Failure Analysis of Broken Pump Shaft

This paper describes the failure analysis of a pump shaft used in a plant. The pump shaft was found to break into two pieces. The failure analysis was carried out in order to assess whether the mode of failure of the pump shaft be it due to high cyclic loading, corrosion, or by other means. The failure analysis of the broken shaft included visual examination, photo documentation, chemical analysis, mechanical testing, and metallographic examination. This is to ensure that the investigation is done with integrity. The use of scanning electron microscope is to aid in examining the failure zones of the broken shaft. The results show the failure is due to fatigue and creep formation.