Critical Evaluation of the Compression Creep Test

Klaus D. Debschutz, Bernhard Caspers, Gerold A. Schneider,* and Gunter Petzow*

Max-Pianck-Institut f i r Metallforschung, Institut f i r Werkstoffwissenschaft,
Pulvermetallurgisches Laboratorium, D-7000 Stuttgart 80, Germany

The compression creep test is analyzed with respect to the
friction at the loaded ends of the specimen. An analytical
and a finite-element solution performed for large deforma-
tions reveals that friction leads to a strain-independent
reduction of the creep rate which only depends on the stress
expbnent of the creep law and the geometry of the specimen.
The assumed material behavior is a time-dependent, iso-
choric, nonlinear viscosity. Compression creep tests on
3-mol%-yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals
(3Y-TZP) have been analyzed. The determination of a stress
exponent corresponding to the decreasing stress state in the
specimen during large deformations results in a higher res-
olution of the stress-strain-rate relationship derived from a
certain number of creep tests. For 3Y-TZP the compression
creep tests reveal a decreasing stress exponent with increas-
ing stress.
I. Introduction
of the material for large deformations. The importance of the
stress exponents of a single experiment for the identification of
the dominating creep mechanism is shown.
11. Evaluation of the Compression Creep Test
( I ) Experimental Boundary Conditions
The fixture and the measuring system for a compression
creep test inside a furnace are shown in Fig. 1. The loading ele-
ments between the attached rods of the measurement system-
the two load pads-must be made of much higher creep resis-
tant material than the specimen and, therefore, can be assumed
to be rigid.
The compressive stress is usually applied on the specimen
using a dead load, hydraulic, or spring system. In most cases,
the experimental boundary condition is a constant load ( F =
constant), which is considered for the following calculation.
The measuring system provides a data set of displacements

T HE compression creep test is a common testing method for

the determination of the high-temperature mechanical
behavior of a material. Compared to the tension creep test, com-
h, - h depending on time t , where h is the time-dependent
length and h, is the original length of the cylindrical specimen.
An important uncertainty in the evaluation of the compres-
pression creep tests offer a much more inexpensive testing sion creep test is the unknown friction at the loaded ends of the
method. The bending creep test shows a severe stress redistri- specimen. Barrel-shaped specimens after the creep test indicate
bution in the bending bar during the test.'.' In the compression that friction is high enough to significantly influence the stress
creep test, the friction at the loaded ends of the specimen can distribution and resulting deformation of the specimen (Fig. 2).
lead to an inhomogeneous stress distribution. The main experi-
mental difficulty of the test is the small displacement which (2) Calculated Correlation to the Creep Law
requires a high resoiution of the displacement measuring sys- To correlate the measured time-dependent displacement with
tem. For the compression creep test, the exact derivation of the a time-dependent material law for the creep behavior, two
creep law, which is described by an activation energy, a time- extreme cases of boundary conditions are taken into account:
dependent factor, and a stress exponent, depends on the accu- frictionless and total constraint for the boundary condition at
racy of the evaluation. the loaded ends of the specimen. The following calculations are
The investigations presented below concern the effect of the conducted with the assumptions of a homogeneous temperature
unavoidable stress inhomogeneity caused by the friction at the distribution in the specimen and an ideal cylindrical shape.
loaded ends of the ~pecimen.~ This influence is evaluated for In the frictionless case, the initially cylindrical shape of the
large deformations. Based on these results, it is possible to specimen remains cylindrical during the deformation. Using the
determine a stress exponent in a single experiment from the
decreasing stress in the specimen during the large deformation.
This stress exponent is valid for a small stress range, which is
primarily defined by the initial stress. Compared to the com-
monly evaluated stress exponent, which is determined from the Push r o d s
steady-state creep rates at significantly different stresses, this
method reveals finally a higher resolution of the stress-strain-
rate relationship.
Corresponding to the theoretical evaluation, compression
creep experiments on 3-mol%-yttria-stabilizedtetragonal zirco-
nia polycrystals (3Y-TZP) are presented. These creep experi- Load pads
ments are primarily subjected to the stationary creep behavior Spec men
D. S. Wilkinson-contributing editor
Scanning pins
Manuscript No. 195982. Received February 10,1992; approved May 21,1993.
Supported in part by the German Federal Ministry of Science and Technology under
Project No. 03 M 2012 and in p" by the Volkswagen Foundation under Project No.
1163465.
'Member, American Ceramic Society. Fig. 1. Compression fixture and measuring system.

