Ductile and Brittle fractures

It is crucial to avoid having Ductile and Brittle fractures.

The importance of eliminating such fractures cannot be stressed enough.

Such fractures are very often responsible for the sudden and catastrophic collapse of materials and structures.

Kind Regards....

As Sparkstation says, you want to avoid both. If you cannot, the ductile fracture is the one you want to aim for.

In Brittle fracture, there is very little, if any deformation of the material around the fracture, and there is very little energy absorption, and the propagation speed of the crack is very high.

In a ductile fracture, there IS some deformation of the material (in effect, it tears), which absorbs SOME energy and this results in a slower speed of propagation.

An easier way to think of this is carrots. Yes carrots.

Bend a raw carrot. What happens? It will suddenly snap. This is brittle fracture.

If you bend a cooked carrot, it will tear, rather than snapping. This is ductile fracture.

If you google Charpy impact tests, material toughness and ductile brittle transition temperature, I'm sure you will find as much detailed information as you may need.

Hope this helps