This article is an atlas of fractographs that helps in understanding the causes and mechanisms of fracture of ASTM/ASME alloy steels and in identifying and interpreting the morphology of fracture surfaces. The fractographs illustrate the solidification cracking, creep failure, brittle fracture, fracture by overpressurization, inclusion effect, fatigue crack propagation, ductile fatigue striation, secondary cracking, intergranular fracture, and elevated-temperature fracture of alloy steels used in pressure vessels, steam boiler superheater tubes, and box-girder bridges.

This article describes the fracture toughness behavior of austenitic stainless steels and their welds at ambient, elevated, and cryogenic temperatures. Minimum expected toughness values are provided for use in fracture mechanics evaluations. The article explains the effect of crack orientation, strain rate, thermal aging, and neutron irradiation on base metal and weld toughness. It discusses the effect of cold-work-induced strengthening on fracture toughness. The article examines the fracture toughness behavior of aged base metal and welding-induced heat-affected zones. It concludes with a discussion on the Charpy energy correlations for aged stainless steels.

Tribocorrosion is the subject dealing with complex, synergistic effects of chemical and mechanical conditions that cause wear. This article begins with a discussion on oxidative wear and corrosive wear, as well as quantitative measurements of corrosion, mechanical wear, and wear-corrosion effects. It illustrates the mechanism of corrosive-abrasive wear and discusses the factors affecting two-body wear. These factors include particle shape, size, density, and hardness; slurry velocity; slurry particle angle of attack; solids concentration in the slurry; hydrodynamic factors; corrosion products and the mass transfer of oxygen. The article describes slurry particle impingement tests and grinding tribocorrosion tests, as well as the factors to be considered for mitigating corrosive wear, such as materials selection, surface treatments, and environment modifications.

This article provides an overview of metal additive manufacturing (AM) processes and describes sources of failures in metal AM parts. It focuses on metal AM product failures and potential solutions related to design considerations, metallurgical characteristics, production considerations, and quality assurance. The emphasis is on the design and metallurgical aspects for the two main types of metal AM processes: powder-bed fusion (PBF) and directed-energy deposition (DED). The article also describes the processes involved in binder jet sintering, provides information on the design and fabrication sources of failure, addresses the key factors in production and quality control, and explains failure analysis of AM parts.

Nondestructive testing (NDT), also known as nondestructive evaluation (NDE), includes various techniques to characterize materials without damage. This article focuses on the typical NDE techniques that may be considered when conducting a failure investigation. The article begins with discussion about the concept of the probability of detection (POD), on which the statistical reliability of crack detection is based. The coverage includes the various methods of surface inspection, including visual-examination tools, scanning technology in dimensional metrology, and the common methods of detecting surface discontinuities by magnetic-particle inspection, liquid penetrant inspection, and eddy-current testing. The major NDE methods for internal (volumetric) inspection in failure analysis also are described.

To improve the performance of additive manufacturing (AM) systems, a critical need exists for collaborative generation, acquisition, curation, and analysis of digital AM data across the product life cycle. This article discusses the history, development, and potential benefits of the AM Common Data Dictionary (AM-CDD), along with future directions.