2468
October 1993 Critical Evaluation of the Compression Creep Test 2469
The transition from the engineering values to the true values
which describe the material behavior can easily be performed
for the frictionless case, using the boundary coddition of a con-
stant volume during the deformation.
Based on V = constant and F = constant, which can be writ-
ten as A,h, = Ah and a,A, = a,A, the following equations for
the transition are obtained:
u, = (1 - &,)a, (7)
E, = -In (1 - E,) (8)
1
El = Ee- (9)
l - E,

The constitutive law in the engineering formulation is now

the differential equation
E, = (Klt-l + K2)(1 - E,)"+'u: (10)
Fig. 2. Original specimen and after 20% true strain. The solution of Eq. (10) leads to the expressions for the time-
dependent engineering strain
t
absolute values for strain and strain rate in the following equa-
tions for the compression creep test, where A , is the initial
cross-sectional area, one can obtain the engineering strain
and engineering strain rate
h, - h
E, = - (1)
h, Et = oz(K,t-' + K,)
and engineering stress
F (12)
a, = -
A, For the other extreme case, the boundary condition of a total
directly from the measured values ( h , - h ( t ) and F ) . constraint at the loaded specimen ends, the calculation is con-
For considerable deformation, the equations for true strain ducted using the finite-element-method. The creep law assumed
above in Eq. (6) is for the uniaxial material behavior and can be
h correlated to the three-dimensional stress state with the assump-
E, = -In - (3) tion of a flow rule. Therefore, it is necessary to use the von
h,
Mises equivalent stress,
and true stress
u2 --3
F Y - 2 !O d 1'1 1 (13)
a, = - (4)
A(h)
and the von Mises equivalent rate of deformation,
where the changing cross section A ( h ) of the cylinder must be
used for the derivation of the constitutive law. The constitutive 2
law is in principal related to the actual geometry requiring the &: = j{Ed)'{Ed] (14)
use of the true values.
A common creep behavior of a material is now assumed to be which are functions of the deviatoric parts of the stress vector
a superposition of a primary and a secondary (stationary) creep {a,) (and transposed stress vector {a,)')and strain-rate vector
mechanism. These are, for instance, grain rearrangement or per- { Ed 1, respectively. The von Mises concept leads to a corres-
colation processes for the primary creep mechanism5-' and dif- ponding relation for the uniaxial constitutive equation written
fusional processes for the secondary creep mechanism.* Such a as
typical creep behavior is described by the following creep law: a" = 3qE, (15)
E, = K,a"t-" + K2uTZ (5) where the viscosity of the material q can be treated as a function
of the equivalent rate of deformation q = q(Ev),which allows
where K , = k , exp( - Q , / R T ) and K, = k , exp( - QJRT) the calculation of a nonlinear material behavior.'
where Q , and Q , represent the activation energies for the pri- The finite-element calculation presented here neglects the
mary and secondary creep processes, respectively. The expo- linear elastic part of the material behavior and assumes a non-
nents n , and n, describe the stress dependencies of the primary linear, time-dependent, viscous material behavior for the speci-
and secondary processes. The exponent c determines the time men. LARSTRAN, the finite-element program which is used in
dependence of the primary process and requires a starting time this work is written in the formulation of Kirchhoff-Treffts
(to) for the initial state (&,(to) = 0). stress tensors and Green strain tensors and, therefore, allows the
Under the assumption of a constant temperature during the calculation of large deformations.".' The resulting system of
entire creep test, the parameters K, and K, can be treated as con- nonlinear equations can directly be solved for the velocity field
stant values. To show the distinct influence of friction on creep and is connected to the displacements using the time-integra-
behavior in the following general calculations, some further tion scheme
simplifications must be made. The stress dependence of the pri-
mary and secondary creep mechanisms is assumed to be the h , , , = h, + (1 - t)i,At + t i , + , A t (16)
same ( n , = n,), and the value for time exponent c is set to unity.
The creep law can now be rewritten as where5 = 0.0 ... 1.0andAt = t , + , - t , .
The isochoric deformation due to the pure viscous material
El = (Kit-' + K,)a: (6) behavior is obtained using a penalty approach which relates the
2470 Journal of the American CeramicSociety-Debschutz et al.
volumetric rate of deformation to the hydrostatic stress.’, Only
the deviatoric p,m of the stress vector causes a deformation, fol-
lowing the equation
Based on the creep law assumed for the uniaxial material
behavior in Eq. (6), the nonlinear viscosity
is achieved for the corresponding material viscosity in the
finite-element calculation.
Considering the symmetries in the cylindrical specimen, we
regard the area for the calculation (Fig. 3) of this axisymmetric
problem to be one-fourth of the longitudinal cross section of
the specimen.
To estimate the influence of the singularity at the edge of the
loaded area on the deformation, we use finite-element meshes
with different refinements.
(3) Results and Discussion
