What are the main failure modes in materials?

The main failure modes in materials are best represented by ductile fracture, brittle fracture, fatigue, and creep. Each of these failure modes describes different mechanisms through which materials can fail under various conditions.

Ductile fracture occurs when a material undergoes significant plastic deformation before rupture. This mode is associated with materials that can absorb energy and deform, typically under tensile stress, allowing for some warning before failure.

Brittle fracture, on the other hand, happens with little to no plastic deformation. Materials that experience this mode of failure tend to crack suddenly upon reaching their fracture toughness limit. This is common in hard materials at low temperatures or when they have been subjected to certain stress conditions.

Fatigue is a failure mode that occurs after a material has been subjected to cyclic loading over time. Even stress levels below the material’s yield strength can lead to microscale damage that accumulates, ultimately resulting in failure.

Creep refers to the time-dependent deformation of materials under a constant load or stress, particularly at high temperatures. Over time, even small stresses can lead to significant deformation, which can be critical in applications such as turbine blades or structural elements in buildings.

While the other choices describe important aspects of material behavior, they do not encompass the primary failure modes as