been understood through great amount of experiments.
By means of this law the concept of effective stress can be examined. From some
 deduction it can be seen that the result obtained by using Kachanov effective stress
is the same as the linear cumulative fatigue damage rule, which cannot reflect
stress sequence effect, so such a effective stress is not suitable to apply to fatigue
problem[3, 4].

In fact, the Kachanov effective stress concept means that for a certain damage state D,
there is a proportional relationship between effective stress * and the nominal stress
a (equation (4)). On this premise, however fatigue damage is defined, the residual
–N f curve would parallel with the original one, but experiment indicates that the
residual –N f curves have different slop [5].

> Read full chapter

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