/

MIE270: Materials Science

Review Session 02
Ph Phase Transformation and Fracture & Failure
ase Transformation
Fundamental Concepts
(1) What is a Phase Diagram?
(2) What are Phase Transformations?
(3) What parameters influence the rate of Phase Transformation?
( 4 ) How are the mechanical properties of materials correlated to their phase?

(1)
The control of the phase structure of a particular system is conveniently and concisely
displayed in what is called a phase diagram, also often termed an equilibrium diagram.

(2)
W., = 0.76- C 0 For a hypoeutectoid Fe--C alloy,
the mass fraction of proeutectoid
J
vcl«•~ •. (.,u.l-rl<
a 0.74
a ferrite phase (per Figure 10.35) \~ ,;(" S~r-,"k.
w; _ Ci - 0.76 For a hypereutectoid Fe--C alloy,
Fe,C' - 5.94 the inass fraction of proeutectoid F~C
(per Figure 10.35)
r )' gro'-1

(3) Three externally controllable parameters affect phase structure-temperature, pressure,

and composition-and phase diagrams are constructed when various combinations of these
parameters are plotted against one another.

(4)
Table11.2 -.-...-iMedmllcal,.__fw~Allors
II~
Pmpmlo (R.diuhe)

a-Ferrite + Fc,C Relatively small Fe:,C sphcrdikc Soft and ductile

Spheroiditc
paniclcs in~ f-c~ lm ____ _

Coane pearlitc a-Ferrite + Fe:,C Alternating laycn of a-f-crritc and Harder and llrODgCr than
Fe:,C that are relatively thick sphcroiditc, but not u ductile
as spheroidite
·- ---
a-Ferrite + Fe:,C AJtcmaling laycn of a-ferrite and Harder and stronger than c:oane
Fme pearlilc
Fe:,C that are rclathcly thin pcarlite, but not as ductile as
c:oane pcarlite

a-Fcnitc + Fc,C Very fine and elongated partid,:o Harder and stronger than fine
Bainite
of Fc,C in an a-ferrite maim pcarlitc; less bard than
martcnsitc; more ductile than
mutcmite
-
a-Fcnitc + Fe:,C Very small Fc,C sphcrdikc Strong; not as bard as owtemitc,
Tempen:d but much more ductile than
martcnsitc particles in an a-ferrite maim
martcmitc
- -
Body-<lCDterod Nccdlo-chapcd gnina Very bard and very brittle
Martcmite
tetragooal. single
phuc
Example 1
You are given a part made of ferritic steel having a carbon content of 0.36 wt.%, in equilibrium at
a temperature of 1000°C. If the following cooling trajectories are applied, state and sketch a
schematic of the microstructural constituent(s) and/or phase(s) that would be present. Make
sure to clearly label all of the microstructural constituent(s) and/or phase(s) present in your
schematic.
(A) Cool to 800°C and hold at that temperature indefinitely.
(B) Rapidly cool to 250°C, hold for 100s, and quench to room temperature.
(C) Quickly cool to 600°C, hold for 1-second, then quickly cool to 500°C, hold for 1000s, and
quench to room temperature.
(D) Cool to 680°C and hold for 2-years before cooling to room temperature (in service).
(E) Quickly cool to 700°C, hold for 10s, cool to 600°C, hold for 10s, cool to 400°C, hold for 100s,
and quench to room temperature.
(F) Quickly cool to 400°C, hold at that temperature for 10s, and then cool instantaneously to
room temperature.

