Material Technology Fracture, Fatigue & Creep Module 2

Module 2 : Fracture, Fatigue & Creep

Sr No Topic Name Page No
1 Introduction to Fracture 2
2 Ductile Fracture 2
3 Brittle Fracture 4
4 Factors Affecting Fracture 4
5 Ductile Brittle Transition in Steel 7
6 Griffith’s Theory for Brittle Fracture 9
7 Fracture Toughness 12
8 Fatigue 13
9 Stress Cycles 14
10 Mechanism of Fatigue Failure 15
11 Fatigue Testing Machine 16
12 Fatigue Limit 17
13 Included in next mod S-N curve -----
14 Factors Affecting Fatigue Life 17
15 Creep 20
16 Creep Data Presentation 21
17 Creep Testing 22
18 Mechanism of Creep Failure 22
19 Creep Curve 24
20 Analysis of Creep Curve by Andrade 25
21 Creep Resistant Materials 26

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1. Introduction to 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 temperature
that are low relative to the melting temperature of the material. The applied stress may be
tensile, compressive, shear or torsional; the present discussion will be confined to fractures
that result from uniaxial tensile loads. For engineering materials, two fracture modes are
possible: ductile and brittle. Classificationis basedon the ability of material to experience
plastic deformation.

Any fracture process involved two steps –crack formation and propagation-In response to
an imposed stress. The mode of fracture is highly dependent on the mechanisms of crack
propagation.

2. Ductile Fracture
Ductile fracture is characterized by extensive plastic deformation in the vicinity of an
advancing crack. Furthermore, the process proceeds relatively slowly as the crack length is
extended. Such a crack is often said to be stable, That is it resists any further extension unless
there is an increase in the applied stress.

For ductile fracture, the presence of plastic deformation gives warning that fracture is
imminent, allowing preventive measures to be taken, more strain energy is required to induce
ductile fracture in as much as ductile material are generally tougher.

When a ductile material has a gradually increasing tensile stress, it behaves elastically up
to a limiting stress and then plastic deformation occurs. As stress is increased, the cross-sectional
area of the material is reduced and a necked region is produced. With a ductile material, there is
a considerable amount of plastic deformation before failure occurs in the necked region as a
result of excessive yielding as shown in figure.

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Steps in ductile Fracture

Stages in ductile fracture are well explained by considering tensile test. When a ductile material
loaded gradually by tensile load in tensile test, steps in ductile fractures are as follows:

01. Necking
02. Small cavities formation
03. Formation of crack
04. Cup and cone fracture

First after necking begins, small cavities or microvoids form in the interior of the cross
section as indicated in figure.

As deformation continues, these microvoids enlarge, come together, and coalesce to

form an elliptical cracks, which has its long axis perpendicular to the stress direction. The crack
continues to grow in direction parallel to its major axis by the microvoids coalescence process.
Finally fracture ensues by the rapid propagation of a crack around the outer perimeter of the neck
by shear deformation at an angle of about 45º with the tensile axis – this is the angle at which the
shear stress is maximum. Sometimes a fracture having the characteristic surface contour is
termed a cup and cone fracture because one of the melting surfaces is in the form of cup, the
other like a cone. In this type of fractured specimen, the central interior region of the surface has
an irregular and fibrous appearance, which is indicative of plastic deformation.

3. Brittle Fracture
Brittle fracture takes place without any appreciable deformation, and by rapid crack propagation.
The direction of crack motion is very nearly perpendicular to the direction of the applied tensile
stress and yields a relatively flat fracture surface.

3.1.2

When gradual tensile load is applied on material in tensile test, at the end of elastic limit,
without any prior indication material breaks. This type of fracture is called as brittle fracture. Fig.
(a) Shows that, there is no change in diameter of material after fraction and fig. (b) shows that,
material breaks at the end of elastic region. There is no plastic region in the brittle material.

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Steps to lead Brittle fracture:

When stress is applied, the bonds between grains in the material are elastically strained.
At some critical stress within elastic limits bond between grain break without any prior
indication, remember the material is brittle and there is no plastic deformation.

4. Factors Affecting Fracture

A factors affecting the fracture of a material includes:

(i) Stress concentration

(ii) The speed with which the load is applied

(iii) The temperature

(iv) Thermal shock loading

(1) Stress concentration: [ Notch sensitivity]:

A stress concentration is a location in an object where stress is concentrated. An object is

strongest when force is evenly distributed over its area, so a reduction in area, e.g., caused by a
crack, results in a localized increase in stress. A material can fail, via a propagation crack, when
a concentrated stress exceeds the material’s theoretical cohesive strength. The real fracture
strength of a material is always lower than the theoretical value because most material contain
small cracks or contaminants that concentrate stress. Failure cracks always start at stress raises,
so removing such defects increases the fatigue strength.

