1. FRACTURE, FAILURE AND FATIGUE Catastrophic failure in materials resulting from crack development

2. FRACTURE, FAILURE AND FATIGUE Catastrophic failure in materials resulting from crack development Fracture mechanics Failure analysis

3. Rail track performance Gauge corner cracking

5. FATIGUE FAILURE Comet airliner disasters of 1954

6. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY A A Griffith’s work (around 1920) on the tensile strength of glass fibres is a classic of materials science. See J E Gordon The new science of strong materials [several editions] for an excellent popular account

7. Griffith Alan Arnold 1893-1963 Griffith: Phil Trans Roy Soc 1921, v221, 163-198

8. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY Griffith found tensile strength of freshly drawn glass fibres is much greater than that of old or aged fibres

9. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY Griffith found tensile strength of freshly drawn glass fibres is much greater than that of old or aged fibres tensile strength decreased with fibre length

10. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY Griffith found tensile strength of freshly drawn glass fibres is much greater than that of old or aged fibres tensile strength decreased with fibre length tensile strength is very variable from sample to sample … much statistical variance

11. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY Griffith concluded that fibres are weakened by microscopic flaws on the surface or the interior of the fibre … and more generally in brittle materials of any kind

12. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY Stress concentration around a hole or cavity

13. Uniaxial tensile stress S

14. S 3 -S-S

15. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY Stress concentration around a hole or cavity

16. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY Stress concentration around a hole or cavity

18. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY Griffith then considered the stress distribution around a crack The steps in the argument are: In a material under stress, stress increases in the vicinity of a crack The crack may be stable or unstable The condition for stability can be written down in terms of the strain energy recovered and surface energy of the crack

19. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY In brittle materials, catastrophic crack propagation when critical stress is exceeded at crack tip

20. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY In brittle materials, catastrophic crack propagation when critical stress is exceeded at crack tip In non-brittle (TOUGH) materials, local stress concentrations can be relieved by plasticity/yield

21. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY In brittle materials, catastrophic crack propagation when a critical stress is exceeded at crack tip In non-brittle (TOUGH) materials, local stress concentrations can be relieved by plasticity/yield TOLERANCE OF DEFECTS, FLAWS, CRACKS, NOTCHES

22. FATIGUE Failure of materials subject to CYCLIC or REPETITIVE loading

23. S/N curve Wöhler curve

24. Ashby & Jones I, ch 17

30. For complex stress loadings: Miner’s Rule [Palmgren-Miner] Linear cumulative damage hypothesis

32. Fatigue striations in aluminium alloy Callister

33. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY In brittle materials, catastrophic crack propagation when critical stress is exceeded at crack tip In non-brittle (TOUGH) materials, local stress concentrations can be relieved by plasticity/yield

34. GRIFFITH FRACTURE THEORY In brittle materials, catastrophic crack propagation when a critical stress is exceeded at crack tip In non-brittle (TOUGH) materials, local stress concentrations can be relieved by plasticity/yield TOLERANCE OF DEFECTS, FLAWS, CRACKS, NOTCHES