HCoarse" Pearlite

Proeutectoid Ferrite and

A: Austenite Coarse Pearlite
---------- D:

Proeutectoid Ferrite and

B: Martensite E: ---"~~=----'-"----
Fine Pearlite
----------

Fe3C
Proeutectoid Ferrite, Fine
C: Pearlite, and Bainite F: Bainite and Martensite

, :, .
/
Example 2
You are given a part made of ferritic steel having a carbon content of O. 76 wt.%, in equilibrium
at a temperature of 900°C. Answer the following questions:
(A) How much time is required for austenite to fully transform into a different phase after
quickly cooling 500°C? After transformation, what microstructural constituent(s) and/or
phase(s) will be present, and in what proportions?
(B) If a piece of austenite is cooled to 650°C and held for 2-days, which microstructural
constituent(s) and/or phase(s) will be present, and in what proportions?
(C) If a piece of austenite is cooled to 100°c and held in service at this temperature for 2-years,
which microstructural constituent(s) and/or phase(s) will be present?
(D) Of the 3 microstructures achieved in (a}, (b}, and (c}, which is the strongest and which is the
most ductile? Explain your reasoning(s).
(E) If the component with the strongest microstructure needs to be made more ductile, what
additional steps should be taken to further increase the ductility of the component without
reverting to the austenite phase? Explain your reasoning(s}.
(A)

At 500°C, approximately 10 seconds is required for Austenite to fully transform into 100% Bainite, which
consist of ferrite (a) and cementite (Fe3 C) phases. Therefore, the proportions of the phases from the level
rule on the phase diagram at 500°C, for an overall eutectoid alloy are:
0 76
CFe · -o
3c _ = ~ =
·t I¾o
O•113 W.
6 1 0 61
Ca -- · - ·
6.7-0 -
- 0 •887 W t . I¾o

(B)
At 650°C, for 2-days, 100% Coarse Perlite will form, which consist of ferrite (a) and cementite (Fe3 C) phases.
Therefore, the proportions of the phases from the level rule on the phase diagram at 6S0°C, for an overall
eutectoid alloy are:
C = o .16-0.020 = 0.111 wt.%
Fe3c 6.7-0.020
6 1 0 61
C = · - · = 0.889 wt.%
a 6.7-0.020

(C)
At 100°C, for 2-years, 100% Martensite (or 90% Martensite and 10% Austenite) will form.

(D)
Martensite is the strongest because of its BCT structure hindering dislocation motions. Coarse pearlite is the
most ductile because of the least grain boundaries, not restricting deformation of soft ferrite phase regions.

(E)
Heat martensite to a temperature below the eutectoid temperature, and then cool. This causes the cracks
formed through FCC to BCT transformation to heal, relieving these internal stresses. Also, this forms soft ferrite,
which is more ductile than austenite.
Example 3
Using the isothermal transformation diagram for a 0.45 wt% C steel alloy, illustrated below, determine
the final microstructure (in terms of just the microconstituents present) of a small specimen that has
been subjected to the following time-temperature treatments. In each case assume that the specimen
begins at 845°C and that it has been held at this temperature long enough to have achieved a complete
and homogeneous austenitic structure.
(a) Rapidly cool to 250°C, hold for 103 s, then quench to room temperature.
(b) Rapidly cool to 700°C, hold for 30 s, then quench to room temperature.
(c) Rapidly cool to 400°C, hold for 500 s, then quench to room temperature.
(d) Rapidly cool to 700°C, hold at this temperature for 105 s, then quench to room temperature.
(e) Rapidly cool to 6S0°C, hold at this temperature for 3 s, rapidly cool to 400°C, hold for 10 s, then
quench to room temperature.
(f) Rapidly cool to 450°C, hold for 10 s, then quench to room temperature.
(g) Rapidly cool to 625°C, hold for 1 s, then quench to room temperature.
(h) Rapidly cool to 625°C, hold at this temperature for 10 s, rapidly cool to 400°C, hold at this
temperature for 5 s, then quench to room temperature.

