CRE Failure Analysis & Testing 2

Question 1

Which failure analysis technique uses a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to examine fracture surfaces at high magnification?

Accepted Answer

Fractography

Answer

Fractography uses SEM and other microscopy tools to examine fracture surfaces and identify failure modes such as fatigue, overload, or corrosion.

Question 2

In accelerated life testing (ALT), the Arrhenius model is most commonly used to accelerate failures caused by:

Accepted Answer

Temperature stress

Answer

The Arrhenius model relates the rate of chemical/thermal degradation to temperature, making it the standard model for temperature-accelerated life testing.

Question 3

A component shows beach marks on its fracture surface. This is most indicative of:

Accepted Answer

Fatigue crack propagation

Answer

Beach marks (also called clamshell marks) are macroscopic striations on fracture surfaces that indicate cyclic loading and fatigue crack propagation.

Question 4

The primary purpose of HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Test) is to:

Accepted Answer

Precipitate and discover design weaknesses

Answer

HALT applies stresses beyond specification limits to rapidly discover design weaknesses and failure modes before production.

Question 5

In root cause analysis, the '5 Whys' technique is best suited for:

Accepted Answer

Simple to moderately complex failures with a single cause chain

Answer

The 5 Whys method iteratively asks 'why' to drill down through a cause-and-effect chain, working best when there is a single root cause pathway.

(CRE) Certified Reliability Engineer Practice Test

(CRE) Certified Reliability Engineer Practice Test

CRE Failure Analysis & Testing 2