Notch sensitivity is defined as ‘A reduction in properties due to the presence of stress

concentration.’ Any kind of irregularities produces stress concentration in material such as

1. Crack
2. A grain Boundary
3. An internal corner of engineering part.

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If you want to break a small piece of material one way is to make a small notch in the surface of
the material and then apply a force. The pressure of the notch or any sudden change in section of
a piece of material can significantly change the stress at which failure occurs. The notch or
sudden change in section produced in the metal is called as stress concentration. They disturb the
normal stress distribution and produce local concentration of stress. The effect of various factors
on increase in stress is as follows,

An increase in stress

 Increases depth of notch

 Reduces radius of tip
 Increases change in section

A crack in a brittle material will quite have a pointed tip and hence a small radius. Such a crack
thus produces a large in stress at its tip, one way of arresting this progress of such a crack is to
drill a hole at the end of the crack to increase its radius and so to reduce the stress concentration.

In brittle material, fracture will occur if the stress concentration exceeds. e.g. decrease in the
strength of material. It is shown in fig.

Notch sensitivity is defined as the reduction of nominal strength, static or impact, by

presence of stress concentration and is usually expressed as the ratio of the notched to the
unnotched strength. It is often determined by conducting tensile tests using both smooth and
notched specimen of the same material. Notched bar impact tests are often used to evaluate notch
sensitivity but they do not give ratio of notched to unnotched strength.

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In ductile material, strains permit adjustments to be localized with a reduction of the stress
concentration. Notch sensitivity cannot have any relation unless we have specific knowledge of
the behavior obtained experimentally of different classes of materials. It is shown in fig.

Eg. Good ductility in tension does not mean low notch sensitivity. There is no correlation
between yield or tensile strength and fatigue notch sensitivity.

2 The speed with which load is applied:

A sudden application of load and impact loading may lead to fracture where the same
stress is applied more slowly, it would not break. With avery high rate of application of stress
there may be insufficient time for plastic deformation of a material to occur and so what, under
normal conditions a material behaves ductile through it were brittle.

The Charpy and Izod test give a measure of the behavior of notched sample of material
where subject to a sudden impact load. The results are expressed in terms of the energy needed to
break a standard size test piece. The smaller the energy needed, the easier it is for failure. low
energy associated with material is termed brittle. Ductile materials need higher energy for
fracture.

3.Thermal Shocks:

Pouring hot water into a cold glass can cause it to crack. This is the cause of thermal
shock loading. The layer of glass in contact with hot water is trying to expand but is restrained
by the colder outer layers of the glass. These layers are not heating up quickly because of poor
thermal conductivity of glass. Result is the stressing up of stresses which can be sufficiently high
to cause failure of brittle glass.

5.Ductile Brittle Transition in Steel

The temperature of a material can affect its behavior when subject to stress. Many
material which are ductile at high temperature are brittle at low temperature e.g steel may behave
as a ductile material above say 0°C but below that temperature, it becomes brittle.

The notched bar impact test can be used to determine whether or not a material
experience a ductile to brittle transition as a temperature decreased. In such transition at a higher
temperature the impact energy is relatively large since the fracture is ductile . As the temperature
is lowered , the impact energy drops over narrow temperature range as a fracture becomes more
brittle.

The transition can also be observed from the fracture surface, which appear fibrous or
dull for totally ductile fracture , and granular and shiny for totally brittle fracture . Over the

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ductile to brittle transition features of both type will exist. While for pure materials the transition
may occur very suddenly at a particular temperature , for many materials the transition occur
over a range of temperature. This causes difficulties when trying to define a single transition
temperature and no specific criterion has been established . If a material experience a ductile to
brittle transition , the temperature at which it occurs can be affected by a variables mention
earlier , namely the strain rate , the size and shape of the specimen and relative dimensions of the
notch.

Fig shows how the impact tests result might vary with temperature. Properties of steel
changes with temperature. It behave as a ductile above 0°C temperature. If temperature is
reduced below 0°C,steel shows brittle in nature.

The ductile brittle transition is exhibited in BCC metals , such as low carbon steel ,
which becomes brittle at low temperature at very high strain rates. FCC metals , however
generally remain ductile at low temperatures.