A: Martensite E: Ferrite, Pearlite (medium), Bainite & Martensite

B: Proeutectoid Ferrite & Martensite F: Bainite & Martensite
C: Bainite G: Ferrite, Pearlite & Martensite
D: Spheroidite H: Ferrite & Pearlite
 MIE270: Materials Science
Review Session 02
Phase Transformation and Fracture & Failure
Fracture & Failure
Fundamental Concepts
(1) What is a Mechanical Failure?
(2) How do flaws in a material initiate failure?
(3) What parameters and environments influence mechanical failure?
(4) How can we design to avoid failure?
r Example 1
The ntanic, or "Unsinkable sh·1 #
h" st k .
..
P ' was a 8ntish passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after the

1;;ncah
ip . ru~ an iceberg. The ntanic, during its maiden voyage, en-route to New York City United States of
0 th
~ S~u ~mpton, England, had an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard. On April 14-15

d ea d 'i·iest
w en t e U~sinka~le Ship" sank, more than 1,500 people were killed, making it one of modern history';
commercial marine disasters.
th
Suppose. at all of us in our MIE270 class are researchers who are required to find out, from a Materials
~erspective, the root cause for the sinking of the ntanic. Based on the test results obtained for the Titanic Steel
(in both longitudinal and transverse directions) and a comparable contemporary ASTM A36 Steel shown in the
figure below, answer the following questions.

Impact Energy vs. Temperature

200

180
'
160 ASTM A36 Steel

140
S 120
t 100 - -
r
_ ~nlc l.onsjtudlnal
i so ~ -
I so
--~-I
TitanlcTransverse
-- -

20 - - - -

0
-100 .70 -40 -10 20 50 80 110 140 170 200
Temperature rCJ

(A) Determine the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature as the temperature corresponding to an

impact energy of 20 Jules for all three cases. [ /3]

Titanic Longitudinal DBTT ,., 30°C

Titanic Transverse DBTT:.. 45°C
ASTM A36 Steel DBTT :.. -25°C

(B) The temperature of the water was -2°C when the tragedy occurred. Draw your conclusion
regarding the ultimate cause for the sinking of the Titanic. [ /3]

The ultimate cause for the sinking of the Titanic, from a materials perspective, was that the
material chosen was not practical for the conditions for which it was intended to be used. The
Titanic material was only designed to operate at temperatures greater than 30°C. The DBTT for
the Titanic material was significantly above the water temperature. Therefore, the material
experienced brittle behaviour upon impact which resulted in catastrophic failure.

(C) If ASTM A36 Steel was used to construct the Titanic, would it have better withstood the collision
with the iceberg? Why, or why not? [ /4]

Yes, if ASTM A36 Steel would have been used to construct the Titanic catastrophic failure would
have been avoided. The DBTT for ASTM A36 Steel, from the graph, is -25°C and the water
temperature that night was only -2°C, therefore, upon impact the material would have
experienced ductile behaviour.

J
I Example 2
A Stress
t . Magnitude
1
U
th
.
versus Num ber Of Cyc1es to Failure plot has been established for three different
ma ena s. sing e S-N plot below, answer the following questions.
700,~---,---.-----.----r---~

600

500
.,
Q.

Cl) 400
.,;
f!
1ii
E
::, 300
E
·;;:
"'
::!:

200

100

0
10" 105 10• 107 108 109
Cycles to failure, N

(A) Define the Fatigue Limit /or Endurance Limit) of a material. [ /1]
Fatigue Limit (or Endurance Limit) is a limiting stress level, where fatigue failure will not occur. This
fatigue limit represents the largest value of fluctuating stress that will not cause failure for essentially
an infinite number of cycles.

(B) Define the Fati ue Stren h of a material. [ /1]

Fatigue Strength is defined as the stress level at which failure will occur for some specified number of
cycles.

(C) Which material(s) on the 5-N lot above experience a Fati ue Limit? [ /2]
A & C

8
(D) What is the Fatigue Strength of each material at 10 cycles? [ /3]
I A: 312 MPa B: 138 MPa C: 100 MPa

(E) What is the Fatigue Life of each material at 200MPa? [ /3]

