Root Cause Failure Analysis. Trinath Sahoo

under tensile stress until the section thickness critically bears the imposed load.

      3 Sudden fracture under overload

In the presence of a severe stress concentration, multiple crack origins are formed which eventually unite to form a single crack front. When the stress concentration on the surface is absent, cracks propagate more readily near the center of a section than at the surface. While there is a stress concentrating ‘notch, W‐shaped crack fronts are‐observed. For a given material, zone of the final fracture increases with increasing applied load. On rotating or bending the final fracture’, region is often rotated or offset toward the origin in the direction opposite to the direction of rotation. Also, with increasing nominal stress, the final fracture moves toward the center.

Figure 5.9 Schematic representation of the fatigue crack (three stage) phenomenon.

Stress Concentration

A stress concentration is a physical or metallurgical condition that increases the local stress in the part by some factor. A good example is the shaft shown in Figure 5.10. We see that the stress in the area of the radius varies depending on the size of the radius. A small radius can increase the stress dramatically

      Thermal Fatigue Failure

Thermal fatigue failure is the result of repeated thermal cycling which generates repeated stress gradients within a free component or stress cycling within a component constrained to fixed dimensions. Thermal fatigue fractures are characterized by surface cracking formed by multiple initiation sites that join randomly by edge sliding to form the main crack. Other features to identify thermal fatigue are as follows:

Figure 5.10 Stress concentration at corners.

       Fractures are planner and transverse with no visible plastic deformation.

       Fracture is mostly transgranular.

       Oxidized fracture surfaces and oxide wedge filled cracks further characterize thermal fatigue failures

      Fatigue resistance is affected by a number of controllable factors:

       The chemistry of the material and its resultant microstructure have a profound effect on fatigue strength. In fact, they can equally influence on mechanical strength (tensile and yield). Alloying elements, such as chromium, nickel, and moly, have the greatest effect on the iron base system. Solid solution alloys show the maximum increase in fatigue strength.

       Grain size appears to be a strong determining factor in inhibiting the plastic deformation process that occurs with crack propagation.

       Environmental factors such as cyclic temperature, temperature gradient, and corrosion pitting that result in stress concentrations. The thermal fatigue failure shown in was due to the temperature gradient across the thick wall section.

       Reduction of localized surface stress concentrations by such techniques as case hardening, shot peening, auto frottage, and thread rolling.

       Proper heat treatment can markedly improve fatigue resistance. As an example, for steels, a tempered martensitic.

Stress Corrosion Cracking

      Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is a fracture process that involves the combined and simultaneous action of a tensile stress and a corrosive environment. SCC occurs when the tensile stress and a specific environment are able to cause failure by their combined action, but are insufficient to cause failure by either one acting alone. In fact, the tensile stresses are usually below the metal’s yield strength. Furthermore, the metal would suffer only minimal corrosion in the absence of the applied stress. The problem itself can be quite complex. The situation with buried pipelines is a good example of such complexity.

      There are three requirements for SCC to occur:

      1 A susceptible metal.

      2 Tensile stresses applied to the metal.

      3 A specific environment containing an aggressive species that promotes SCC.

      This form of corrosion is particularly dangerous because it may not occur under a particular set of conditions until there is an applied stress. The corrosion is not clearly visible prior to fracture and can result in catastrophic failure. Many alloys can experience stress corrosion, and the applied stress may also be due to a residual stress in the material. An example of a residual stress could be a stress remaining in a material after forming, or a stress due to welding. Stress corrosion cracking will usually cause the material to fail in a brittle manner, which can have grave consequences as there is usually little or no warning before the failure occurs.

The impact of SCC on a material usually falls between dry cracking and the fatigue threshold of that material. The required tensile stresses may be in the form of directly applied stresses or in the form of residual stresses. Cold deformation and forming, welding, heat treatment, machining, and grinding can introduce residual stresses. The magnitude and importance of such stresses is often underestimated. The residual stresses set up as a result of welding operations tend to approach the yield strength. The buildup of corrosion products in confined spaces can also generate significant stresses and should not be overlooked.

      How to Prevent SCC

      SCC can be controlled by any of the following three approaches:

      1 Design, which includes selection of the mechanical and materials aspects of components,

      2 Controlling the materials, and

      3 Controlling the environment.

Figure 5.11 Stress corrosion on a bar.

Figure 5.12 Stress corrosion cracking.

      Source: Stress Corrosion Cracking/Industrial Metallurgists, LLC.

The source of the tensile stress which causes SCC may be externally applied stress or residual stresses. Externally applied stresses arise from applied mechanical loads such as tensile or bending loads. Residual stress is an internal stress that exists in a metal without an external load being applied. Residual stresses can result from cold working, heat treating, or welding. Increasing the yield strength of a metal is one way to improve its resistance to SCC because the threshold stress for SCC increases as the yield strength increases. The yield strength can be increased through alloying, heat treating, cold‐working, and combination of these approaches. There is one very important consideration when increasing the yield strength. The increase in strength must not be accompanied by a significant reduction of the metal’s toughness, because decreasing the toughness will have a detrimental effect on a metal’s resistance to SCC and on its fracture toughness.

      The environmental factors, such as pH and temperature, also influence the severity of SCC. By controlling the environmental factors, SCC can be controlled.

      Chloride SCC

      One