In metals plastic deformation at room temperature occurs by dislocation motions, The

stress required to move a dislocation depends on the atomic bonding, crystal structure and
obstacle such as a solute atoms, grain boundaries , precipitate particle and other dislocations. If
the stress requires moving the dislocation is too high, the metal will fail instead by the
propagation of cracks and the failure will be brittle. Thus either plastic flow (ductile failure) or
crack propagation (brittle failure) will occur, depending on which process requires smaller
applied stress.

In FCC metals, the flow stress i.e the force required to move dislocation , is not
strongly temperature dependent . Therefore dislocation movement remain high even at low
temperature and the material remain relatively ductile.

Plastic flow depend upon the movement of dislocation and this occur in some finite
times. As a temperature decreases, the movement of dislocation becomes more difficult and this
increases the possibility of internal stress exceeding yield stress at some instant . The mode of
fracture changes at some temperature or in certain temperature range. This temperature or

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temperature range is called Ductile-Brittle transition temperature or range. At Ductile transition

temperature .the stress to propagation a crack = σf is equal to yield stress σyi.eσf = σy

At transition temperature ,σf = σy

Temperature below transition ,σf<σy

Temperature above transition ,σf>σy

1) Factors Affecting on Ductile-Brittle Transition Temperature :

Following factors affect Ductile-Brittle transition temperature.
- when grain size of material increases .
- when alloying elements are added in the material.
- when impurities in the material increases.
- when percentage of carbon in steel increases.
Fig. shows Ductile-Brittle transition for iron and steel having 0.45 % C and 0.6%C.

Common BCC metals becomes brittle at low temperature high rates of strain. Many FCC
metals on the other hand, remain ductile even at low temperature. Polycrystalline HCP
metals are brittle, as a there are not enough slip systems to maintain grain boundary
integrity.

6.Griffith’s Theory For Brittle Fracture

According to Griffith, there are micro cracks in the metal that cause local concentration of stress
to values high enough to propagate to crack and eventually to fracture the metal. According to
Griffith, ‘A crack will propagate when the decrease in elastic strain energy is at least equal to the
energy required to create the new crack surface.’ In Griffith’s theory, an energy method is
employed to estimate the stress necessary to cause a crack to propagate.

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Assumptions to Griffith’s Theory:

1. Consider lens (elliptical) shaped crack of length ‘2C’.

2. Material of ‘I’ unit thickness.
3. Crack run from the front to back face.
4. Longitudinal tensile stress ‘ ‘ is applied as shown in Fig.
5. The crack tends to increase its length to transverse direction.
6. If crack spreads,the surface area of crack increase , while the elastic strain energy stored
in the material decreases, because strains cannot be continuous across the cracked region.
7. ‘ ‘ is surface energy per unit area of the material.
8. No energy (elastic) is stored in cylindrical volume around crack.
9. Elastic energy is released when crack is introduced.

Consider simple cubic structure, within which there is a crack as shown in fig. We can think
of each atom in the crystal being rather like a sphere linked to neighboring atoms by springs.
The springs represent the bonds between the atoms. When the material is stretched, the
springs are stretched and elastic strain energy is stored in them.

For energy stored per unit volume is a stretched material is =1/2*Stress*strain. When
bond breaks, there will be a release of elastic energy, but breaking of bonds creates new
surface. The crack can be considered to propagate. When the released elastic energy is just
sufficient to provide the energy needed to create the new surfaces. The crack will not
propagate if the released elastic energy is not large enough to supply the required surface
energy.

Suppose,we have an elliptical internal crack as shown in fig.The elastic strain energy that has
been released per unit volume by the crack.

= *Stress*Strain

For each upper and lower surfaces of crack.

(1) Total elastic energy per unit volume (Ue) when crack introduced is,

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Ue=( )* * *e*2…. (1)

Where Ue= total elastic energy per unit volume

= Stress applied

e = Strain in the material

E = Young’s modulas

T = Unit thickness =1

C = length of crack

We know that, E = …. (2)

‘2’ at the end of equation (1) is for upper and lower surfaces.

Put value of strain (e) from equation (2) into equation (1), we have,

=( *2

(t=1 unit thickness)

…. (3)

(2) Total surface energy ( U ):

Taking into consideration. The plastic deformation of the surfaces of crack requiring energy
‘p’ per unit area, the total energy required to create the crack is,

U =4C( …. (4)

Where ,

Energy required producing unit area of new surface.

(3) The change in energy during crack forms (

total surface energy+ elastic energy released

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Negative (-) sign of elastic energy indicates that, elastic energy stored in the material is
released as crack forms.