I A: Infinite B: 2.2x106 cycles C: Failure
Example3
Suppo~e you ~re working for a turbine supplier that fabricates several components from 5-590 Steel. The
M_atenals Engineer, your su~ervisor, explains to you that turbine components are highly susceptible to creep
fa'.lure due to high stresses and elevated temperatures. When a turbine blade experiences creep behaviour it
will cause the blade to contact the surrounding casing, resulting in the failure.
The Engineer hands you a particular cylindrical component and asks you to determine the minimum diameter
required for it to experience an elongation of no more than 8.2mm. The component is 50mm long and is to
be exposed to a tensile load 86kN for 1500 hours at 73o•c. Assume that the sum of the instantaneous and
primary creep elongation is 0.6mm. Answer the following questions.
Stress vs. Steady-State Creep Rate Stress vs. Rupture Lifetime

I200 ~ - -~ ::::.-::...--i--:::.._,-;;::,-,-.c-- t ------1

i!

I :k=====t=====t==~~~t~=~s~t==1
1

so l--- - l - - - - - l - - - -P--t- - t --1

40 1--- - l - - - - - l - - - - - f -~---"-t --l

20 Lwillll...JWJWLllillLJWJWLWIIIL.J.lWIL,-J...IIJ.11.1.,JLWJJll..f-ll~
lo-' lo-' I~ 10-1 I
lo-' lo-' lo-' I~ 10-1 1
_"""',...or'J Rupl!n llfltlme Oil

(A) Express the relationship between the total elongation and the primary, secondary, and
instantaneous elongations. [ /1]
Total Elongation= Jnstantanious Elongation+ Primary Elongation+ Seconday Elomgation
AEtotal = llEp + AErN + Iles
(B) Calculate the Steady-State Creep Rate ( Es ) for this cylindrical component. /3]

= llEp + llErN + Iles

flEtotal

8.2 mm = 0.6 mm + Iles

Iles= 7.6mm

AEs 7.6mm
E = - = - - = 0.125
s !1 50mm

· = Es = = 101.3 x 10-6 h- 1
Es t 1500 h
Es = 1.0 X 10- 4
h-1
Final I Es = 1.0 X 10-4 h- 1
(C) Determine the applied stress on this cylindrical component. /1 I
From the "Stress vs. Steady-State Creep Rate" graph, u =200 MPa
(D) Calculate the minimum diameter required for this cylindrical component. /4]
F
a=A
A=aF
1rdZ
-=aF
4
dz= 4aF
7[

d = J4 a F = 4 (200 x 106 Pa) (86 x 103 N) = 23 _4 mm .

7[ , 7r
Example4
A contact lens is a thin lens placed directly on the surface of the eye. Contact lenses are ocular
prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide. Contacts are generally worn to
correct vision, however, a growing trend is to wear contacts for cosmetic or therapeutic purposes.
Rigid or "hard" contacts were the first lenses developed in the 1960s. These hard shell contact lenses
are fabricated from a polymeric material called Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA). PMMA has a
Plane Strain Fracture Toughness of Kie= 1.600 MPa{m, a Modulus of Elasticity (Young's
Modulus) of E = 2.463 GPa, and a Poisson Ratio of v =
0.350. The critical stress applied to the
contact lenses is modeled as:
Et
Cl - --;:===;;::
critical - T - v2)
where, Eis the Modulus of Elasticity, vis Poisson's ratio, tis the thickness, and r is the radius of
the contact lens. The geometry of a. contact lens can be modeled resembling that of a
hemispherical shell, which results in a geometry factor (Y) of:
Y= )( $)sin0
where, vis Poisson's ratio, tis the thickness, and r is the radius, and 0 is the opening angle of the
contact lens.
Suppose you are a young design engineer who's tasked with testing a proposed design, for hard
shell contact lenses, from a senior engineer at your firm. The senior engineer proposes that t =
0.140mm, r = 8.500mm, 0 = 20°, and a crack length of a = 0.035mm will result in no fracture.
(A) Express the condition for which fracture will occur. [ /1]
I Krest > K1c
(8) Calculate the Fracture Toughness (Ktest> using the proposed design specifications from the
senior engineer. [ fl]
Step 1: Write out the general fracture toughness equation.
Ktest = Y Ucrtttcal.,/iia
Step 2: Calculate the value for the Geometry Factor given the design specifications.

