Given your understanding of what initiates and controls failure in materials, which of the following will increase the failure strength or lifetime of a test piece or component and why? a. Increasing its volume, to give a larger cross sectional area b. Decreasing the difference between the maximum and minimum stress values, as this effects the stress concentration factor Oc. Polishing to reduce surface defects Od. Increasing the grain size so there are less grain boundaries to initiate failure Oe. Decreasing the temperature below the brittle-ductile transition temperature, to make it harder

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