Calculations have been conducted using some typical values
for 3Y-TZP for the parameters K , , K,, and n of the creep law.
The results in the following diagrams are based on the
parameters K , = 2.353 X lo-’, K , = 1.0 X and n = 2.2
with an applied compressive stress of u, = 35 and a starting
condition of E, = E, = 0.0 at I, = 1. The stress, strain rate, and
time parameters are treated as if dimensionless, assuming that
the original values are normalized by the value 1 with the
dimensions MPa, s-I, and s, respectively.
The finite-element solution for the fully constrained end
faces shows, for the initial state at E, = 0 in Fig. 4, a severe
inhomogeneous distribution of the vertical stress (the stress
component parallel to the load axes) in the specimen. Based on
the result of the stress distribution for a significant deformation
E, = 15.6%, shown in Fig. 5, we can assume that the stress dis-
tribution remains approximately constant during the deforma-
tion. The von Mises stress distribution at E, = 0 in Fig. 6 shows
the inhomogeneous deviatoric flow of the material leading to
the measurable deformation of the specimen.
Figure 7 shows the direct comparison of the time-dependent
engineering strain rates between the boundary conditions of
frictionless and total constraint. The general time-dependent
behavior for both boundary conditions is the same, but the
curve of the finite-element solution is shifted slightly along the
vertical axis toward smaller values. This leads to the result that
Fig. 3. Schematic compression fixture with two load pads and three-
fourths of the specimen showing the finite-element mesh for the axi-
symmetric calculation.
Vol. 76, No. 10
the creep rate for the constrained boundary condition decreases
by a constant factor.
Using the explicit time-integration scheme ( 5 = 0.0) in Eq.
(16) and the creep law in Eq.(6) for both solutions, a compari-
son can be shown in the formulation of the true values for strain
rate and strain (Fig. 8). The logarithmic strain rate versus strain
shows a constant slope in the creep curve for large deformations
caused by the stress reduction corresponding to the rising cross-
sectional area of the specimen during the def~rmation.~ Assum-
ing a constant cylindrical shape of the specimen-the friction-
less case-and using Eqs. (6) to (8), the relation
is obtained for long times.
The constant slope for large deformations in Fig. 8 therefore
provides the direct derivation of the “local” stress exponent of
the creep law in the stationary creep regime. The corresponding
results for the total constraint case reveal a vertical shift, but no
changes in the slope of the curve. This allows the derivation of
a local stress exponent from a compression creep test with large
deformation and a stationary creep regime even under the
assumption of significant friction at the loaded specimen ends.
The shift of the creep curve for the total constraint boundary
condition is a result of the inhomogeneous stress distribution
and can be defined by a creep reduction factor
K, = &tola, constraint
~friction1ess
which is the ratio of the creep rates for the total constraint and
the frictionless case in the initial state. As shown in Figs. 7 and
8, the K , factor is constant over the broad regime of time or
strain considered in these investigations.
The K , factor depends on the stress exponent of the creep
law-the degree of nonlinearity of the material behavior. The
deviation of the creep rate due to the total constraint boundary
condition can be expressed as (1 - K , ) and is shown in Fig. 9 as
a function of the stress exponent n.
The shape of the specimen is another important parameter for
the inhomogeneous stress distribution and the resulting creep-
rate deviation. For the different cylindrical specimens calcu-
lated here in the initial state, an increase in the ratio of diameter
to height leads to an increase in the creep-rate deviation (1 -
K , ) shown in Fig. 10. Specimens with lower ratios of diameter
to height become very sensitive to deviations from the ideal
shape, leading to structural instabilities and, therefore, unpre-
dictable results.
111. Compression Creep Testing of Zirconia
(1) Experimental Procedure
The investigated material was 3-mol%-yttria-stabilized zir-
conia polycrystals (3Y-TZP). The powder (TZ-3Y, Toshoh,
Tokyo, Japan) was sintered using a low heating rate (- 1 to 2 K/
min) at 1460°C for 12 min. The sintered density was 6.1 g/cm3.
X-ray phase analysis revealed only tetragonal ZrO, (detection
limit -2 at.%). No grain-boundary phase could be detected by
either SEM or conventional TEM with a spatial resolution <1
nm. The average grain size, determined by the linear intercept
method,13 was about 0.4 p,m. The grains had a faceted shape. A
typical microstructure of a polished and thermally etched speci-
men is shown in Fig. 11.
Cylindrical specimens with 8-mm height and 4-mm diameter
were prepared by cutting and grinding the ends of a cylinder
and round grinding the surface of the cylinder. Fig. 2 shows an
undeformed specimen and a specimen after deformation; the
barreling of the specimen is clearly visible.
The compression fixture with S i c load pads and the displace-
ment measuring system are shown in Fig. 1. The displacement
October 1993 Critical Evaluation of the Compression Creep Test 241 1

