Materials can fail when the acting forces exceed the strength of the material. But did you know materials can also fail at much lower forces? A typical example of this is called fatigue. This is a damage mechanism that occurs under the influence of varying forces. Some examples are the forces acting on rotating shafts, or vibrations caused by a pump but also stresses due to temperature variations.
The shape of such a fatigue fracture already gives a lot of information about how the fracture originated, and continued to grow into a complete fracture. Conical fracture surfaces are more likely to indicate fatigue by torsion, flat fracture surfaces are more likely to indicate other force distributions like for instance bending. The fracture surface can be symmetrical, or asymmetrical, both of which indicate different force distributions.
Besides the shape of the fracture surface, there are other characteristics from which the type of fracture can be determined. Such a fracture surface survey, combined with metallographic analysis, allows the cause of the fracture to be identified. This is important information to know what measures can be taken to avoid these failures in the future.
At TÜV AUSTRIA Belgium, our team of failure analysis experts have received multiple cases from various branches in the industry. Much attention is given to the quality of analysis and reporting, with clear advice on how to avoid these damages in the future.
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