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Brittle Fracture of Ships
Liberty Ship “Schenectady” broke into two in 1943 in calm harbour waters
 Design Strategy: Build Steel Ships Quickly!
• Pre-WWI: The Titanic
"Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering
Materials", (4th ed.) Fig. 7.1(a), p. 262, John Wiley
and Sons, Inc., 1996. (Orig. source: Dr. Robert D.
Ballard, The Discovery of the Titanic.)
• Problem: Used a type of steel with a DBTT ~ Room temp.
As a Designer: Stay Above The DBTT!
• WWII: Liberty ships
"Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of
Engineering Materials", (4th ed.) Fig. 7.1(b), p. 262,
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1996. (Orig. source:
Earl R. Parker, "Behavior of Engineering
Structures", Nat. Acad. Sci., Nat. Res. Council, John
Wiley and Sons, Inc., NY, 1957.)
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If =90 or  = 90 degree shear stress zero 10
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(Griffith’s Equation)
 Plane-Strain and Plane-Stress
Plane Strain - a condition of a body in which the displacements of
all points in the body are parallel to a given plane, and the values
of theses displacements do not depend on the distance
perpendicular to the plane
Plane Stress – a condition of a body in which the state of stress is
such that two of the principal stresses are always parallel to a
given plane and are constant in the normal direction.

Material within the crack tip stress field, situated close

to a free surface, can deform laterally (in the z-direction
of the image) because there can be no stresses normal to
the free surface. The state of stress tends to biaxial and
the material fractures in a characteristic ductile manner,
with a 45o shear lip being formed at each free surface.

Material away from the free surfaces of a relatively

thick component is not free to deform laterally as it is
constrained by the surrounding material. The stress state
under these conditions tends to triaxial and there is zero
strain perpendicular to both the stress axis and the
direction of crack propagation when a material is loaded
in tension
Plane stress

The significance of a plane-stress

condition is that a crack present
under such conditions will propagate
as a slant fracture, and hence this
macroscopic fracture appearance
gives information about the fracture
process.

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Plane Strain
When a notched plate loaded in
uniaxial tension has significant
thickness, the strain in the Z
direction is constrained, leading
to a plain strain condition. The
size of the plastic zone at the
crack tip is smaller than in the
plane-stress case, and hence the
axial stress at the crack root very
large .

The max shear stresses are

relatively low, and the high
normal axial stress controls the
overall fracture path, which is
thus relatively flat and normal to
the axis of the external load.
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Ductile and Brittle Fracture
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If the fracture does not initiate in the center, then the material will pull down to a point.
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Crack Propagation

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Fracture of Tensile Samples

Necking/notch results in triaxial state of stress, with the radial and axial tensile stresses
being maximum at the center as shown in figure 48
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Triaxial stress distribution at necking/notch makes the center of the tensile bar
susceptible to crack initiation, and in many alloys this is where fracture
initiates. (However, this depends on the alloy and test conditions).

If a crack initiates in the center, it then spreads radially, so that at this stage
the tensile bar has an internal notch. As the crack approaches the surface, the
remaining material is a thin shell, and hence the plane stress condition
develops. This leads to a change in crack propagation from flat fracture to
slant process.

Thus the fracture surface consists of a central region, which is macroscopically

relatively flat with its surface normal to the tensile load direction (Plane strain
region), and a rim inclined at 45o (plane stress region). This is called a cup-and-
cone fracture. If the fracture does not initiate in the center, then the material
will pull down to a point. Thus the fracture appearance depends on the effect of
internal microstructural features on the initiation of internal cracks

The relative amount of slant and flat fracture depends on the degree of
constraint. This increases with thickness, so there is more flat fracture
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 yield criteria
Maximum Principal Stress Theory - Yield occurs when the largest principal stress exceeds the
uniaxial tensile yield strength. Although this criterion allows for a quick and easy comparison with
experimental data it is rarely suitable for design purposes.

Maximum Principal Strain Theory - Yield occurs when the maximum principal strain reaches the
strain corresponding to the yield point during a simple tensile test.

Maximum Shear Stress Theory - Also known as the Tresca yield criterion, after the French scientist
Henri Tresca. This assumes that yield occurs when the shear stress exceeds the shear yield strength

Total Strain Energy Theory - This theory assumes that the stored energy associated with elastic
deformation at the point of yield is independent of the specific stress tensor. Thus yield occurs when the
strain energy per unit volume is greater than the strain energy at the elastic limit in simple tension. For
a 3-dimensional stress state this is given by:

Distortion Energy Theory - This theory proposes that the total strain energy can be separated into two components:
the volumetric (hydrostatic) strain energy and the shape (distortion or shear) strain energy. It is proposed that yield
occurs when the distortion component exceeds that at the yield point for a simple tensile test. This is generally
referred to as the Von Mises yield criterion and is expressed as:

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Fracture surface orientation of ductile/brittle materials under different loading conditions

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Turbine blades generally made of single crystal

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Strain Hardening (n, K or C values)

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 Superplasticity
In order to achieve superplastic flow in a polycrystalline material :

1- The material must have a very small and stable grain size in range of ~ 2-10 μm .
2- Temperatures at and above of ~ 0.5Tm .
3. High strain rate sensitivity (>0.5)
4. Slow Strain rate test.

There are two principal classes of superplastic processes termed .

• Thermo-mechanical superplasticity.
• Transformation superplasticity.
Thermo-mechanical processing is used to produce alloys for industrial super plastic
forming operation . However , it is now well established that processing through the
introduction of severe plastic deformation provides the capability of producing grain
sizes in the sub micrometer or nanometer range , For example .

1. Process of equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP).

2. Process of equal-channel angular rolling (ECAR).
3. Process of equal-channel angular extrusion (ECAE).
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