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Failure Mechanisms
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Ductile Fracture
· The photographs show a 304 stainless steel bolt that failed in tension by ductile failure. This was one of a series of bolts that failed in the same manner in a system designed to harvest power from wave motion.

· Using the diameter change and the thread spacing in the deformed and undeformed regions indicates that the material failed at about 30% elongation, a number in good agreement with the specifications of the alloy.

· The SEM photograph of the thread near the failure region clearly shows a pair of parallel helical cracks that run in the thread bottom, and which have crack surfaces at about 450 to the tensile axis. 

Scanning Electron Micrograph courtesy of Dr. D. R. Mumm, M.A.E. and Princeton Materials Institute 

 

last modified: 7/26/2001 1:28:35 PM