Fig. 4. Distribution of the vertical stress at
E, = 0% for total constraint end faces (units in
MPa). Applied force is equal to an average
compressive stress of 35 MPa (corresponding
stress fringe labeled with A).
Fig. 5. Distribution of the vertical stress at
E, = 15.6% for total constraint end faces
(units in MPa). Applied force is equal to an
average compressive stress of 30 MPa (cor-
responding stress fringe labeled with B).
Fig. 6. von Mises stress distribution at E , =
0% for total constraint end faces (units in
MPa). Applied force is equal to an average
compressive stress of 35 MPa (corresponding
stress fringe labeled with A).

1
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 = 0
T i m e Csl 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4 5 5
Stress e x p o n e n t
Fig. 7. Engineering strain rate E, as a function of time for the friction-
less (analytical solution) and the total constraint case ((A) finite- Fig. 9. Creep-rate deviation (1 - K,)for the total constraint case as a
element solution). function of the stress exponent of the creep law.

50
n
u)
\ 40
7
u
a, 1 E-4
c
30
F
.-c
0 20
2 1 E-5
v)

a
10
3
I
t- ~ -
total constrain
--
1 E-6
0
0 .05 10 15 .20
0 .5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
True strain
Diameter / Height
Fig. 8. True strain rate Et as a function of true strain E, for the friction-
less (analytical solution) and the total constraint case ((A) finite- Fig. 10. Creep-rate deviation (1 - K,)for the total constraint case as
element solution). a function of the specimen geometry-the diameter-to-height ratio.
2472 Journal of the American Ceramic Society-Debschiitz et al.
Fig. 11. SEM micrograph of microstructure.
was measured by a differential extensometer system with a res-
olution of ? 1 pm.The fixture was mounted in a spring-loaded
testing machine. The force was monitored and controlled dur-
ing testing by a PC control device which allowed changes in the
load as a function of strain.
Two different types of experiments were conducted: under
constant load (a, = constant) and under constant stress (a,=
constant), the latter realized by increasing the applied force
according to
F = F,-ho
h ment under constant load, also shown in Fig. 12, the strain rate
The tests were performed in air between 1100" and 1200°C in
the stress range 20 to 70 MPa. Stress rates between and
lo-* s-' and true strains up to 20% were measured.
(2) Experimental Results and Discussion
(A) Compression Creep Test under Constant Stress:
Typical creep curves at 1200°C and 35 MPa are shown in Fig.
12. After a transient primary region with decreasing creep rate,
a steady-state region with a constant creep rate was achieved for
tests conducted under constant stress, where the applied force
was increased during the deformation. The shape of the curve
shows that a creep law such as Eq. (6) can be used to describe
the creep behavior of this material. The constant-load test
reveals the same primary region and a secondary region with a
decreasing strain rate.
According to Eq. (6), measurement of constant creep rates at
different stress levels and temperatures allows the determina-
tion of the stress exponent n and the activation energy Q .
ci
const. stress
.-
C cn
l.E-6
c
u)
a,
?
+ 1 .E-7
1.E-7 ~
.05 .10 .15 .20
True strain
Fig. 12. True strain rate versus true strain at 1200°C and 3.5 MPa
under constant load and under constant stress.
Vol. 76,No. 10
The stress exponent is determined by the slope in a logarithm
of strain rate versus logarithm of stress plot with the strain rates
at about 2% strain. For different temperatures, the stress expo-
nents vary between 2.8 and 3.2, which is in the range often
reported for this material.'"16 An evaluation at 5% strain reveals
stress exponents between 2.7 and 3.2.
The activation energy, the slope in an Arrhenius plot of In El
vs 1/T, was determined by comparing the creep rates of differ-
ent specimens (again at 2% strain) and not by temperature
change experiments. The determined value for the activation
energy of Q = 650 k 50 kJ/mol is at the upper end of reported
v a l ~ e s . ' ~The
. ' ~ extension of the primary region for different
specimens under the same testing conditions varies between 1%
