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F
igure 1 shows the major surface • The fatigue zone is the area
features seen on almost every of slow crack growth. There
fatigue face. The origin is where are low-cycle fatigue failures
the crack actually started. The crack where the crack growth
then grew slowly across the fatigue occurs over relatively few
zone, with a typical growth rate aver- cycles, frequently less than
aging approximately 10-6 in./stress a hundred. However, in
cycle. During this slow crack growth, most of the machiner y
there were variations in the load that failures analyzed by the
resulted in corresponding variations author, the crack has taken
in the crack growth rate that appear between 400,000 and
as progression marks. Eventually, the 20,000,000 cycles to grow
crack reached the point where the across the fracture face. The Fig. 1 Macroscopic surface features
remaining material was overstressed, plane of this fatigue zone is
and the overload zone resulted. In the very important, because it develops marks is a much more descriptive
overload zone, most cracks grow as perpendicular to the plane of term, because these lines tell us
macroscopically brittle fractures, and maximum stress in the part, thus exactly how the crack face has
the crack growth rate is approximately helping the investigator to under- progressed across the piece.) There
½× the speed of sound in the piece. stand the source of the stress. are actually two mechanisms that
However, the overload zone may generate progression marks. Most
• The progression marks show how the
develop by either ductile or brittle commonly, they are seen in the older
crack has grown and are only present
fracture mechanisms. portion of a failure, where they
in fractures where there have been
Each of these features deserves show gross changes in load, such as
substantial variations in the compo-
more of an explanation: startup and shutdown forces. How-
nent stress as the crack grew across
ever, in the latter stages of a fracture
• A single origin usually indicates a the piece. (The traditional name for
life, they show the individual stress
failure with low overstress, while the these indicators has been beach
cycles.
presence of multiple origins may be marks, because they frequently look
the result of either high stress or like the lines that waves leave on a One frequently hears of confusion
high stress concentrations. sandy beach. However, progression between progression marks and
fatigue striations. Fatigue striations indicates the magnitude of the load shown in Fig. 4. If plane bending or
show each stress cycle experienced by when the final fracture occurs; that tension has caused the failure, the
the part and are generally visible only is, a large overload zone indicates sides of the ratchet marks will be
under extremely high magnification, the part was heavily stressed at the essentially perpendicular to the frac-
while progression marks are visible to time of final fracture. Note, how- ture face. If the primary load causing
the naked eye (Fig. 2). Also, in many ever, that if there are large changes the failure was torsional, the sides will
alloys, such as austenitic stainless in the load over time and many be tapered.
steels, fatigue striations are very diffi- progression marks, this final fracture With fractures that have multiple
cult to detect, while in others, for ex- load could differ greatly from the origins, analysis of the angles of the
ample most of the aluminum alloys, load at the time of crack initiation. ratchet marks in the fracture plane can
striations are relatively easy to find. There are two other important usually be used to determine which
• The overload zone, or fast fracture surface features of fatigue failures of the origins was actually the pri-
zone, is the portion of the piece that have not been mentioned. The mary one. In situations such as that
where the final catastrophic failure first of these is the ratchet mark. In shown in Fig. 5, it can be seen that
occurs. This zone is usually macro- Fig. 3, a ratchet mark indicating the the center two ratchet marks are
scopically brittle, although in a boundary between two adjacent slightly closer at the surface, indica-
small percentage of the pieces, duc- failure planes has been added to Fig. ting the failure began between them.
tility is present. In this area, the 2. One can see that there are two crack The second important feature is the
crack propagates at approximately origins, and the ratchet mark is be- shape of the fracture as viewed from
½ the speed of sound in the mater- tween them. The presence of ratchet the side. If the stress concentration is
ial. The size of the overload zone marks indicates multiple origins and relatively insignificant, the fracture
relatively high total stresses. face will essentially be a flat plane.
Ratchet marks can result from But if the stress concentration played
either high stress on the part an important part in causing the
or from high stress concen- failure, such as a sharp corner on a
trations. However, by looking step in a shaft, the fracture face will
at both the ratchet marks and be curved in that area affected by the
the size of the instantaneous stress concentration. The sketch in
zone, one can generally under- Fig. 6 shows a side view of a shaft,
stand whether the load or the and the concave fracture face indicates
Fig. 2 Progression marks stress concentration was the that there was a serious stress concen-
major cause of the fracture. For tration. (If there had been an ade-
example, the combination of quate radius on the shaft and a low
many ratchet marks and a stress concentration factor, the frac-
small overload zone indicates ture face would have been essentially
that the load was light, but flat, or the failure may not have
there were high stress concen- happened at all.)
trations.
The last of the common surface
In addition, by looking at features that are important to show
Fig. 3 Ratchet mark added
the edges of the
ratchet marks,
one can tell
whether tor-
sional forces
were involved
with the failure.
Fig. 4 Two similar appearing sections of shaft failures resulting from Two examples
different causes of this are Fig. 5 Origin of failure shown
Photo 1 A basic fatigue failure complicated by several holes. Two origins are seen
at (1). The progression marks work across the fracture face. At (2) the growth of
the fracture face is essentially straight across the face. (With high magnification,
fatigue striations may be seen between the progression marks.)
Photo 6 These are “river marks” in a case hardened gear used in a 3500
hp pump drive. Like rivers flowing downstream, they indicate the
direction in which the crack progressed and show the crack grew from top Neville W. Sachs, P.E., Sachs, Salvaterra & Associates,
to bottom. However, the pressure side of the teeth is toward the bottom, Inc., 6171 Airport Road, Syracuse, NY 13209; Contact
that is, the gear is being driven in an upward direction, indicating a e-mail: reliable@twcny.rr.com.
serious torsional problem.