….(5)

In fig is plotted a function of ‘c’ , showing that, for a given value of ‘ , passes
through a maximum at a critical value of ‘c’ equal to ‘c*’. The larger is the value of
‘ ,the smaller is ‘c’ .The critical value can be found by setting = 0. As the applied
tensile stress is the external variable for a given material with the crack of length ‘2c’ , it
is appropriate to express the critical condition as a critical fracture stress ’

Set = 0 in equation (5) for critical value, (Taking derivative with respectto ‘c’)

4(

…. (6)

(6) shows, the relationship between the length of the existing crack (2c). Energy ‘p’
expends in plastic deformation and the stress required to fracture a metal.

’s theory in its original form is applicable only to a perfectly brittle material such as
glass. However, Griffith’s ideas have had great influence on the thinking about the fracture of
metals.

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7.FractureToughness
Defects and cracks are present in all engineering materials. They may be introduced during
solidification or heat treatment stages of the material. The fracture resisting capacity of machine
component or engineering structures must be evaluated in the presence of cracks or
discontinuities is known as its fracture toughness.
One of the measures of fracture toughness of a material is the elastic strain release rate ‘ ’.
When the rate of release of elastic strain energy at the tip of crack reaches a high value, then the
crack propagates. The critical value is given by symbol ‘ ’.
From Griffith type of approach, the fracture toughness is defined by the critical value of
parameter ‘ ’. ‘ ’ gives the value of the strain energy release per unit area of the crack
surface, when unstable crack extension(leading to fracture) takes place.
For an elastic crack of length ’,

where = Energy required to produce unit area of new surface.

= Plastic Deformation.
The Griffith’s equation can be written in the form of ‘ ’ as follows,

For example, ‘ ’ for aluminium alloy is in the range of 20 – 100 kJ/m2, but the true surface
energy ‘ ’ is less than 2 J/m2. Value of ‘ ’ for copper is in the range of 106J/m2 and for glass it
is in the range of 10 J/m2.

Factors affecting on Fracture Toughness:

The fracture toughness of a material is affected by a numver of factors.

(i) Composition of the material:
Different alloys systems have different fracture toughness. E.g. aluminium alloys have
less fracture toughness than steel. Some alloying elements such as sulphur and
phosphorus reduce fracture toughness of steel.
(ii) Heat treatment:
Changes in temperatur affect fracture toughness of material. Increase in temperature
reduces fracture toughness.
(iii) Service Conditions:
Service conditions such as temperature, corrosive environment and fluctuating load affect
fracture toughness. Increase in temperature, increase in corrosion environment and
increase in fluctuating load, reduces fracture toughness.

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8. Fatigue
Fatigue is a form of failure that occurs in structures subjected to dynamic and fluctuating
stresses (e.g. bridges, aircraft and machine components). Under these circumstances it is
possible for failure to occur at a stress level considerably lower than the tensile or yield
strength for a static load. The term ‘fatigue’ is used because this type of failure normally
occurs after a lengthy period of repeated stress or strain cycling. Fatigue is important in
as much as it is the single largest cause of failure in metals, estimated to comprise
approximately 90% of all metallic failures; polymers and ceramics(except for glasses) are
also susceptible to this type of failure. Furthermore, fatigue is catastrophic and insidious,
occurring very suddenly and without warning.
Fatigue failure is brittlelike in nature even in normally ductile metals, in that there is very
little, if any, gross plastic deformation associated with failure. The process occurs by the
initiation and propagation of cracks, and ordinarily the fracture surface is perpendicular
to the direction of an applied tensile stress.

A fatigue failure can usually be recognized from the appearance of the fractured surface. Fig.
shows a smooth region, due to the rubbing action as the crack propagated through the section. A
rough region, where the member has failed in a ductile manner when the cross section was no
longer able to carry load. Frequently the progress of the fracture is indicated by a series of rings
or ‘bench marks’ progressing inward from the point of initiation of the failure.

Three basic factors are necessary to cause fatigue failure. These are:
(i) A maximum tensile stress of sufficiently high value.
(ii) A large enough variation or fluctuation in the applied stress.
(iii) A sufficiently large number of cycles of the applied stress.

In addition, there are a host of other variables, such as stress concentration,

corrosion, temperature, overload, metallurgical structure, residual stresses and combines
stresses, which tend to alter the conditions for fatigue.

9. Stress Cycles

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It is advantageous to define briefly the general types of fluctuating stresses which can cause
fatigue. Fig serves to illustrate typical fatigue stress cycles. Fig (a) illustrates a ‘completely
reversed cycle’ of stress of sinusoidal form. For this type of stress cycle the maximum and
minimum stresses are equal. Tensile stress is considered positive and compressive stress is
negative.