and 4% of true strain.
( B ) Compression Test under Constant Load: A compres-
sion test under constant load results in a slightly decreasing
stress. The variation in stress may be used to determine the
stress exponent n in the creep law (Eq. (6)) according to Eq.
(19). However, because of the small stress variations in such a
single experiment (- 15%),this stress exponent yields infonna-
tion from only a small stress range, contrary to stress exponents
determined by comparing the stress rates at different stress lev-
els in a series of experiments.
The first condition for this determination of a stress exponent
is a steady-state creep rate under constant stress in a large strain
range. The experimental condition can be realized under the
assumption of a homogeneous, isochoric deformation by
increasing the load according to the decreasing height of the
specimen. As shown in Fig. 12, the specimen has a constant
creep rate under constant stress. Between 5% and 20% true
strain E,, the strain rate El varies only about 5%. In the experi-
decreases in the same strain range more than 30%. Therefore,
the decrease in strain rate is significantly larger than the uncer-
tainty in the strain-rate measurement.
In Fig. 13, log Et vs E, is shown for 1200°C and different stress
levels using constant load. The slopes of each curve are the
local exponents, which are determined by fitting a least-squares
straight line through the measured strain rate points between
2% and 17% strain. The correlation coefficient is >0.97. An
increase in the stress exponent with decreasing stress is clearly
visible. For higher stresses, the exponent n is about 2. For low
stresses, the exponent n reaches values greater than 4.During
a single experiment, the temperature at the specimen was
controlled better +1"C. With an activation energy Q of 650
kJ/mol, the strain rate changes according to the Arrhenius
equation,
0
m n=2.2
cn
\7
l.E-5
u
er
c
Y
.-K
l.E-6
+
a,
3
L
+
.05 .10 .15 .20
T r u e strain
Fig. 13. True strain rate versus true strain at 1200°C and 20, 3.5, SO
M i a under constant load. Stress exponents n are determined by the
slopes of the strain rates between 0.02 and 0.17 strain.
October 1993 Critical Evaluation of the Compression Creep Test
7
&I
€2
= exp[ --(-R $)j
Q l -
TI
at a temperature of 1200°C for k 3%. The strain range for the
determination of the stress exponent is at least 0.1 strain, so that
the error introduced by temperature is less than k0.3 for the
exponent.
The influence of the choice of the range for the least-squares
fit is k0.2. As an example, in Fig. 13, the determination of the
stress exponent in the range between 0.08 and 0.18 strain
instead of 0.02 and 0.18 reveals a stress exponent of 2.4 instead
of 2.2 for the test at 1200°C and 50 MPa and an exponent of 4.6
instead of 4.5 at 20 MPa. As shown in Fig. 8, the effect of the
unknown friction at the loaded ends is negligible. In addition,
the error by temperature variations and uncertainties by deter-
mination of the beginning of the stationary region yields an
error in determination of the stress exponent in a constant load
test of 20.5. In these limits, observed stress exponents of 4.5
and 2.2 are significantly different.
(C) Microstructural Analysis: The microstructure of
deformed specimens has been investigated by TEM (Fig. 14).
The faceted grain shape is clearly visible. No differences in the
microstructure between the deformed and original specimens
can be detected; i.e., no grain-shape or grain-diameter change is
found. No cavitation can be observed. The deformation is not
caused by grain elongation or grain growth, according to other
investigations reported elsewhere. l4
(0) Stress Exponent: As illustrated above, the stress
exponents have been determined by two methods. First, a com-
parison of the strain rates at significantly different stresses
yields one value for the stress exponent for the whole stress
range tested. Second, evaluation of the decrease of the strain
rate corresponding to the decreasing stress in a single experi-
ment under constant load with large deformation yields a stress
exponent corresponding to the testing stress level. Every test
stress level yields a special stress exponent.
