1.

DESIGN AGAINST DIFFERENT TYPES OF FAILURES

Pre-requisite :- Students are requested to study the hand out provided in the class on

Working Stresses , Chapter 4, KU MEEG 315 , class III / I and be familiar with stress
variation due to cyclic loading, fluctuating stresses, fatigue testing, stress concentration, de-
rating factors, factor of safety, dimensioning based on strength, cumulative damage.

Fatigue failure

Gradually applied loads are rarely observed in machines. Parts of reciprocating machines, cam
shafts, shafts carrying gears, sprockets, pulleys and rotors not properly balanced, gear teeth are
few examples of parts subjected to cyclic or fluctuating loads. Failures and accidents
encountered due to these types of loading are known Fatigue Failure or Progressive Failure.

Observed Fatigue Behavior:-

1. Fatigue failure results from repeated plastic deformation, such as breaking of a wire by
bending it back and forth.
2. Fatigue failure typically occur after thousands or even millions of cycles up to 10 3
cycles is known as low cycle fatigue and beyond 10 3 cycles as high cycle fatigue and at
stress levels far below the conventionally determined yield point or elastic limit.
3. Because highly localized plastic yielding can be the beginning of a fatigue failure,
vulnerable locations are holes, sharp corners, threads, key ways, surface scratches and
corrosion. Strengthening these vulnerable locations is often as effective as making the
entire part from a stronger material.
4. If the local yielding is sufficiently minute, the material may strain- strengthens, causing
the yielding to cease. The part will then actually benefit from this mild load.
5. The initial fatigue crack usually results in an increase in local stress concentration. As
this crack progresses, the material at the crack root at any particular time is subjected to
the destructive localized reversed yielding. As the crack deepens, thereby reducing the
section and causing increased stresses, crack propagation rate increases until the
remaining section is no longer able to support a single load application and final fracture
occurs, usually in accordance with the principles of fracture mechanics.

Fatigue design criteria

1. Infinite life design: this design criterion is based on keeping the stresses at some
fraction of the fatigue limit of the steel. For situations in which the part is subjected
to very large cycles of uniform stress it is a valid design criterion. This is the oldest
fatigue design philosophy.
2. Safe life design: this design is based on the assumption that the part is initially flaw
free and has a finite life in which to develop a critical crack. In this approach to
design one must consider that fatigue life at a constant stress is subject to large
amounts of statistical scatter. For example bearings are designed to a safe life
criterion. The bearings are rated by specifying the load at which 90 % of all bearings
are expected to with stand a given life time. Safe life design also is common in
pressure vessel and jet engine design.
3. Fail safe design: In fail- safe design the view is that fatigue cracks may occur.
Therefore the structure is designed so that cracks will not lead to failure before they
can be detected and repaired. This design philosophy developed in the air craft
industry due to weight restriction for large factor of safety. This design employ
multiple load paths and crack stoppers built into the structure.
4. Damage tolerance design: this is the extension of the fail safe design philosophy. In
this design the assumption is that fatigue cracks will exist in an engineering structure.
The techniques of fracture mechanics are used to determine whether the cracks will
grow large enough to cause failure before they are sure to be detected during a
periodic inspection. The emphasis in this design approach is on using materials with
high fracture toughness and slow crack growth. The success of the design approach
depends upon having a reliable nondestructive evaluation (NDA) program and in
being able to identify the damage critical areas in the design.

DESIGN FOR FATIGUE

The design of a mechanical element for fatigue failure is classified into two groups.

(a) Design for infinite life (b) design for finite life.

Design for infinite life: when a component is required to be designed for infinite life,
the endurance limit becomes the basic criterion of failure. The stress induced in such a
component should be less than or equal to the endurance limit so that the component can
survive an infinite number of cycles. In other words, the level of stress on the component
should be lower than the knee point of the fatigue curve. The following equations are
used for the design of these components,

Induced Normal stress endurance strength in direct load / factor of safety and

Induced Shear stress endurance strength in torsion load / 2

 Design for finite life: in a high cycle fatigue, the region between the 10 3 10 6 cycles is
generally the finite life region. If a component is required to be designed for finite life, it
is called the design for finite life. The logarithmic S N curve or fatigue stress number
of cycles curve is shown below. ( refer hand out page 22, working stresses ). It consists of
a straight line AB drawn on N log log graph. A study of large volume of
experimental data on fatigue strength of steel at 10 3 cycles of life indicate that the mean
fatigue strength is 0.8 times the ultimate strength. Thus, point A is located at 0.8 times
the ultimate strength for 10 3 cycles. The point B is located at endurance strength for 10 6
cycles and points A & B are joined by a straight line. The equation for finite life is
therefore given by log 10 f = b log 10 N + c. where f is the fatigue strength
corresponding to life N cycles, b and c are constants. The values of constants b and c can
be found by applying the end conditions.