Fig(b) illustrates a ‘repeated stress cycles’ in which the maximum stress σmax and minimum
stress σmin are not equal in this illustration they are both tension, but a repeated stress cycle
could just as well contain maximum and minimum stresses of opposite signs or both in
compression.

Fig(c) illustrates a complicated stress cycle which might be encountered in a part such as an
aircraft wing which is subjected to periodic unpredictable overloads due to gusts.

A fluctuating stress cycle can be considered to be made up of two components, a mean or

steady, stress ‘σm’ and an alternating or variable stress ‘σa’. We must also consider the range of
stress ‘σr’.As shown in Fig (b), the range of stress is the algebraic difference between maximum
and minimum stress in a cycle.

σr= σmax –σmin

The alternating stress,

σa = σr/2 = (σmax – σmin)/2

The mean stress is the algebraic mean of the maximum and minimum stress in the cycle.

σm = (σmax + σmin) /2

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10. Mechanism of fatigue failure

Crack initiation and propagation

The process of fatigue failure is characterized by three distinct steps: (1) crack initiation,
wherein a small crack forms at some point of high stress concentration; (2) crack propagation,
during which this crack advances incrementally with each stress cycle; and (3) final failure,
which occurs very rapidly once the advancing crack has reached a critical size. Cracks associated
with fatigue failure almost always initiate (or nucleate) on the surface of a component at some
points of stress concentration. Crack nucleation sites include surface scratches, sharp fillets,
keyways, threads, dents, and the like.

Crack Growth:

The crack formed on surface then develops slowly into the material in a direction roughly
perpendicular to the main tensile axis. Ultimately the cross-sectional area of the member will
have been so reduced that it can no longer withstand the applied load and ordinary tensile
fracture will result.

Fracture:

A fatigue crack ‘front’ advances a small amount during each stress cycle and each increment
of advance is shown on the fracture surface as a minute ripple line. These ripple lines radiate out
from the origin of fracture as a series o approximately concentric arcs. Few ripples much larger
than the rest and shows the general path which the crack has followed.

Fig shows mechanism of fatigue failure in three stages. The crack propagates slowly from the
source, the fracture surfaces rub together due to pulsating nature of the stress and so the surface
becomes burnished. Fatigue failures in metals are very easy to identity. The fatigue cracks are
not result of brittle fracture but of plastic slip.

11. Fatigue Testing

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The method of testing the metal for fatigue was developed by Wohler. Fig shows a
typical experiment set up for Wohler’s set up. The specimen is in the form of cantilever and
loaded at one end through ball bearing. It is rotated by means of high speed motor to which a
counter is attached to count the number of rotations. At any instant, the upper surface of the
specimen is under tension and the lower surface is under compression, with the neutral axis.

In one rotation, the specimen undergoes two cyclic fluctuations of stress. The number
of cycles to cause failure will vary with the applied stress,lower will be the cycles to cause
failure. Similarly, if the stress is lowered, more number of cycles will be required to cause
failure.

12.Fatigue Limit or Endurance Limit

When a series of stress is plotted against the number of cycles to failure at each stress
on a semi log scale,for iron, steel and ferrous alloys, a stress is reached below which fracture
does not occur for infinite number of cycles .This value of stress is called fatigue limit or
endurance limit. It is shown in fig (a). However, for non-ferrous metals and alloys like Al, Mg,
Cu and their alloys no such definite limit exists and as the stress is decreased, the number of
cycles to failure progressively goes on increasing. These materials do not have a definite limit
and hence it is customary to report fatigue strength (or endurance strength) instead of fatigue
limit. It is shown in fig (b).

Endurance or fatigue strength is the maximum stress that can be applied repeatedly over
a specified number of cycles without fracture (usually 108 cycles).

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14. Factors affecting fatigue life

a) Mean Stress

The dependence of fatigue life on stress amplitude is represented on the S-N plot. Such data are
taken for a constant mean stress σm , often for the reversed cycle situation (σm=0). Mean stress,
however, will also affect fatigue life; this influence may be represented by a series of S-N curves,
each measured at a different σm, as depicted schematically in the fig.. As may be noted
increasing the mean stress level leads to an decrease in fatigue life.

b) Surface effects

For many common loading situations, the maximum stress within a component or structure
occurs on its surface. Consequently most cracks leading to fatigue failure origin at surface

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positions, specifically at stress amplification sites. Therefore it has been observed that fatigue life
is especially sensitive to the condition and configuration of the component surface.

