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of load transfer during creep of unreinforced aluminum alloy (Park and

Mohamed, 1995).

On the basis of examination of creep data of several discontinuous SiC/Al

composites, based on the value of true stress exponent (n = 8), Gonzalez and

Sherby (1993) reported that the threshold stress exhibits two main characteristics.

Firstly, it depends linearly on temperature and becomes zero in the temperature

range between 733 K and 743 K. Secondly, the threshold stress is higher for

whisker reinforced composites than the particulate composites. Gonzalez and

Sherby (1993) concluded that the threshold stress in discontinuous SiC/Al

composites originates due to the presence of SiC particles or whiskers.

Cadek et al (1998) investigated the high temperature creep behavior of 20

vol% SiCp/2124Al composite at temperatures between 623 K and 748 K. The plot

of shear creep rate versus applied shear stress ( ln γ& m vs ln τ ) indicates the origin of

threshold stress with the value of apparent stress exponent, na = ( ln γ& m / ln τ )T,

which is observed to decrease with increasing applied stress. By considering

threshold stress into analysis, it is observed that the minimum creep rate of the

composite is controlled by the matrix lattice diffusion with a true stress exponent

close to 5. The threshold stress, as estimated by the extrapolation technique,

decreases linearly with increasing temperature and disappears at a temperature near

735 K. This finding is in good agreement with that of Gonzalez and Sherby (1993),

though these workers have introduced the structure invariant model with a stress

exponent of 8.