Discipline: Physics

Subject: Ceramics

Chapter/ Unit 3: Structural Ceramics

Lesson/ Module 2 :Creep of Ceramics

Quad 1 : Text

Author (CW): Dr. Dinesh C Agrawal

Professor (retired)

Materials Science Programme

IIT Kanpur
 Unit 3: Structural Ceramics

Module 2: Creep of Ceramics

1. Introduction

Creep is defined as time dependent deformation of materials i.e. the

deformation of the material increases with time at a constant stress. This
becomes appreciable at high temperatures – temperatures which are about
0.3 to 0.4 or more of the melting point. Creep deformation can occur at
stresses which are too low to cause any permanent deformation at low
temperatures. Thus in case of metals the creep can occur at stresses which
are below the yield stress. It is found that the creep occurs when

T > 0.3 TM for metals

T > 0.4 to 0.5 for ceramics

where T is the temperature and TM is the melting point.

The ceramics have in general much higher melting points than metals.
This makes them more suitable for creep applications.

2. The Creep Curve

A creep test is carried out by mounting the specimen in a furnace,

applying a constant load to the sample and measuring the extension of the
 Structural Ceramics Module 2 Creep of Ceramics

specimen with time (the load us usually tensile but may also be
compressive) while the temperature of the furnace is held constant. A plot
of the extension, or strain, vs. time, called the creep curve, typically looks
as shown in Fig. 3.2.1. If we look at this curve as we can see that it can be
divided into three regions corresponding to a decreasing, constant and
increasing rates of strain. These regions are termed primary, secondary (
or steady state) and tertiary creep respectively. There is a, comparatively
very small elastic deformation as soon as the load is applied which can be
neglected. If the creep test is carried out for sufficient time, the specimen
fractures. This is called creep rupture. It should be noted that in a given
creep test, not all the stages may be observed – the shape of the creep
curve depends on the material and the testing conditions i.e. time,
temperature and environment.

Furthermore, the part usually spends most of its life in the steady
state region which is therefore most important of the three stages.

Fig. 3.2.1. A creep curve showing the three stages of creep

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The following are the deformation mechanisms which occur during the
creep of the crystalline solids (metals and ceramics):

(i) Dislocation glide

(ii) Dislocation climb due to diffusion
(iii) Mass transport and change of shape due to diffusion
(iv) Grain boundary sliding.
The role of these mechanisms will become clear in the following
discussion of the various stages of creep.

3. Primary creep

As mentioned above, whether a stage of creep will be observed in a creep

experiment depends on the material, temperature, stress and environment.
The primary creep may be observed in some materials at low temperatures
and low stresses. In primary creep the creep rate decreases with time. At
any point, the creep rate is the net result of the rate of recovery and rate of
hardening. If the former is lower then the creep rate will decrease with
time. It has been proposed that in primary creep, the strain producing
events gradually get exhausted so that the strain rate decreases. An
example of the exhaustion of a strain producing event is the stoppage of a
dislocation at an obstacle. However, there are views that such a picture of
primary creep is not correct.

The strain vs. time plot during the primary creep has been found to
follow some mathematical relations in some cases. According to the form
of the expression, the primary creep in that particular case is given a name.
Two of these expressions and the corresponding names are

 ln t (logarithmic creep)

 t1/3 (parabolic creep)

 Structural Ceramics Module 2 Creep of Ceramics

4. Steady state creep

The total strain produced in primary creep, if the primary creep occurs, is
quite small. The tertiary creep stage is small and it is the stage preceding
the rupture of the sample. On the other hand the steady state stage is
usually the longest and a component spends nearly all of its useful life in
the steady state stage. This stage is therefore the most important.

The strain rate during the steady creep is the minimum of the three
stages and is constant during the steady state stage. As the strain produced
during the primary stage is small, the total strain at any point during the
steady state creep can be taken to be

Total strain = time x steady state creep rate.

As in many cases, the failure is deemed to occur if the strain exceeds a

certain value, the steady state creep rate is needed to predict the life of the
component. It is found that the steady state creep rate, ʹ has the following
dependence on stress at a constant temperature (Fig.

′ α 
n

It is also observed that the steady state creep is a thermally activated

process with an activation energy. All the phenomenological observations
are described in Fig. 3.2.2. Combining these observations, the creep rate
can be expressed by the following equation

՜nexp(-Hc/RT)
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Fig. 3.2.2. The various phenomenological relations in the steady state creep: (a) the
log(creep life) deceases as log(steady state creep rate) (b) the log of the steady state creep
rate is directly proportional to the log of the applied stress (c) the log of the strain rate is
directly proportional to the reciprocal of the absolute temperature and (d) the activation
energy for the steady state creep is equal to that for diffusion of the rate controlling species.