c) Design factors

The design of a component can have a significant influence on its fatigue characteristics. Any
notch or geometrical discontinuity can act as a stress raiser and fatigue crack initiation site; these
design features includes grooves, holes, keyways, threads and so on. The sharper the
discontinuity (i.e. smaller the radius of curvature), the more severe the stress concentration. The
probability of fatigue failure may be reduced by avoiding (when possible) these structural
irregularities, or by making design modifications whereby sudden contour changes leading to
sharp corners are eliminated.

d) Corrosion fatigue

The simultaneous action of cyclic stress and chemical attack is known as corrosion fatigue.
Corrosive attack without superimposed stress produces pitting of metal surface. The pits acts as
notches and produce a reduction in fatigue strength. When corrosion and fatigue occur
simultaneously, the chemical attack greatly accelerates the rate at which fatigue cracks
propagate. Materials which show a definite fatigue limit when tested in air at room temperature
shows no indication of a fatigue limit when the test is carried out in a corrosive environment.
When fatigue test is carried out in air not affected by the speed of testing, over a range from 10
to 200 Hz, when the test is carried out in corrosive environment there is definite dependence on
testing speed. Since corrosive attack is a time-dependant phenomenon, the higher the testing
speeds, the smaller the damage due to corrosion. In usual method, corrosion-fatigue test is
carried out by continuously subjecting specimen in combined influences of corrosion and cyclic
stress until failure occurs.

A number of methods are available for minimizing corrosion-fatigue damage. In general,

material is protected from corrosive environment by metallic and non-metallic coatings which
are successful methods. Nitriding is effective in minimizing corrosion fatigue.

e) Thermal Fatigue

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Fatigue failure can be produced by fluctuating thermal stresses under conditions where no
stresses are produce by mechanical causes. Thermal stresses result when the change in
dimensions of a member as a result of temperature changes. For the simple case of a bar with
fixed end supports, the thermal stress developed by a temperature change ’ΔT’ is

σ =α.E.ΔT
where α = linear thermal coefficient of expansion

E = elastic modulus

If failure occurs by one application of thermal stress, the condition is called thermal shock.
However, if failure occurs after repeated applications of thermal stress, of a lower magnitude, it
is called thermal fatigue. It exists at high temperature. Austenitic stainless steel is sensitive to
this phenomenon because of its low thermal conductivity and high thermal expansion.

f) Pre-Stressing

Pre-stressing is the process of loading an engineering component under controlled conditions to a

cyclic stress for a fixed number of cycles prior to any possibility of fatigue failure. When
magnitude of pre-stressing is lower than the operating stress level then it is known as under-
stressing.

Under controlled conditions when the magnitude of stress is higher than operating stress
level the condition is called overstressing. The number of pre-stressing cycles is always lesser
than the number of cycles needed to cause fatigue failure. Pre-stressing is desirable under
conditions of under-stressing. An under stressed component always exhibits best fatigue
resistance.

For an over-stressed component the failure resistance is lesser compared to a component

that has been under-stressed. Thus under stressing cause significant improvement in fatigue
behavior by strengthening the weak regions and enhancing their dynamic response to operating
stress

g) Notch effect

Fatigue strength of material is reduced by presence of notch in the material. In machine elements
it contains fillets, keyways screw threads and holes. Fatigue cracks in structural parts usually
start at such geometrical irregularities.

The effect of fatigue is generally studied by specimen containing a ‘V’ notch or a circular
notch. The effect of notches on fatigue strength is determined by comparing the S-N curves of
notched and unnotched specimens.

15. Creep
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Introduction

Materials are often placed in service at elevated temperatures and exposed to static mechanical
stresses (eg. Turbine rotors in jet engines and steam generators that experience centrifugal
stresses, and high pressure steam lines). Deformation under such circumstances is termed creep.
Defined as the time-dependent and permanent deformation of materials when subjected to a
constant load or stress, creep is normally an undesirable phenomenon and is often the limiting
factor in the lifetime of a part. It is observed in all material types; for metals it becomes
important only for temperatures greater than about 0.4Tm (Tm = absolute melting temperature).

Effect of Temperature on Mechanical behavior of Materials

When temperature of material increases the mobility of atoms increases rapidly thus , changes
mechanical properties of material. High temperature will also result in greater mobility of
dislocations by the mechanism of dislocation climb. The equilibrium concentration of vacancies
increase and new deformation may form at high temperature. In some metals, the slip system
changes or additional slip system are introduced with increasing temperature. At high
temperature, cold-worked metals will recrystallize and undergo grain coarsening while age
hardening alloys may overage by prolonged exposure at high temperature and loose strength.

Successful use of metals at high temperatures involves a number of problems but modern
technology demands better high temperature strength and oxidation resistance.