= ('!/12(1 - [\ sin0 = ('!J.--~-=---::-=-) ( /0.500 x 10-3 m')

= 4.800
y v2 ) ) ( 12(1 - [0.350)2) _ x _ m sin(20°)
0 140 10 3
Step 3: Calculate the value for the Critical Stress given the design specifications.
_ Et = (2.463 x 109 Pa)(0.140 X 10-3 m) = _ MPa
25 000
Ucrttlcal - - v2) (8.500 x 10-3 - [0.350]2)
Step 4: Calculate the Facture Toughness using the values calculated for the geometry factor
and critical stress above.
Ktest = (4.800)(25.000 MPa)/n:(0.035 X 10-3 m) = 1.258 MPa.,/m -------~~--1
Final I Ktest = 1.258 MPa../m
(C) Under the proposed design specifications will fracture occur? Explain. [ /2]
Fracture will occur if: Ktest > K1 c So, substituting the values for the fracture toughness at the test
conditions and the plain strain facture toughness gives:
Ktest = 1.258 MPa../m < K1c = 1.600 MPa../m
Therefore, under the proposed design specifications, fracture will not occur.
Example 5
A steel alloy (4340) tempered at 425°C has a fracture toughness of 87.4 MPa-./m. Two manufacturing
methods are under consideration. In the first (method A), flaws of maximum size 2mm are generated
at a distance of at least 2 cm apart. In the second (method B), a maximum flaw size of 1.3 mm is
generated at a distance of at least 0.5 mm apart (non-overlapping).
(A) Which manufacturing method allows a higher service load to be applied without leading to a
single-loading-event fracture?
(B) What additional manufacturing step could be applied after the methods above have been
implemented to further increase the maximum safe stress? Can the method described be
successfully applied after either method (A or B), or only after one of them? If the latter, which
one and why? How much additional stress could be applied if the step is implemented?

(a) K=Ysigma(pi()"a)"0.5 1 pt
geometrical factor is typically dose to 1 -> use 1 as an Initial approximation 2 pts
when specific value unknown 3pts
solve for max safe stress In terms of fracture toughness and flaw size
(using Y="'l, assuming some flaws intersect the surface (most conservative assumption))
sigma= (K/V)/(pi•a)"0.5 given K = 87.4 MPa(m)"0.5
sigma (A) = 1102.608912 Mpa a (A)= 0.002 m
sigma (Bl= 1367.618038 Mpa a (Bl= 0.0013 m
(bl
Add a surface grinding step to remove surface flaws after method A (cracks are far enough apart that removing
surface flaws due to (e.g.) casting or other manufacturing step, but not in B because flaws
are so dose together that removing current surface flaws will expose new flaws to the surface
removing surface flaws makes all of the 2 mm flaws Interior flaws, with a new a (A')= 0.001 m
sigma (A')= 1559.324478 Mpa
Additional stress=sigma(A') - sigma A= 456.7156 Mpa
(.c)
Method A' (surface grinding to remove surface flaws after method A) is most resistant to corrosion, because
stress corrosion cracking, in which water can collect In surface cracks and deepen them due to corrosion,
would be sev~ ely restricted or prevented entirely.
(d)
Since fatigue crack growth is proportional to Delta K, for a given service stress, the Item with the smallest value of flaw
size a will have the highest fatigue resistance (slowest fatigue crack growth rate). Therefore, method A' (grinding
away of surface flaws after method A wlll provide the longest fatigue life of the options available.

(a) Method B is better because of smaller crack size. Use calculation to support that.
(bl Removing the surface fractures by polishing (only applies to Method A), calculate the extra
stress when all fractures are internal. Shot peening/ Carburizing (can be applied to both).
Cannot be quantified so get partial credit.
No credit for other methods.
(c) Polishing/ shot peeing/ carburizing
Stress corrosion is the major concern
(d) Method A+ polishing/ Method B + shot peening or carburizing