To determine the activation energy for creep it is necessary to measure the

strain rate at two different temperatures. However, the structure of the
specimen also changes with time at a temperature – the challenge is to
measure the creep rate at two different temperatures with specimen having
nearly the same structure. This is done using a method first suggested by
Dorn. The creep rate is measured at a certain temperature T1; the
temperature is then quickly changed to the second temperature T2 and the
creep rate measured again before any significant changes in the structure
occur. It can be shown that the activation energy for creep is then given by

It is observed that the activation energy for creep is equal to that for self
diffusion for pure metals and that for the solute in dilute alloys which
implies that the diffusion is the rate controlling process in the steady state
creep.

1
 Structural Ceramics Module 2 Creep of Ceramics

5. Mechanisms of steady state creep

5.1 Dislocation glide assisted by climb

The main mechanism of the steady state creep at high temperatures is the

dislocation glide assisted by diffusion controlled climb of the dislocations.

At low temperatures also the deformation occurs by the dislocation glide.
The glide of the dislocation stops when the dislocation encounters an
obstacle like a grain boundary or a second phase particle. However, in
creep, because of high temperature, the diffusion is fast and the dislocation
can climb to a parallel slip plane, escape the obstacle and continue to glide
(Fig.3.2.3). This results in large deformations during creep.

Fig. 3.2.3. The escape of a gliding dislocation by climb: (a) the dislocation comes to an
obstacle and the glide is stopped. (b) the dislocation climbs up and escapes the obstacle. It
can now glide on another slip plane.

In addition to the climb assisted dislocation glide, there are two other
mechanisms by which the creep may occur. These are diffusion and grain
boundary sliding.
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5.2 Creep by diffusion

Creep by diffusion is important at high temperatures and low stresses. If
there is a stress gradient in the body, a gradient in the concentration of
vacancies is set up in a grain because a stress  lowers the formation
energy for a vacancy by ~ b3 where b is the Burgers vector. For a stress
free grain, the equilibrium concentration of vacancies is given by

Co = Aexp-F/kT

Where F is the free energy for the formation of vacancies.For a grain

under stress as shown in Fig. 3.2.4, this changes the concentration of
vacancies at the faces AD and BC to

Fig. 3.2.4. (a) Due to tensile stresses on faces AD and BC, tensile stresses are present at
these faces producing a higher vacancy concentration near these faces (b) there is a flow of
atoms from faces AB and DC to faces AD and BC (c) this results in creep deformation.
 Structural Ceramics Module 2 Creep of Ceramics

This results in a gradient in the vacancy concentration from AD to AB and

to DC ( and similarly from BC to AB and to CD ) given by

= 2C0b3/B՜LkT

Here L is the grain size, k is the Boltzmann’s constant and T is the

temperature and B′ is a geometrical factor. This gradient results in a flux
of vacancies between the faces AD to AB and to BC ( and also from BC to
AB and to CD) and so a flux of atoms in the opposite directions (Fog 3.2.4
b) given by

Flux of atoms = 2D0C0b3/B՜LkT = 2D.sb3/BkT

where Ds is the coefficient of self diffusion. 2

Since flux =number per unit time (n) /area = n/BʹʹL2

Therefore, n number of atoms diffusing per second = 2D0C0b3L/BkT

and B՜, B՜՜ and B are geometrical factors. The strain rate is, therefore,

՜ =n/L3 = 2b3 Ds /BL2kT ~ Ds/L2

The creep rate due to this process is therefore expected to be directly

proportional to the stress and inversely proportional to the square of the
grain size.

The creep due to lattice diffusion of vacancies as discussed above is

called the Herring-Nabarro creep. In the polycrystalline materials, at
relatively low temperatures the grain boundary diffusion dominates
because of its lower activation energy. In this case the creep is called the
Coble creep and the creep rate is given by

՜ = Dgbgb/kTL3

Here, Dgb is the grain boundary diffusion coefficient,  is the atomic

volume, gb is the grain boundary thickness and T is the temperature. Thus
in this case the creep rate depends inversely on the cube of the grain size.
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In the fine grains ceramics, the Coble creep therefore dominates at low
stresses and high temperatures.

The overall creep rate due to diffusion is given by the sum of the
Herring-Nabarro and Coble creep. In ceramics, the rate controlling step is
always the slower moving species moving along the fastest possible path.

