FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND WATER ENGINEERING
COURSE NAME : MATERIAL SCIENCE
COURSE CODE : TCW 1103
LECTURER :
PRESENTER :
TOPIC :
Group Members
• Dumoluhle Dlamini (N02019957N)
• Fundirwa Christopher
• Ncube Sithandazile
Objectives
• Define Fracture
• Types
• Causes
• Outline the process of fracture
• Prevention
Definition
• Fracture involves the forced separation of a material into two or more
parts.- EN380 Naval Materials Science and Engineering Course Notes,
U.S. Naval Academy
• It is the separation of a solid into two or more parts under application
of load or stress.
• the separation or fragmentation of a solid body into two or more
parts under the action of stress.
Types of Fracture
• The fracture is termed ductile or brittle depending on the ability of a
material to undergo plastic deformation during the fracture.
• Since deformation of a material depends on many conditions such as
stress state, rate of loading, ambient temperature, crystal structure;
ductile and brittle are relative terms. Thus the boundary between a
ductile and brittle fracture is arbitrary and depends on the situation
being considered
• A ductile fracture is characterized by considerable amount of plastic
deformation prior to and during the crack propagation.
• Brittle fracture is characterized by micro-deformation or no gross
deformation during the crack propagation
Ductile Fracture
• occurs after appreciable plastic deformation.
• is usually preceded by a localized reduction in cross-sectional area, called necking.
• occurs in 3 stages
1. after on set of necking, cavities form, usually at inclusions at second-phase
particles, in the necked region because the geometrical changes induces
hydrostatic tensile stresses
2. the cavities grow, and further growth leads to their coalesce resulting in formation
of crack that grows outward in direction perpendicular to the application of stress
3. final failure involves rapid crack propagation at about 45 ْ to the tensile axis. This
angle represents the direction of maximum shear stress that causes shear slip in
the final stage.
• During the shear slip, crack propagates at a rapid speed around the outer perimeter
of neck leaving one surface in form of cup, and the other in form of cone
....contd
• Voids are thought to be nucleated heterogeneously at sites where
further deformation is difficult. These preferred sites mainly consists of
foreign inclusions, second-phase particles like oxide particles,or even
voids those can form at grain boundary triple points in high-purity metals
• The concentration of nucleating sites has a strong influence on ductile
fracture as true strain to fracture decreases rapidly with increasing
volume fraction of second phase particles
• When the particles are more spherical than plate-like, cracking is more
difficult and the ductility is increased.
• This is because dislocations can cross slip around spherical particles with
ease than around plate-like particles thus avoids buildup of high stresses.
Brittle Fracture
• It occurs, often at unpredictable levels of stress, by rapid crack propagation
• The direction of crack propagation is very nearly perpendicular to the
direction of applied tensile stress
• This crack propagation corresponds to successive and repeated breaking to
atomic bonds along specific crystallographic planes, and hence called
cleavage fracture
• This fracture is also said to be transgranular because crack propagates
through grains. Thus it has a grainy or faceted texture
• However, brittle fracture can occur in intergranular manner i.e. crack
propagates along grain boundaries
....contd
• it takes place in the following stages
1. plastic deformation that causes dislocation pile-ups at obstacles,
2. micro-crack nucleation as a result of build-up of shear stresses,
3. eventual crack propagation under applied stress aided by stored
elastic energy
