Join us in Livonia, Michigan, USA, for a 4 days of learning how to approach, negotiate, perform and report out data from mechanical and corrosion related failure analysis work! Dr. Elizabeth Buc will be hosting the program at Fire and Materials Research Lab.
This program will run from WED – SAT. For working people, you can tell your boss you are doing 25% on your own time. If you can not stay for Saturday, we will consider a later session by Zoom, a series of shorter sessions by Zoom, or access to pre-recorded videos.
Please advise when you inquire if you are interested in getting a certificate of achievement, in which case there will be a test. Otherwise there will be a certificate of attendance.
Please contact Debbie Aliya at DaAliya@itothen.com with any questions.
The class is based on my book Constructing Competence in Failure Analysis: a technical and human factors guide (Published March, 2024)
There will be many examples from my 30 years of case studies.
Day 1: Overview of The Failure Analysis Process, including
Introduction to the New FA Method based on 7 Step Critical and Creative Thinking Methodology and Introduction of Participants
A) What is failure analysis? Engineering requires that we go beyond the scientific method. We’ll delve into why.
B) Dealing with Ethical Quandaries
C) Background Information Gathering
D) Visual Inspection for Failure Analysis- What is a fact?
E) Photo-documentation
F) Evidence Preservation Philosophy
G) Assigning Damage Categories
H) NDT for Failure Analysis Specimen Selection
I) Destructive Testing Crash Intro
J) Data Evaluation and Report Preparation
Focus will be on content from CC in FA Book Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, & 9. NOTE: C-I will be quick introductions. C, E, F, H and I will be presented in greater detail later in the program. We likely will not get done with all of this on Day 1.
Day 2: Overview of Damage Categories and Macro-Fractography (This will be the most technical day.)
A) Classical Damage Categorization System (Deformation, Fracture, Wear, Corrosion, Complex)
B) Aliya’s Damage Categorization System (Deformation, Fracture, Wear, Corrosion, Microstructure Degradation, Complex)
C) Loading Geometry, Macro-Ductile and Brittle Behavior versus Capacity, Crack plane Orientation
D) Crack Direction – A Key to Determination of Improper Use and Presence of “Defects”
Focus will be on content from CC in FA Chapters 5 & 8
Day 3: Negotiating Failure Analysis Protocols, Specimen Selection, and Macro-Fractography (Workshop)
A) What do you want to know?? Epistemologically Focused Protocols
B) Demo on how to do a visual inspection with optical microscope. Please inquire about bringing parts to share.
C) Selecting Specimens / Crash course in Physical Metallurgy as it relates to FA work, including Tensile Bar issues
D) Nature of Standard Tests v Service Conditions
Macro-Fractography (Workshop)
Focus will be on content from CC in FA Chapters 6, 7 & 8.
We will hopefully be caught up with the timing by lunch on Friday.
Day 4: Putting it all together.
A) Visual Inspection for Failure Analysis: What is a Fact???
B) Destructive Testing Concerns for FA work (You can rarely get the specimens you would like)
C) Data Evaluation: Deductive, Inductive, Abductive Logic and its Limitations, Epistemology, Dealing with “Out of Spec” results,
D) Report Preparation: Proposed Flow Chart
E) Time Permitting: Open Discussion- Questions from Book Chapter 4
NOTE: If we run out of stuff to discuss on any day, we can add some of these topics in.
This has NEVER happened during ANY FA seminar I have presented, but you never know…
So please think about which ones might be of interest.
My Suggestions to pick from if Nobody Else Has Any:
What is Failure? What is Damage?
Reference Parts
Macro-Meso-Micro-Nano-Atomic Scales
Manufacturing Culture / Engineering Culture
What is a Defect?
What does Root Cause Even Mean?
What is a Methodology?
Interesting aspects of case studies will be interwoven through the program.