Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Failure, Fracture and Fatigue Laboratory (F3L)

What is failure, fracture and fatigue?

broken aluminum component

Damage leads to failure and failure leads to fracture. Fracture is a form of failure where the material separates in pieces due to stress, at temperatures below the melting point. Fatigue causes an estimated 90% of all mechanical service failures. Fatigue failures occur under fluctuating stresses that are much lower than the stress required to cause failure during a single application. Fatigue can affect any part or component that moves. Automobiles on roads; aircraft wings and fuselages in the air; ships at sea; nuclear reactors; jet engines; and land-based turbines are all subject to fatigue failures [ASTM International].

The Failure, Fracture, and Fatigue Laboratory (F3L) is a research laboratory in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering (MIME) at The University of Toledo with two major goals:

  • To assess failure and fracture, including fatigue, of materials and structures in bulk- and microscale
  • To educate engineering leaders in the field

Current research areas

  • Uniaxial and multiaxial fatigue of metals and non-metals
  • Fatigue of additive manufactured metals (MAM)
  • Fatigue in small scales (i.e. indentation fatigue)
  • Ultrasonic fatigue to assess very high cycle fatigue (VHCF)
  • Non-ambient rotating bending fatigue

People

Research areas

  • Uniaxial and multiaxial fatigue of metals and non-metals
  • Fatigue of additive manufactured metals (MAM)
  • Fatigue in small scales (i.e. indentation fatigue)

Facilities

Publications

News

Sponsors

  • UToledo URFO
  • (AFOSR) Department of Defense
  • Eaton Corporation
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
  • SLM Solution
  • Lincoln Electric
  • Quintus Technologies

History

Contact

North Engineering Room 1037
Email: 
Meysam.Haghshenas@utoledo.edu
Office phone: 419-530-8241 

Last Updated: 8/17/23