16. Creep Data Presentation

For a long time the principal high-temperature applications were associated with steam power
plants, oil refineries and chemical plants. The operating temperature in equipments such as
boilers and steam turbine exceeds 500oC. With the introduction of gas turbine engine,
requirements developed for materials to operate in critically stressed parts, like turbine buckets at
temperatures around 800oC.

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An important characteristic of high-temperature strength is that it must always be considered

with respect to some time scale. The tensile properties of most engineering metals at room
temperature are independent of time for practical purposes.

High temperature strength data is commonly measured in creep strength or rupture strength.
Creep strength is defined as the stress at a given temperature which produces a steady-state creep
rate of fixed amount: rate in range 10-11 to 10-8 per second are typical i.e., 0.000004 to 0.004
percent per hour. Or in an alternate way creep strength can be defined as the stresses to cause
strain of 1 percent at given temperature. Rupture strength refers to the stress at a given
temperature to produce a life to rupture of certain amount usually in 1000,10000 or 1,00,000
hours.

It frequently is important to be able to extrapolate creep or stress-rupture data into regions where
data are not available. Therefore, common methods of plotting creep data are based on plots
which yield reasonable straight lines. Fig. shows the common method of presenting the influence
of stress on steady-state or minimum creep rate.

Note that a log-log plot is used, so that extrapolation of one log-cycle represents a tenfold
change. A change lope of the line will sometimes occur. It has been shown that the c\value of the
minimum creep rate depends on the length of time the creep test has been carried out. It has been
shown for long-time creep test (t>10000 hours) that the creep strength based on 1 percent creep
strain is essentially equal to creep strength based on true minimum creep rate.

17. Creep Testing

The specimen to be tested is placed in the electric furnace where it is heated to given
temperature. The usual method of creep testing consists of subjecting the specimen at constant
tensile stress at constant temperature and measuring the extent of deformation or strain with the
time. The typical creep testing machine is shown in Fig. Even though, it appears to be simple, it
requires considerable laboratory equipment, great care and precision in performance. The time of
each test may be a matter of hours, weeks, months or even years. Creep is also determined in
compressing, shear and bending.

The data is presented by plotting creep curve as deformation (or strain) verses time at constant
temperature and stress. The test specimen may be circular, square or rectangular in cross-section.
Either a continuous record of deformation with time or sufficient number of deformation reading
with time should be taken over the entire period of test. The strain is measured by strain gauge.

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The strain generally lies between 0.1 to 1.0% and the period of testing does not exceed 10,000
hours. If creep is continued until fracture occurs, the test is called as ‘creep-rupture’ test. It
determines the time necessary for fracture of the test piece

18. Mechanism of Creep Failure

Creep is a deformation process in which three main features to be involved are:

(1)The normal movementsof dislocations along slip planes.

(2)Process ‘dislocation climb’ which is responsible for rapid creep at temperatures

Above 0.5 Tm.

(3)Slipping at grain boundaries.

(4)Following mechanisms are known to be responsible for creep in crystalline

Materials.

(5)Dislocation climb.

(6)Vacancy diffusion.

(7)Grain boundary sliding

a) Dislocation Climb:

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In the primary stages of creep,dislocations move quickly at first but soon become piled-up at
various barriers.At temperatures in excess of 0.5 Tm,thermal activation is sufficient to promote a
process known as ‘dislocation climb’.This would bring into use new slip planes and so reduce
the rate of work hardening.

In addition to plastic deformation by dislocation movement,deformation by a form of slip at

grain boundaries also occurs during the secondary stage of creep.These movements possibly
leads to the formation of ‘vacant sites’,that is lattice positions from which atoms are missing and
thus in turn makes possible ‘dislocation climb’.

In the tertiary stage of creep micro-cracks are initiated at grain boundaries due to the movement
of dislocations.In some cases,there is migration of vacant site,as a result necking and consequent
rapid failure follows.

In the low temperature region of creep,the cross-slip continues with the aid of thermal energy
and causes further plastic strain as function of time.In edge dislocation,burger’s vector and ‘t’
vector are perpendicular to each other.They cannot cross-slip like screw dislocations.However,if
the temperature I high enough for an appreciable diffusionrate of vacancies,these may diffuse to
the edge dislocations or away from them,making them to climb up or down.

(2)Vacancy Diffusion:

The diffusion of vacancies control creep rate.In this mechanism,grain boundary acts as a source
and sinks for vacancies. The mechanism depends on the migration of vacancies from one side of
a grain to another. Referring to fig a grain ABCD is under stress ‘P’ ,the atoms moved from
faces ‘BC’ and ‘AD’,along the path shown and the grain creeps in the direction of stress.

