Materials Assignment 4

Task 1

Introduction

Failure in certain structures/ components happens due to many reasons which include improper
design, improper forming processes, bad material selection and many more. I am going to discuss
the three modes of failure (as ductile/brittle fracture, fatigue, and creep) and explain how they
happen and what the failed component looks like.

Ductile and Brittle fractures.

Plastic deformation happens at stress concentrations that are caused by cracks, this absorbs some of
the energy. Plastic deformation at these stress raisers leads to more uniform distribution of stress.

A fracture is a separation of an object into 2 or more parts due to the action of stress. Fractures
involve- crack formation, crack propagation and the final failure. [ CITATION nuc21 \l 2057 ]

Ductile fractures

Ductility is when a material is able to elongate in tension. In ductile materials, there is slow
propagation and absorption of big amounts of energy before fracture. Ductility is desired when
dealing with high temperatures and high pressures

In ductile materials/ components there will be a lot of plastic deformation in the area of the crack
and the increasing stress will only enlarge the crack, the crack is said to be stable.

Brittle fractures

For brittle materials/ components, there will little to no plastic deformation in the area of the crack
and there is no requirement for increase stress levels to propagate the crack, the fracture will be
sudden and won’t give any warning. The crack is said to be unstable. However, due to the plastic
deformation, you will be expecting failure to happen fast and will put prevention measures in place
to avoid that from happening

Brittle materials absorb very little energy before fracture

The actual strength of brittle materials can be between 10 and 100 times less than their theoretical
value.

Fatigue.

Fatigue is a form of failure that happens due to fluctuating stresses, below the yield stress, over a
certain period of time. 90% of failures in metals happen because of fatigue. Fatigue also happens in
plastic, but it does not happen in glasses.

There are 3 stages of fatigue and they are.

Crack initiation: Fatigue cracks are almost always start at a free surface and near a stress riser. The
first development of the fatigue crack happens at a localised discontinuities in the metal’s crystal
structure. The movement of the discontinuities makes the metal stronger through plastic
deformation (work hardening). After this, the metal loses its ability to plastically deform in the
localised area where cyclic stresses are clear. One the metal has reached its plastic deformation
limit; the discontinuity turns into a small crack.

Crack propagation: After the micro-crack is created, continued cyclical stresses repeat the process
which slowly increases the micro-crack making it a threat to structural integrity

Failure: The final failure can be either ductile or brittle depending on the material, temperature,
thickness, and the applied stress. Fatigue failure usually happens suddenly. The fatigue induced
surfaces of broken components are usually smooth and do not show any evidence of plastic
deformation.[ CITATION ins21 \l 2057 ]
Creep.

This is a plastic deformation that is caused by loads that induce a stress lower than that of the yield
stress. Creep is known to be very powerful under high temperatures, especially with metals. If a
material is undergoing increased stress over a long time, creeping becomes extreme. It is more
suitable for high heat materials and can even lead to permanent deformation when the
temperatures are higher than the melting point. Without going beyond the material’s yield strength,
the creep can lead to a plastic strain. Plastic deformation mainly happens when the yield strength
reaches its excessive limit.[ CITATION pip21 \l 2057 ]

The rate of the creep with depend on, the temperature, size of applied stress and the amount of
time.

% creep = (elongation/original length) X 100

There are three stages of creep and they are.

Primary creep: Here, the dislocation movement is very fat but as the dislocations increase at the
grain boundaries, the rate of the creep slows down. The material work-hardens at this stage.

Secondary creep: Here the process is a balance between work hardening and thermal softening.

Tertiary creep: Here micro cracks begin to show at the grain boundaries due to the migration of
voids. Then the material will rapidly neck and fail.
Task 2
Metals.

Corrosion.

Metals can oxidise in air. They react with oxygens to make metal oxides like when sodium is cut/
scratched its exposed shiny surface quickly turns dull as a thin layer of sodium oxide forms.

sodium + oxygen → sodium oxide

4Na(s) + O2(g) → 2Na2O(s)

Sodium is a very reactive metal so this happens rapidly, but it may happen slower for other metals.
Gold and some other unreactive metals will not oxidise in air at all.

Corrosion takes place when the metal keeps oxidising and becoming weaker as time passes and
eventually it all becomes metal oxide.

A good example of corrosion is rusting. Rusting is when iron or steel react with water and oxygen

iron + oxygen + water → hydrated iron (III) oxide

The orange substance on rusty objects is hydrated iron (III) oxide[ CITATION bbc21 \l 2057 ]

Polymers.

Hydrolysis

Polymers that have an all-carbon backbone like polyolefins are commonly resistant to hydrolysis.
Condensation polymers like polyester, polycarbonates and polyamides can be degraded by
hydrolysis of their carbonyl groups, to give lower molecular weight molecules.

Such reactions are exceptionally slow at ambient temperatures, nevertheless they remain a
significant source of degradation for these materials, mainly in the marine environment. Swelling
that is caused to due to absorption of minute amount of water can also lead to environmental stress
cracking which increases degradation.[ CITATION wik21 \l 2057 ]

Ceramics.

Chemical degradation
Chemical degradation of objects does not happen in the physical structure of the object but in the
chemical or compound level. Degradation of the chemical component weakens the stability of the
object when it is exposed to environmental factors like water, air, heat and many more

Water can dissolve/ deform ceramics which have been low fired like with temperatures around
600°C. Ceramics that are fired in high temperatures could also be susceptible to water if their
mineral particles are soluble in water e.g., gypsum and calcite.[ CITATION sli16 \l 2057 ]

References
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inspectioneering. (2021). Fatigue (Material). Retrieved 4 5, 2021, from

https://inspectioneering.com/tag/fatigue

nuclear-power.net. (2021, 4 6). ductile-material-ductile-fracture. Retrieved from nuclear-power.net:

https://www.nuclear-power.net/nuclear-engineering/materials-science/material-
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pipingmart. (2021, 4 6). what-is-the-creep-in-material. Retrieved from pipingmart:

https://www.pipingmart.com/blog/other/what-is-the-creep-in-material/

slideshare.net. (2016, 4 6). degradation-of-ceramics. Retrieved from slideshare.net:

https://www.slideshare.net/ssuser3546ce/degradation-of-ceramics-69366956

wikipedia. (2021, 4 6). Polymer degradation. Retrieved from wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_degradation#:~:text=Solvolysis.%20Step-growth
%20polymers%20like%20polyesters%2C%20polyamides%20and
%20polycarbonates,mouldings%20will%20crack%20when%20attacked%20by%20strong
%20acids.