Following an accident in which a light pickup truck left the road and overturned, one of the rear axles, made of approximately 0.30C steel, was found to be fractured adjacent to the bearing lock nut. A keyway was present in the failed area, as were threads for the lock nut. Fracture surfaces of the failed axle and exemplar fractures obtained from simulation tests were studied using scanning electron microscope. The examination showed that the outer perimeter fracture in the axle was very flat and composed of cleavage and that the interior portion was composed of both cleavage and dimples. No evidence of prior cracking was found. The exemplar specimens from the simulation impact testing failed in a manner consistent with that observed in the axle. The examination confirmed that the failure was a one-time impact overload fracture and not the result of any prior crack in the material, indicating that the axle failure did not initiate the accident.

A Marine Corps helicopter crash was investigated. Efforts were directed to the failure of one of the main rotor blades that had apparently separated in the air. The apparent failure of a blade integrity monitor (BIM) system was also considered. The rotor blade comprised a long, hollow 6061-T651 aluminum alloy extrusion and 26 fiberglass “pockets” that provided the trailing-edge airfoil shape. Visual examination of the fracture surface of the aluminum extrusion indicated fatigue crack growth followed by ductile overload separation. Examination of the fatigue fracture region revealed several pits that appeared to have acted as fracture origin sites. Time to failure was determined using fracture mechanics. It was concluded that failure was caused by a fatigue crack that grew to critical length without detection. The crack originated at pits that resulted from the use of an improperly designed heating element used to cure fiberglass repairs.