mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

, ultimate failure describes the breaking of a material. In general there are two types of failure:

fracture Fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displa ...

and

buckling In structural engineering, buckling is the sudden change in shape (deformation) of a structural component under load, such as the bowing of a column under compression or the wrinkling of a plate under shear. If a structure is subjected to a gr ...

. Fracture of a material occurs when either an internal or external crack elongates the width or length of the material. In ultimate failure this will result in one or more breaks in the material. Buckling occurs when compressive loads are applied to the material and instead of cracking the material bows. This is undesirable because most tools that are designed to be straight will be inadequate if curved. If the buckling continues, it will create tension on the outer side of the bend and compression on the inner side, potentially fracturing the material. In engineering there are multiple types of failure based upon the application of the material. In many machine applications any change in the part due to yielding will result in the machine piece needing to be replaced. Although this deformation or weakening of the material is not the technical definition of ultimate failure, the piece has failed. In most technical applications, pieces are rarely allowed to reach their ultimate failure or breakage point, instead for safety factors they are removed at the first signs of significant wear. There are two different types of fracture: brittle and ductile. Each of these types of failure occur based on the material's

ductility Ductility is a mechanical property commonly described as a material's amenability to drawing (e.g. into wire). In materials science, ductility is defined by the degree to which a material can sustain plastic deformation under tensile stres ...

. Brittle failure occurs with little to no plastic deformation before fracture. An example of this would be stretching a clay pot or rod, when it is stretched it will not neck or elongate, but merely break into two or more pieces. While applying a tensile stress to a ductile material, instead of immediately breaking the material will instead elongate. The material will begin by elongating uniformly until it reaches the yield point, then the material will begin to neck. When necking occurs the material will begin to stretch more in the middle and the radius will decrease. Once this begins the material has entered a stage called plastic deformation. Once the material has reached its

ultimate tensile strength Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), often shortened to tensile strength (TS), ultimate strength, or F_\text within equations, is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking. In brittle materials t ...

it will elongate more easily until it reaches ultimate failure and breaks.

References

*Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials Fifth Edition {{DEFAULTSORT:Ultimate Failure Reliability engineering Maintenance

See also

References