(Refer class notes for derivation) ---------------------- The expression for the desired life
can be given as N = 10 c/b x f 1/b.

REFER EXAMPLES solved in the class and from tutorial sheets.

Shock and Impact considerations in design

An external force applied to a structure or part is called an impact load if the time of application
is less than 1/3 the lowest natural period of vibration of the part of structure. Otherwise it is
called simply a static load. ( equation 20.4 Data book, Mahadevan)

Impact can be categorized into three types :

1. Axial or longitudinal impact : directed to give uniform tensile or compressive stress.

Examples are hoisting rope, linkages, hammer type power tools, coupling connected
cars, helical springs.. etc.
2. Bending impact :- directed to give bending stress examples are in shafts, in structural
members, in beams, plates and vessels.
3. Torsional impact :- directed to give shear stress examples are in rotating shafts of
punches and shears in gear drives, at clutches and brakes and in oil filled drill rope
Shocks or impact loads are many times unavoidable and some times desirable too.

Examples are

1. Loads moving with high speed; such as the effect of moving train or truck on a bridge.
2. During combustion of internal engine.
3. Sudden acceleration or stopping of heavy loads in hoisting applications
4. Excessive deflection of parts and clearance between parts gear clearance.
Impact based design

Impact can create momentary peak stresses and subsequent vibrations in the impacted bodies.
Impact is likely to be the most severe load on an object. That is why high impact styrene has
completely replaced crystal styrene in many applications. Impact design and shock proofing
is most important in the case of automobile bumpers, automobile safety devices, power tools,
watches, electrical and electronic products. Impact is also the foremost factor in designing
boxes and containers for packaging.

For an ordinary product a specification for impact strength can be the object has to survive
drops in all directions from a height of 1 meter onto a concrete floor.

If you hit a hammer hard on a steel anvil, the impact force can be as high as 3200 kg.
Applying the same impacting action on a soft object will cause an impact force of about 32
kg. The difference in the impact force is due to the fact that a soft object will give, and thus
absorbs the impact energy over a longer distance ( say 5 cm ). As the steel anvil will not
give the impact energy has to be absorbed over a very small distance ( such as 0.05 cm ),
which results in a large force.

That is :-

Impact energy = 0.5 Fe x = 0.5 F max x max

For soft object, 80 cm-kg = 0.5 x 32 kg x 5 cm

For hard object, 80 cm-kg = 0.5 x 3200 kg x 0.05 cm

Where the 80 cm-kg is a reasonable estimate of the kinetic energy in the hammer
immediately before impact.

Note : - Equations from 2.39 to 2.46 provided in data book, Mahadevan is used to solve
problems on impact. Refer class notes.
 FRACTURE AND FAILURE ANALYSIS
OBJECTIVES OF FRACTURE MECHANICS TECHNOLOGY

To develop prediction methods and calculate of how fast cracks will grow and how fast the
residual strength will decrease. Specifically :-

1. What is the residual strength as a function of crack size ?

2. What size of the crack can be tolerated at the service load ( critical crack size) ?
3. How long does it take for a crack to grow from a certain initial size to a critical size ?
4. What size of pre-existing flaw ( crack ) can be permitted at the moment structure starts its
life ?
5. How often should the structure be inspected ?

Fracture Mechanics : Energy Theory

Failure of fracture (complete fracture) results when a crack propagates sufficiently far through a
member so that the member is unable to support the load and hence fracture into two or more
pieces.

Brittle fracture has two stages : initiation of crack ( crack ignition ) and propagation of crack (
crack extension ). Once the crack has been initiated, subsequent crack propagation may occur in
several ways depending on the relative displacement of the particles in the two faces of the crack
as in opening mode ( Mode I ), sliding mode ( Mode II ), and tearing mode ( Mode III ).
Brittle fracture occurs in mode I and is quite common.

Cracks can be described with the concept of stress intensity factor K ( not stress concentration
factor). For 3 modes of failure K I , K II, K III are the notations employed. The dimension of stress
intensity factor K is [] X [] and depends on specimen, dimensions and loading
conditions. In general K is proportional to average stress X crack length. When K is known for a
given mode, stresses and displacements in the neighborhood of the crack tip can be calculated.
The stress is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the crack tip, becoming
infinite at the tip.

