Failure Analysis and Root Cause Determination

M. Zamanzadeh, E. Larkin and D. Gibbon

Failure analysis is a complex process applied to all different types of materials. Each class of materials requires special skills and experience to effectively unravel the causes of failure. December 2004

• Introduction
• Failures vs. human errors
• How to conduct a failure analysis
  • Determine when, where and how the failure occurred
  • Collect samples for laboratory examination
  • Take on-site photographs
  • Visual examination
  • Non-destructive examination 
  • Chemical analyses
  • Material composition and contaminants 
  • Fractography
  • Metallography
  • Physical testing
  • Finite element analysis
  • Fracture mechanics
  • Type of failure
• Product specifications and failure
• Root cause determination