Movement of atoms creating vacancies on faces ‘AB’ and ‘DC’and destroying themon the other
faces.

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(3)Grain Boundary Sliding:

The sliding of neighbouring grains with respect to the boundary that separates them .Fig shows
that, grain boundaries lose their strength at lower temperature than the grain themselves.This
effect arises from non-crystalline structure of the grain boundaries.

19. Creep Curve

Fig. illustrates the idealized shape of a creep curve. The slope of this curve (dε/dt ) is referred
to as the creep rate.

A typical creep test consists of subjecting specimen to a constant load or stress while maintaining
the temperature constant; deformation or strain is measured and plotted as a function of elapsed
time. Most tests are the constant load type, which yield information of an engineering nature;
constant tests are employed to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of creep.

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Figure is a systematic representation of the typical constant load creep behavior of metals. Upon
application of the load there is an instantaneous deformation, has indicated in the figure, which is
mostly elastic. The resulting creep curve consists of three regions, each of which has his own
distinctive strain-time feature. Primary or transient creep occurs first, typified by a continuous
decreasing creep rate; that is, the slope of the curve diminishes with time. This suggests that the
material is experiencing an increase in creep resistance or strain hardening deformation becomes
more difficult as the material is strained. For secondary creep, sometimes termed steady-state
creep, the rate is constant; that is, the plot becomes linear. This is often the stage of creep that is
of the longest duration. The constancy of creep rate is explained on the basic of a balance
between the competing processes of strain hardening and recovery,recovery being the process
whereby a material becomes softer and retains its ability to experience deformation. Finally, for
tertiary creep, there is an acceleration of the rate and ultimate failure. This failure is frequently
termed rupture and results from microstructural and/or metallurgical changes; for example, grain
boundary separation, and the formation of internal cracks, cavities, and voids. Also, for tensile
loads, a neck may form at some point within the deformation region. These all lead to a decrease
in the effective cross-sectional area and an increase in strain rate.

20. Analysis of classical Creep Curve

Andrade’s work on analysis of classical creep curve is focused on topic of creep. He considered
that the constant stress creep curve represents the superposition of two separate creep processes
which occur after the sudden strain which results from applying the load. The first component of
the creep curve is a ‘transient creep’ with a creep rate decreasing with time. Added to this is a
constant-rate ‘viscous creep’ component. Fig.shows Andrade’s analysis of the classical creep
curve.

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Andrade found that the creep curve could be represented above the following empirical
equation.The various stages of the creep curve shown in fig. require further explanation. It is
generally considered that the creep curve has three stages. In British terminology the
instantaneous strain designed by in figure is often called the first stage of creep, so that with this
nomenclature the creep is considered to have four stages such as

(1) Instantaneous strain.

(2) Primary of transient creep
(3) Secondary or steady state creep.
(4) Tertiary of viscous creep.

21. Creep resistant materials and creep fracture :-

Creep resistant materials:

Creep resistant materials are required for structural and machine components used at elevated
temperatures. They should be capable of withstanding these temperatures without undergoing
creep beyond the specified limit, which may cause dimensional changes beyond permissible
limit used in the design.

The following are the requirements of a creep resistant material:

(i) It should have high melting points because, the creep becomes significant above
0.4Tm(Tm =melting point). If melting point is high material can be used at higher
temperature, e.g. iron, nickel and cobalt.
(ii) It should have course grained structure. The grain boundary region becomes quasi-
viscous at creep temperature. Since in course grained materials grain boundary area is
less, so that less amount of quasi-viscous region is formed with a less tendency to
flow , reducing the creep deformation.
(iii) It should be precipitation hardenable. It should have fine insoluble precipitates at the
operating temperature. If coherent precipitates are present maximum creep resistance
is obtained e.g. in nickel base and iron-nickel base super alloys coherent precipitates
of Ni3(Al, Ti) is formed.
(iv) Dispersion hardening improves creep resistance.
(v) It should have high oxidation resistance i.e. the oxide film should follow either a
logarithmic or a cubic law of growth.

Creep fracture:

At lower temperatures grain boundaries are stronger and at high temperatures it becomes weak as
compared to grains. The temperature at which the strength of grain boundary is equal to the
strength of the grain is called Equi-cohesive Strength.

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Material always fails at weak region by initiating crack. When crack occurred below equi-
cohesive temperatures, fracture is transgranular or transcrystalline i.e. the crack moves through
the grains. When crack occurred above equi-cohesive temperature, fracture is intergranular or
intercrystalline and it moves along the grain boundaries as shown in figure.

______________________________________________________________________________

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