Creep of Materials

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

Creep of Lead Pipes

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 Typical Creep Test

time
ε(t)
F

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

ε& s = f (T , σ )

Creep Curves but not time

90% of life spent in

Stage II

σ
ε=
E

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 Creep
• Defined as time dependent plastic deformation at
high homologous temperatures
• Three regimes
– Primary creep
– Secondary (steady-state) creep
– Tertiary creep (failure)
• Secondary creep (Stage II) is the most important
stage in general, as it is the longest stage

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

Effect of Stress and Temperature

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 Effect of Stress on Stage II creep
dε
= ε& s = K1σ n
dt
• Steady state creep data is well fitted by the above power
law, hence “power law creep”!
• n – creep exponent
• K1 - constant

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

Effect of Temperature on Stage II creep

dε
= ε& s = K1σ n
dt
Thus if we plot
log(σ) vs creep rate, nickel alloy
the slope is n, and
the effect of
temperature shows
up in the constant
K1
⎛ − Qc ⎞
K1 = K 2 exp⎜ ⎟
⎝ RT ⎠
⎛ − Qc ⎞
ε&s = K 2σ n exp⎜ ⎟
⎝ RT ⎠
Note that part lengthens during creep: implication on design…
APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 Effect of Time and Temperature
Thermally activated process
⎛ − Qc ⎞ Energy
ε&s = K 2σ n exp⎜ ⎟
⎝ RT ⎠ Qc =activation energy

Qc = activation energy for

creep

Position 1 Position 2

ln(ε& s )

- Qc /R
Plot of ln( ε& s ) vs T-1 gives slope = - Qc / R

Low T
1/T
High T
APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

General Steady State Creep Relationship

• As stress or T increase, then time to failure decreases
• Concept of “rupture life” 50 MPa … ~40 days
– Plot log(σ) vs log(rupture life)

20 MPa … ~11 years

Design σ, T

Example:
Design life
Boiler tubes

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 General Design Guidelines
For T < 0.4Tmelting ε = f (σ ) But not time

σ
ε= Elastic design σ = Kε Tn Plastic design
E

For T > 0.4Tmelting

ε = f (σ , T , t ) ⎛ − Qc ⎞
ε&s = K 2σ n exp⎜ ⎟ Creep design
⎝ RT ⎠

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

Data Extrapolation
140 MPa
• Often need data for timescales
impractical in lab experiments
• One option is to perform tests at
comparable stress, but higher
temperatures (thus shorter times)
and extrapolate
• A common procedure is the
Larson-Miller parameter 24000
T ( C + log t r )
• C is a constant, often ~ 20, T in
Kelvin, tr in hours
• In general, the rupture lifetime of a What is rupture lifetime at 140 MPa at 800 C?
material at some specific stress 24.0 × 103 = T ( 20 + log t r )
level will vary with T such that this
LM parameter stays constant = 1073( 20 + log t r )

thus 22.37 = 20 + log t r tr = 233 hrs (9.7 days)

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 Comparison of Low and High
Temperature Properties
• Yield strength σy and ultimate strength σu have no
real meaning at elevated temperatures
• Grain boundaries play an important role in high
temperature deformation
– To obtain the best creep resistance, we need to reduce
the number of grain boundaries (ie increase grain size)
– The ultimate is to have a single crystal
• High performance turbine blades are made from
single crystal Ni superalloys ($5000/blade)

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

Increasing Operating temperature of turbine blades

[100] No grain
boundaries

~100 – 150 mm

Grain size ~1-2 mm Directionally solidified

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 Summary of the Effect of Temperature

• Pure Metals (T > 0.4 TMP)

– Microstructure becomes unstable
• Recrystallization – loss of strength
• Grain Growth – small loss of strength
• Creep – time dependent deformation
• By microstructure design, we can raise
critical temperature to 0.6 – 0.7 TMP

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

Basic Questions
• How does permanent deformation occur?
• Why do samples work harden?
• How do we store energy in a crystal?
• Why does the sample recrystallize?

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 Imperfections in Crystals
Vacancy

• Point Defects
– Vacancies
– Interstitial
• All crystals have equilibrium
concentrations of vacancies
Interstitial
⎛ − Qv ⎞
N v = N exp⎜ ⎟
⎝ RT ⎠
Nv – number of vacancies per unit volume
N – number of atoms per unit volume As T increases, Nv increases
Qv – activation energy for vacancy formation
Just below melting point,
Nv/N ~ 10-4, (1 in 10,000)
APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

Effect of Vacancies
• Allows atoms to move in the
solid
• Process is known as
“diffusion”
• Plays an important role in
– Creep
– Recrystallization
– Grain Growth
– Phase transformations
• Allows atoms to re-arrange
themselves to obtain lower
energy configurations

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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 Grain Growth

• After recrystallization, the

grains continue to grow as this
reduces the amount of grain
boundaries
– Reduces energy of system
• The grain growth occurs by
diffusion

APSC278 by Warren Poole and Anoush Poursartip

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