A comparison of these differently derived stress exponents is
shown in Fig. 15. The stress exponents of a single experiment
are shown in the diagram as short straight lines with the corres-
ponding slopes. The other stress exponents are the slopes of the
least-squares fitted straight lines through the strain rates at dif-
ferent stresses, shown as dashed lines.
As an example, at 12OO0C, the stress exponent of the entire
stress range is 2.8, and the stress exponents of the single creep
tests are 4.5, 3.9, and 2.2 for 20, 35, and 50 MPa (see Fig. 13),
respectively.
An increase of the stress exponent with increasing stress,
which is observed in some ceramics,” can be explained by a
superposition of two mechanisms. However, a decrease of the
Fig. 14. TEM micrograuh of microstructure after 30% true strain.
Dgeection of the load F t s [ndicated by an arrow.
2473
n 12000 c. n=2.a
C. ~ 3 . 2
C , n=2.9
l.E-8 1 1
10 20 50 100
Stress CMPal
Fig. 15. Comparison of stress exponents from (-) single creep tests
and ( - - - ) stress exponents of the whole stress range for different
temperatures.
stress exponent with increasing stress, observed in alumina”
and in zirconia,’’ cannot be explained in this way. Simple
superposition can lead only to an increase of the stress exponent
with increasing stress.
One possibility for explaining a decrease of the exponent
with increasing stress is a mechanism with a threshold stress.’’
In the regime of the threshold, the creep law (Eq. (6)) is not
valid, and the measured stress exponents are not characteristic
for any mechanisms.
The activation energy and the stress exponents measured in
the high-stress range show quite common v a l ~ e s . ’ ~In - ’ this
~
range, shape-conserving mechanisms, such as diffusion-accom-
modated grain-boundary sliding,” can be rate limiting. This
mechanism has a stress exponent of 2 if it is interface controlled
and reveals no changes in the microstructure consistent with
our observations.
In the low-stress range, the measured stress exponents are
very high and cannot be correlated to a deformation mechanism
directly. It can be concluded, then, that the measured values
belong to a transition region, where the stress exponent has no
physical meaning. The stress dependence of the stress expo-
nents evaluation from the single experiments indicates a thresh-
old stress of about 15 MPa. The mechanisms in the low-stress
range will be discussed in detail elsewhere.Z2
IV. Conclusions
(1) The effect of friction at the loaded ends of compression
creep specimen decreases the strain rate by a time- and strain-
independent factor K , which is the ratio of the creep rates for the
total constraint and the frictionless case.
(2) The stress exponent of the creep law determines the
creep-rate deviation ( 1 - K,). For a typical diameter-to-height
( d / h ) value of 0.5, the creep-rate deviation ( 1 - K , ) ranges
from 8% to 14% for n = 1 to 5.
(3) Different specimen shapes influence the deviation (1 -
K , ) significantly. For d / h values from 0.5 to 2, the creep rate
deviates from 8% to 35% for n = I .
(4) Based on the calculated strain-independent strain-rate
reduction in the case of friction, the evaluation of a stress expo-
nent from the decreasing stress during the large deformation is
possible in a single experiment. This provides as high resolu-
tion of the stress-strain-rate relationship in a low-stress regime.
(5) Variations in this relationship are detectable with this
evaluation and reveal changes in the rate-controlling mecha-
nisms.
(6) 3-mol%-yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrys-
tals (3Y-TZP) show a regime of a stationary compression creep
from 3% to more than 20%.
(7) The stress exponent decreases from 4.5 to 2.2 with an
increasing stress from 20 to 50 MPa.
~~~
Y
2474 Journal of the American Ceramic Society-Debschutz
(8) The changes of the stress exponent in the investigated
stress regime indicate a transition in the rate-controlling mecha-
nism at very low stresses (-15 MPa). At higher stresses (-50
MPa), diffusion-accommodated grain-boundary sliding is iden-
tified as the dominant mechanism with a stress exponent of
n = 2.
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