CREEP TCB METALLURGY

Creep test
Definition
Creep: the deformation of a material with the passage of
time when the material is subjected to a constant stress
refers to the slow plastic deformation that occurs with
prolonged loading usually at elevated temperature.
Soft metal like lead creep at room temperature but most
metallic material only show the effect at higher
temperature, the higher the melting point of the material ,
the higher its creep resistance, this gradual deformation
over a long period of time may result in fracture at stress
well below the normal strength of the material.
creep strain is plotted against time; a curve is obtained
which is generally having three stages :
Stage I: Strain hardening or Primary creep,
the strain rate is increasing with time slowly, it is occur
as a result of the movement of dislocation which is pile-
ups at grain boundary making metal more hardened and
this slow down (decrease) the creep rate, so recovery will
happen to decrees the Harding process.
Stage II: Softening processes or Secondary creep,
the strain increase with time at almost constant rate by
several process such as recovery, re -crystallization,
strain softening, and precipitate over aging.
the recovery process is be much faster to balance the rate
of work hardening, so creep at steady rate.
Stage III: Damaging processes or Tertiary creep,
the strain changing increases and eventually causes
failure where voids and micro crack occur at grain
boundaries, the voids grow and link-up so that finally the
material fails of the grain boundaries making problem to the metal ,problem such as cavitations ,
cracking and specimen necking. The three stages and the creep rate are shown in the figure (1-5) .

Figure(1-5)

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CREEP TCB METALLURGY
Type
There are two other type of creep test:
1-Constanst Load: Most creep and stress-rupture tests
are conducted under constant-load conditions. The load is
usually maintained constant throughout the test, and as the
specimen elongates and decreases in cross-sectional area,
the axial stress increases. The initial stress that was
applied to the specimen is usually the reported value of
stress. Methods of compensating for the change in
dimensions of the specimen so as to carry out the creep
test under constant-stress conditions have been developed
2-Constant Stress: In this case, the applied load is
adjusted as the length of the specimen changes to
maintain constant stress on the specimen.
Constant-stress testing is necessary to accurately
determine differences between the temperature
dependence and the stress dependence of a material.
There are difference between results on constant-load and
constant stress tests for the same initial length and the
same initial load ,Under constant stress, the rate per unit
length, once past the initial effect, is constant up to
breaking.
Temperature Control
The specimen should not be overheated while brought to temperature. A common practice is first to
bring the specimen to about 10 °C below the desired temperature in about 1 to 4 h. Then, over a
longer period, the specimen is brought to the desired temperature.
A period of time above the desired temperature is not “cancelled out” by an equal period at a
temperature the same amount below the desired temperature. If the temperature rises above the
desired temperature by more than a small amount, the test should be rejected. Specified limits are
±1.7 °C up to 982 °C and ±2.8 °C above 982 °C at temperatures significantly above 1093 °C, the
limits are broadened. Variations of temperature along the specimen from the nominal test
temperature should vary no more than these limits at these temperatures. These limits refer to
indicated variations in temperature according to the temperature recorder.
Limitation
1- Using alloying elements by addition in small amounts in the
base metal, the Nimonic series is almost 80% Ni-20%Cr alloy
with addition of small amounts of Ti, Al and cobalt, this make
the alloy have excellent creep resistant .
2- Fine grain size materials tend to be more creep resistance than
coarse materials.
3- Temperature and Stress have the great effect in creep rate
while at high temperature the work hardening effect is reduced
by recovery and so the creep rate is less reduced ASTM(E139) .

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