Reliability is a measure of the capacity of equipment or systems to operate without failure in the service environment. This article focuses on reliability in design and presents equations governing the instantaneous failure rate, general reliability function, mean time to failure, mean time between failures, and useful life period. The article describes the calculation of reliabilities for series and parallel arrangements of a complex system. It provides a comparison of probabilistic and deterministic design and concludes with a discussion on reliability growth.

This article discusses the deformation and viscoelastic characteristics of plastics as polymeric materials, focusing on the test methods used for the evaluation of their mechanical properties, methods available for analytically predicting the deformation response of polymers, and the effect of viscoelasticity on the test methods used. Two common ways of evaluating viscoelasticity of plastics are by means of creep experiments and dynamic mechanical experiments. Graphic or tabular analysis of test data, time-temperature superposition, and empirical correlation methods are commonly employed for analytical prediction of deformation characteristics of polymers.

This article describes the concepts for characterizing and predicting elevated-temperature crack growth in structural materials. It discusses both creep and creep-fatigue crack growth and focuses mainly on creep crack growth tests that are carried out in accordance with ASTM E 1457. The article provides information on typical test procedures and equipment used for these tests. It concludes with information on crack growth correlations.

This article contains nine tables that present useful formulas for deformation analysis and workability testing. The tables present formulas for effective stress, strain, and strain rate in arbitrary coordinates, principal, compression and tension testing of isotropic material. The article also provides formulas for flat rolling, conical-die extrusion, wire drawing, deep drawing of cups from sheet metal, and bending, and formulas for anisotropic sheet materials.

This article presents formulas for calculating the following: effective stress, strain, and strain rate (isotropic material) in arbitrary coordinates and in principal coordinates; compression testing, tension testing, and torsion testing of isotropic material; and Barlat's anisotropic yield function Yld2000-2d for plane-stress deformation of sheet material. It also contains formulas related to flat (sheet) rolling, conical-die extrusion, wire drawing, bending, and deep drawing of cups from sheet metal.

This article first reviews variations within the most common types of gears, namely spur, helical, worm, and straight and spiral bevel. It then provides information on gear tooth contact and gear metallurgy. This is followed by sections describing the important points of gear lubrication, the measurement of the backlash, and the necessary factors for starting the failure analysis. Next, the article explains various gear failure causes, including wear, scuffing, Hertzian fatigue, cracking, fracture, and bending fatigue, and finally presents examples of gear and reducer failure analysis.

Mechanical properties are described as the relationship between forces (or stresses) acting on a material and the resistance of the material to deformation (i.e., strains) and fracture. This article briefly introduces the typical relationships between metallurgical features and the mechanical behavior of metals. It explains the deformation and fracture mechanisms of these metals. Typical properties measured during mechanical testing related to these deformation mechanisms and the microstructures of metals are discussed. The article reviews the various factors that affect the deformation response of the metal: strain rate, temperature, nature of loading, stress-corrosion cracking, and presence of notches.

Forming processes can be divided into three major categories: bulk forming, sheet-metal forming, and semisolid forming and polymer extrusion. This article introduces each process category with a description of the constitutive models. It outlines the required properties for process modeling and describes the test methods for determining these properties. The article discusses several compression tests used to determine stress-strain curves for bulk forming and tensile tests used to obtain stress-strain curves for sheet-metal forming. The article concludes with information on the measurement of viscosity of semisolid alloy materials by using three types of viscometers: the coaxial cylinder viscometer, the cone-and-plate viscometer, and the capillary viscometer.

Fatigue crack initiation is an important aspect of materials performance in design. This article summarizes some fundamental concepts and procedures for the fatigue life prediction of relatively homogeneous, wrought metals when a major portion of total life is exhausted in crack initiation. It presents an overview of the strain-based, as opposed to stress-based, criterion of material behavior and fatigue analysis. The article describes the cyclic stress-strain behavior of metals to illustrate the inadequacy of the monotonic or tensile stress-strain curve in accounting for material instabilities caused by cyclic deformations. It discusses the effect of mean stress on fatigue life and presents the analysis of cumulative fatigue damage. The article concludes with examples of application techniques for fatigue life prediction.

This article provides the definitions of stress and strain, and describes the relationship between stress and strain by stress-strain curves and true-stress/true-strain curves. The emphasis is on understanding the factors that determine the extent of deformation a metal can withstand before cracking or fracture occurs. The article reviews the process variables that influence the degree of workability and summarizes the mathematical relationships that describe the occurrence of room-temperature ductile fracture under workability conditions. It discusses the most common situations encountered in multiaxial stress states. The construction of a processing map based on deformation mechanisms is also discussed.

