The failure or fracture of a product or component as a result of a single event is known as mechanical overload. It is a common failure mode. The terms are used in forensic engineering and structural engineering when analysing product failure. Failure may occur because either the product is weaker than expected owing to a stress concentration, or the applied load is greater than expected and exceeds the normal tensile strength, shear strength or compressive strength of the product.

• Forensic engineering
• Stress analysis
• Structural engineering

• Strength of Materials, 3rd edition, Krieger Publishing Company, 1976, by Timoshenko S.,ISBN 0-88275-420-3
• Forensic Materials Engineering: Case Studies by Peter Rhys Lewis, Colin Gagg, Ken Reynolds, CRC Press (2004).