Degradation of materials in this environment can lead to reduced performance and, in some cases, sudden failure.

It can lead to unexpected sudden failure of normally ductile metals subjected to a tensile stress, especially at elevated temperature in the case of metals.

The accident drew public attention to the potential for metal fatigue to cause sudden failure of the structure of a modern civil aircraft.

He was well fit and worked as usual until the week before his death, when he had a sudden failure of heart and kidney.

Sudden failures of these moraines can cause floods with cascading failures of manmade structures downstream.