5.3 Creep by grain boundary sliding

Another mechanism by which the creep can occur is by grain boundary
sliding. In many ceramics, a glassy phase is deliberately used to aid the
densification. At high temperatures present during creep, the glassy phase
has a low viscosity. If the amount of the glassy phase is large such that the
system can be considered as grains of ceramic floating in the glass, then an
effective viscosity can be ascribed to the whole body given by (Green)

Here Eis the effective viscosity, 0 is the viscosity of the glass, VG is the
volume fraction of the grains and Vc is the percolation threshold i.e. the
minimum volume fraction of the grains at which the grains form a
continuous network. In this case the creep rate is simply given by the
relation

՜ = /E

When the volume fraction of the grains is more than the critical
threshold, then one mechanism which has been considered is the squeezing
of the liquid glass from the boundaries under compression and flowing to
those under tension. In this case, the creep rate is given by

Here w is the thickness of the glassy phase and d is the grain size.
 Structural Ceramics Module 2 Creep of Ceramics

All the creep mechanisms described above can be described by a single

expression as follows:

Here, G = shear modulus, D =diffusion coefficient involved in the creep

process d is the grain size and the values of n and m differ for different
mechanisms as given in the table below.

Table 3.2.1. Values of the parameters m and n for the various creep mechanisms

Creep mechanism m n Diffusion Path

(a) Dislocation creep mechanisms

Dislocation glide, climb controlled 0 4-5 Lattice

Dislocation glide, glide controlled 0 3 Lattice

Dislocation climb without glide 0 3 Lattice

(b) Diffusional creep mechanisms

Vacancy flow through the grains 2 1 Lattice

Vacancy flow along the grain boundaries 3 1 Grain boundaries

(c) Grain boundary sliding 3 1 Liquid

6. Summary

Creep is defined as time dependent deformation of a material. This

becomes appreciable at temperatures which are about 0.4 to 0.5 or more of
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the melting point of ceramics.. Creep deformation can occur at stresses

which are too low to cause any permanent deformation at low
temperatures. The ceramics have high melting points which makes them
more suitable for creep applications.

A creep curve is obtained from the creep test. It can be divided into
three regions corresponding to a decreasing, constant and increasing rates
of strain. These regions are termed primary, secondary ( or steady state)
and tertiary creep respectively. If the creep test is carried out for sufficient
time, the specimen fractures. This is called creep rupture. In a given creep
test, not all the stages may be observed – the shape of the creep curve
depends on the material and the testing conditions. The part usually spends
most of its life in the steady state region which is therefore most important
of the three stages. The primary creep is observed in some materials at low
temperatures and low stresses. In primary creep the creep rate decreases
with time. The strain in primary creep in most cases increases as the
logarithm of time or a fractional power of time. The behaviour in the two
cases is called logarithmic creep and parabolic creep respectively.

The steady state or the secondary creep stage is the longest and most of
the strain is produced during this stage. The strain rate during the steady
creep is the minimum of the three stages and is constant during the steady
state stage. As the strain produced during the primary stage is small, the
total strain at any point during the steady state creep is given by the product
of the time and the steady state creep rate. It is observed that the steady
state creep is a thermally activated process and the creep rate varies as n.
All the phenomenological observations lead to the following equation fr
the creep rate

՜nexp(-Hc/RT)

The activation energy for creep is obtained by measuring the strain rate at
two different temperatures – it is found to be equal to that for self diffusion
for pure metals and that for the solute in dilute alloys which implies that
the diffusion is the rate controlling process in the steady state creep. This is
 Structural Ceramics Module 2 Creep of Ceramics

because the main mechanism of the steady state creep is the dislocation
glide assisted by diffusion controlled climb of the dislocations.

In addition to the climb assisted dislocation glide, there are two other
mechanisms of steady state creep are diffusion creep and grain boundary
sliding. Creep by diffusion is important at high temperatures and low
stresses. A gradient of stress in a body produces a gradient in the vacancy
concentration which leads to diffusion of atoms from the location at
smaller stresses to that at the higher stresses. When the diffusion is by
lattice diffusion, the creep is called Heering-Nabarro creep; if the diffusion
is via the grain boundaries then the creep is called Coble creep.

The creep due to the grain boundary sliding occurs in ceramics due to
the presence of a glassy phase in many ceramics. At high temperatures , the
glassy phase has a low viscosity and the system as a whole has a low
overall viscosity if the fraction of the glassy phase is l large. In the other
case a squeezing of the liquid glass from the boundaries under compression
and flowing to those under tension occurs leading to creep.

The creep rate during the steady state creep can be expressed by a
single expression containing the diffusion coefficient, the temperature,
stress and the grain size.


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Further reading

1. Green, D.J., An introduction to the mechanical properties of

ceramics. 1998, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2. Barsoum, M.W., Fundamentals of Ceramics. 1997, New York:

McGraw Hill.