Premature fracture of an axle under torsional load occurred after a tracked military tank had experienced field testing for only 80 kilometers. Visual metallographic examinations were performed with optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The investigation demonstrates that the premature fracture is caused by metallurgical problems inside the axle where the primary and secondary cracks originate, propagate, and eventually result in final catastrophic rupture through torsional fatigue. The failure mechanism is summarized and improvement of the fatigue lifetime for the axle is recommended.
