Question

How can you have a brittle fracture yet have the fracture surface exhibit a ductile micromechanism?

Answer 1

You can have a brittle fracture yet the surface exhibit a ductile micromechanism by the presence of Notches. Notches present in ductile surface tends to produce stress concentration by increasing the value of stress multiple times. It leads to failure of ductile material through brittle mode because in presence of notches no yielding occurs and sudden failure will occur.

Some other reasons which will cause brittle failure yet have the fracture surface exhibit ductile micromechanism are-

1. low temperature

2. increased strain rate