4 Climbing is an exercise in failure. So claims a professional mountaineer in a recent interview. He explains that inhis lineof work, failure is howyou set your goals in climbing and in life. You train and practice various moves until they can be executed perfectly on a summit. Then you train on the next most challenging move and so on. In the world of failure analysis (FA), a problem often presents itself and you must employ all the analytical tricks up your sleeve to get to the root cause. FA itself involves trying one test after another to extrapolate the answer—one hint at a time. Recently, I observed more than 30 high school students as they tried out their FA sleuthing skills. I attended the final presentation and graduation of the Eisenman Materials Camp for Students held at the Dome this July. Each team of students, guided by mentors, was given a case study to solve the mystery of why a specific part failed. Using metallurgical tools including sample preparation, hardness testing, and SEM analysis, the groups presented their findings and theories. It was failure analysis at its finest. The students were impressive in their use of proper terminology and in how expertly they fielded questions from other teams. ASM Past President Sunniva Collins, FASM, who presided over the graduation ceremony, commented on the professional quality of the microstructures presented. While the students were using some destructive analytical methods as they tested various metals, the lead article in this issue of AM&P takes us on an exploration of nondestructive evaluation of unique ceramics, glasses, and composites using terahertz radiation. One of the coauthors, Prof. S.K. Sundaram of Alfred University, was named to the 2021 Class of ASM Fellows for his research in this specialized area of diagnostics. Failure analysis truly spans the gamut of materials and testing methods. Ultrasonic inspection, in the form of phase coherence imaging (PCI), is presented in another article in this issue. PCI offers new options for spotting early flaws in previously challenging use cases, such as when testing thick parts or very grainy materials. If at first you fail, try another novel testing method to crack a difficult FA case. You might also visit ASM’s bookstore to find resources like the new one entitled “Decoding Mechanical Failures” by Shane Turcott. We chiseled off a sample of that article to present in this issue. Here Turcott offers three case studies that explore various types of fractures. Using his own favorite FA sleuthing techniques, he works his way down through each case’s possible causes until he reveals the primary failure mode and describes how to prevent future breaks. Whether drilling down on metallurgical factors of stress rupture or climbing up a mountain peak, the methodology is similar. So perhaps failure analysis is also an exercise in failure—one worth cracking. joanne.miller@asminternational.org A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 ASM International 9639 Kinsman Road, Materials Park, OH 44073 Tel: 440.338.5151 • Fax: 440.338.4634 Joanne Miller, Editor joanne.miller@asminternational.org Victoria Burt, Managing Editor vicki.burt@asminternational.org Frances Richards and Corinne Richards Contributing Editors Jan Nejedlik, Layout and Design Allison Freeman, Production Manager allie.freeman@asminternational.org Press Release Editor magazines@asminternational.org EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Adam Farrow, Chair, Los Alamos National Lab John Shingledecker, Vice Chair, EPRI Somuri Prasad, Past Chair, Sandia National Lab Beth Armstrong, Oak Ridge National Lab Margaret Flury, Medtronic Surojit Gupta, University of North Dakota Nia Harrison, Ford Motor Company Michael Hoerner, KnightHawk Engineering Hideyuki Kanematsu, Suzuka National College of Technology Ibrahim Karaman, Texas A&M University Ricardo Komai, Tesla Bhargavi Mummareddy, Youngstown State University Scott Olig, U.S. Naval Research Lab Christian Paglia, SUPSI Institute of Materials and Construction Amit Pandey, Lockheed Martin Space Satyam Sahay, John Deere Technology Center India Kumar Sridharan, University of Wisconsin Jean-Paul Vega, Siemens Energy Vasisht Venkatesh, Pratt & Whitney ASMBOARDOF TRUSTEES Judith A. Todd, President and Chair of the Board David B. Williams, Vice President Diana Essock, Immediate Past President John C. Kuli, Treasurer Burak Akyuz Ann Bolcavage Elizabeth Ho man Navin Manjooran Toni Marechaux U. Kamachi Mudali James E. Saal Priti Wanjara Ji-Cheng Zhao Sandra W. Robert, Executive Director STUDENT BOARDMEMBERS Jaime Berez, Ashlie Hamilton, Nicole Hudak Individual readers of AdvancedMaterials & Processes may, without charge, make single copies of pages therefrom for personal or archival use, or may freelymake such copies in such numbers as are deemed useful for educational or research purposes and are not for sale or resale. Permission is granted to cite or quote fromarticles herein, provided customary acknowledgment of the authors and source is made. The acceptance and publication of manuscripts in Advanced Materials & Processes does not imply that the reviewers, editors, or publisher accept, approve, or endorse the data, opinions, and conclusions of the authors. CRACKING THE CASE Eisenman Materials Camp students analyze a metallurgical failure.
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