STRESS STATE IN A CRACK

The theory starts with an assumed initial crack, for which the size, shape and location can be
defined.

According to A. A. Griffith a crack in a body will be opened when the strain energy released
from the stressed body equals or exceeds that required to create the surface of the crack.

For an object considered let the crack length be 2a with infinite boundary and unit thickness.
Then according to Griffith theory the energy released for each half length a is
U = ((1 2) 2
/ 2E) x ( x a 2)

where the fraction inside the bracket is seen to be the unit volume energy in plane strain.

For an extension of the crack in an unstable state, the energy release G per unit of crack
extension is

G = U/ a = ( ( 1 2
) 2
/ E) x ( x a )

2 x a = E x G / ( 1 2 ) = K 2
where G is the surface energy J / m2

The term on the right is a function of the material only . K is called the stress intensity factor.

K = 1.77 x x (a)

Is considered the basic or reference equation. The unit of K is MPa (m)

The magnitude of the value of the K must be modified for different crack condition.

For example h/b = 1 and a/b = 0.5, then the magnitude of K must be modified, in this case by a
factor of 1.32, so then K1 = 1.32 ( ) ( x a )

Thus it can be seen that K1 is a function of the average axial stress and the geometry of the part.
Solutions for this particular problem over a wide range of ratios of h/b and a/b have been
calculated and are given graphically where K1 is the desired value and K is the base value.

Critical Stress Intensity Factor KC

Through carefully controlled testing of a given material, the stress- intensity factor at which a
crack will propagate is measured. This is the critical stress-intensity factor Kc.

Kc is measured using pre-cracked specimens taken from a material which represent the region in
which the subject crack is located. Thus for a known applied stress sigma acting on a part of
known or assumed crack length 2a, when the magnitude of K reaches Kc, the crack will
propagate. For the designer, the factor of safety n is thus

n = Kc / K

Critical stress intensity factor Kc is also called Fracture Toughness.

Whatever the mechanism, for fracture or crack growth to occur a detrimental combination of
applied stress, crack dimension and materials fracture toughness is required. This condition can
be expressed mathematically as : K Kc. Where K is applied stress intensity factor.

Solve problems provided in tutorials.

 FRACTURE MECHANICS

1. A ship steel deck that is 30 mm thick, 12 mm wide and 20 meter long ( in the tensile stress
direction ) is operated below its ductile- to- brittle transition temperature ( with Kc = 28.3 MPa (
m) ) . If a 65 mm long central transverse crack is present, calculate the tensile stress for
catastrophic failure. Compare this stress with the yield strength of 240 MPa for this steel. ( Ans :
88.68 MPa)
2. A 5 mm long crack exists in an infinite steel plate of fracture toughness K1c = 105 MN / m
3/2.
Calculate the maximum allowable design stress that could be applied around the boundary. If
the yield stress for the plate material is 1500 MPa, comment on the type of failure that
would occur if this design would exceed. ( 1185 MPa)
3. A plate of width 1.4 meter and length 2.8 meter is required to support a tensile force in the 2.8
meter direction of 4.0 MN. Inspection detected through thickness edge cracks of 2.7 mm. The
two Titanium alloy T1 6 Al 4V are being considered for application for which the safety factor
must be 1.3 and minimum weight is important. Which alloy should be used ?
Titanium I - K1c = 115 with yield stress = 910 MPa.
Titanium I I - K1c = 55 with yield stress = 1035 MPa.

4. A sheet of glass measuring 2 meter by 200 mm by 2mm contains a central slit

parallel to the 200 mm wide side. The sheet is restrained at one end and loaded in tension with
a mass of 500 kg. What is the maximum allowable length of slit before fracture occur ? Assume
the following material properties E = 60 GPa., Surface energy G or U is 0.5 J / m2, Poissons ratio
= 0.25 and the fracture stress of sound glass is 170 MPa. ( 0.135 mm )

5. If the fracture stress of a large sheet of steel, which contains a central crack of length 40 mm is
480 MPa calculate the fracture stress of a similar steel containing a crack length of 100 mm. (
303.6 MPa)
6. A class 20 gray cast iron has an average graphite flake size about nine times as long as class 60
type. The fracture strength of the latter is about 140 MPa. Using arguments that follow the
Griffith analysis what would you predict to be the fracture strength of the class 20 iron. ( 46.7
MPa)