Cycling Loading Fracture also may occur unexpectedly under stress reversals,such as cyclic loading with some misalignme

nt.This clearly can occur in reciprocating or rotating parts.But it also takes place,for example, in vessels t hat periodically cycle in pressure or temperature.The actual reason for these failures is not well understoo d. The obvious explanation of gradual exhaustion of a metal's ability to deform has never been proven exp erimentally. If these stress cycle is entirely within the elastic range, a fairly larger number of cycles must be applied be fore any effect is noticed.Also, there is a threshold stress level below wich failure will not occur no matter what the number of stress cycles. Corrosion, even apparently mild attack, may decrease the threshold stre ss as well as the number of cycles necessary to cause failure. Cyclic stress failures are usually called fatigue, of corrosion fatigue when corrosion is involved .They are characteristically nearly flat and normal to the symmetry axis of the part.Fatigue failures typically show " beach" marks because the fracture progresses in steps until the uncraked section becomes so reduced that it fails in normal shear overload (fig9). Cyclic stressing in the plastic range, called plastic fatigue, even th ough it is seldom encountered in conservative designs, is much more serious because failure occurs after f ewer cycles. Effect of temperature As temperature decrease below ambient, the yield strengh and tensile strengh of metals usually increase. Likewise with increasing temperatures these properties tend to decrease, at first slowly but then relatively rapidly.In some ranges, internal metallurgical reactions may strenghthen metals, at leasts for a limited tim e. Each metal,however, has a maximun use of temperature. Alloying elements may increase overall strength but usually do not greatly raise the use temperature. Ferri tic steels, for example have little useful strength above 1200 F. And often not above 1000 F because of th eir lack of oxidation resistance. Austenitic steels can have usefils strengths a few hundred degrees higher, if they resist oxidation adequately. The tendency of metals to fail because of temperature effects depends on the design criterion, which deter mines the load to be carried. Clearly, if the operating temperature rises above the design temperature, stre ngth decreases and the normal operating stresses will overstress the material. Failure because of overload then become merely a question of time. Short-time strengh properties are valid measures of a metal's userfulness only for the lower part of the ele vated-temperature range, usually no higher than 900 to 950 F for even the stronger ferritic steels. At highe r temperatures metals under constant loads deform slowly and ultimately rupture. The most useful design properties in this range are creep rate and time to rupture, each under constant load even though the actual application may be under constant stress. Common criteria in the process industries are the stress that gives a creep rate of 1% in 100000 hr (often s tated as 0.01% i 1000 hr even though extrapolation of this value to 100000 hr may be questionable) and t he stress that causes rupture in 100000 hr (again usually an extrapolation ) A material that deforms at a constant rate by what is known as second -stage creep does not fail and may s how little structural change for a long time as a result of this steady deformation. Eventually and unpredic tably, however it will enter a third stage in wich deformation under constant load accelerates wich time . I n both third stage creep and creep -rupture tests, when fractures do occur the boundaries tend to separate and frequently oxidize, finally leading to failure. Thermal shock and fatigue Cyclic stresses imposed by sudden temperature changes under restraint usually lead to plastic-fatigue fail ures. For example, boiler tubes or cooling coils depend on the build inside them to keep metals within thei

r range of useful strengths.