The traversing ring gear bearing assembly holds the upper and lower carriage assemblies of the howitzer together. When the ring gear bearing fractured, the gun tube fell to the ground. The failure analysis included destructive testing of the original gear and four additional gears to properly determine the cause of the fracture. Some fasteners holding the ring gear bearing assembly together failed due to hydrogen embrittlement but the cause of failure of the ring gear was stress corrosion cracking.

Subject
Water, Materials, Manufacturing, Aluminum, Fracture surfaces, Corrosion cracking, Mechanical failure, Steel, Pitting, Stainless steel, Fasteners, Fracture, Stress corrosion cracking
Keywords:
Stress-corrosion cracking, water intrusion, weapons system, hydrogen embrittlement, galvanic corrosion
Government work published by the Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) with permission of the author(s). Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2001
GOV
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