THE TENSION TEST is one of the most commonly used tests for evaluating materials. The material characteristics obtained from tension tests are used for quality control in production, for ranking performance of structural materials, for evaluation of alloys, and for dealing with the static-strength requirements of design. This article describes the stress-strain behavior during a tension test and provides the definition of terms such as stress, force, strain, and elongation. It explains the tensile properties obtained from the test results: the tensile strength and yield strength, which includes offset yield strength, extension-under-load yield strength, and upper yield strength. The article concludes with a description of the general procedures for conducting the tension test based on ASTM standards and the variability of tensile properties.

This article presents a mechanical description of superplasticity and discusses constitutive equations that are essential for simulating superplastic forming processes, applicable to structural superplasticity. It presents the phenomenological constitutive equations of superplasticity and classical physical constitutive equations. The article also reviews the accommodation mechanisms that are divided into two major groups, namely, diffusional accommodation and accommodation by dislocations.

This article discusses two types of hot-tension tests, namely, the Gleeble test and conventional isothermal hot-tension test, as well as their equipment. It summarizes the data for hot ductility, strength, and hot-tension for commercial alloys. The article presents isothermal hot-tension test data, which helps to gain information on a number of material parameters and material coefficients. It details the effect of test conditions on flow behavior. The article briefly describes the detailed interpretation of data from the isothermal hot-tension test using numerical model. It also explains the cavitation mechanism and failure modes that occur during hot-tension testing.

This article provides a background of friction-bearing failures due to overheating. The failures of locomotive axles caused by overheated traction-motor support bearings are discussed. The article also describes liquid-metal embrittlement (LME) in steel. It examines the results of various axle studies, with illustrations and concludes with information on the simulation of the LME mechanism.

The key to any successful part development is the proper choice of material, process, and design matched to the part performance requirements. Understanding the true effects of time, temperature, and rate of loading on material performance can make the difference between a successful application and catastrophic failure. This article provides examples of reliable material performance indicators and common practices to avoid failure. Simple tools and techniques for predicting part mechanical performance integrated with manufacturing concerns, such as flow length and cycle time, are demonstrated. The article describes the prediction of mechanical part performance for stiffness, strength/impact, creep/stress relaxation, and fatigue.

This article is a comprehensive collection of tables containing formulas for metals processing, namely, casting and solidification, flat (sheet) rolling, conical-die extrusion, wire drawing, bending, and deep drawing. Formulas for compression, tension, and torsion testing of isotropic materials are included. The article also lists the formulas for effective stress, strain, and strain rate (isotropic material) in arbitrary and principal coordinates; dimensionless groups in fluid mechanics; and anisotropic sheet materials at various loading conditions.

This article focuses on the factors that determine the extent of deformation a metal can withstand before cracking or fracture occurs. It informs that workability depends on the local conditions of stress, strain, strain rate, and temperature in combination with material factors. The article discusses the common testing techniques and process variables for workability prediction. It illustrates the simple and most widely used fracture criterion proposed by Cockcroft and Latham and provides a workability analysis using the fracture limit line. The article describes various workability tests, such as the tension test, ring compression test, plane-strain compression test, bend test, indentation test, and forgeability test. It concludes with information on the role of the finite-element modeling software used in workability analysis.

This article describes the criteria for selecting a corrosion-monitoring method used in industrial plants. It provides a detailed discussion on the design, advantages, and disadvantages of plant corrosion-testing program. The basic types of racks used to support and insulate the coupons are also discussed. The analysis of electrical-resistance probes, sentry holes, side-stream loop, electrochemical noise, hydrogen-probe, and process streams are used to monitor and estimate corrosion rates. The corrosion rates can also be estimated by ultrasonic thickness measurements, polarization-resistance measurements, corrosion potential measurements, and alternating current impedance measurements. Corrosion monitoring strategies, such as locations, data analysis, redundancy, and other issues, are discussed. The article concludes with information on the interpretation and reporting of corrosion testing.

Metal-induced embrittlement is a phenomenon in which the ductility or fracture stress of a solid metal is reduced by surface contact with another metal in either liquid or solid form. This article summarizes the characteristics of solid metal induced embrittlement (SMIE) and liquid metal induced embrittlement (LMIE). It describes the unique features that assist in arriving at a clear conclusion whether SMIE or LMIE is the most probable cause of the problem. The article briefly reviews some commercial alloy systems where LMIE or SMIE has been documented. It also provides some examples of cracking due to these phenomena, either in manufacturing or in service.