An X-ray Diffraction Method to Improve Fatigue Fracture Surface Analysis

When in-service failure occurs, it is important to determine the causes of failure. To get a good knowledge of in-service loading, the Authors decided to study fatigue fracture surfaces to obtain this information. The ideal method is the one that permits the determination of maximum stress intensity factor and the load ratio from a fracture analysis. In a previous study, authors have applied a method based on the determination of the areal coverage of significant fractographic features on the fracture surface. Due to limits of this method, authors decided to add another technique based on X-ray diffraction measurements.