Failure Analysis - Part 2

Last week I showed you a simple failure analysis of a bolt that had broken into two pieces. Even with EPI Materials Testing Group's experience and knowledge, we like to look at every part of a failure to ensure we have accurate answers and with as much detail as we can find.

So even after looking at this fracture surface with the naked eye, we took a closer look with our stereomicroscope and our Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

In this case, a closer look at the fracture surface with our SEM revealed the fracture morphology in detail. When we looked at the morphology, elongated dimples were evident (picture below).

The dimple morphology of a fracture surface indicates a ductile fracture mode. These dimples were elongated which are indicative of shear loading or in this case torsional load.

Next week I will show you how ductile dimples are formed during a failure.

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