Creep and Stress Rupture

Chapter 13
Creep and stress rupture

Subjects of interest
• Objectives / Introduction
• The high temperature materials problem
• Temperature dependent mechanical behaviour
• Creep test
• Stress rupture test
• Structural change during creep
• Mechanisms of creep deformation
• Fracture at elevated temperature
• High temperature alloys
Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

Objectives
• This chapter provides the understanding of

deformation and fracture behaviour of material at high
temperature.
• Creep and stress rupture tests will be compared such
that the interpretation of test data will be discussed for
engineering applications. This will lead to the selection
of metal and alloys for desired uses at high
temperature.

Introduction
http://cheweb.tamu.edu/orgs
High temperature applications

www.bv.com
Subjected to high
stress at high
temperature
http://en.wikipedia.org
Oil refinery
Steam power plant www.ideas-eng.com
Steam turbine
used in power
plant
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High temperature materials problem
Temp • Atoms move faster diffusion-controlled process.

This affects mechanical properties of materials.
• Greater mobility of dislocations (climb).
• Increased amount of vacancies.
• Deformation at grain boundaries.
• Metallurgical changes, i.e., phase transformation,
precipitation, oxidation, recrystallisation.
High temperature materials/alloys
• Improved high temperature strength.

• Good oxidation resistance.

What is creep?
Creep occurs when a metal is subjected to a constant tensile
load at an elevated temperature. Undergo a time-dependent
increase in length.
At which temperature that material will creep?

• Since materials have its own different melting point, each will creep
when the homologous temperature > 0.5.
Testing temperature
Homologous temp = > 0.5
Melting temperature
• The creep test measure the dimensional changes which occur

when subjected to high temperature.
• The rupture test measures the effect of temperature on the long-
time load bearing characteristics.

Creep test www.axelproducts.com
The creep test is carried out by applying

a constant load to a tensile specimen
maintained at a constant temperature,
(according to ASTM E139-70).
Creep test setting
Typical creep curve

www.twi.co.uk
Schematic creep test
The creep curve
A typical creep curve shows
three distinct stages with different
creep rates. After an initial rapid
elongation εo, the creep rate
decrease with time until reaching
the steady state.
The constant creep rate in the 1) Primary creep provides
second step represent the creep
rate of the material.
decreasing creep rate.
2) Secondary creep gives the
representing constant creep rate.
Typical creep curve showing three stages
of creep 3) Tertiary creep yields a rapid
Notes: B curve is obtained when the stress creep rate till failure.
rather than the load is maintained.
εo is instantaneous strain on loading which is partly recoverable

with time (anelastic) and partly nonrecoverable with time
(plastic).
Three stages of creep
1) Primary creep is a period of

transient creep. The creep
resistance of the material
increases due to material
deformation. Predominate at low
temperature test such as in the
creep of lead at RT.
2) Secondary creep provides a
nearly constant creep rate. The
average value of the creep rate
during this period is called the
minimum creep rate.
3) Tertiary creep shows a rapid
increase in the creep rate due to
effectively reduced cross-sectional
area of the specimen.
Effect of stress on creep curves at
constant temperature
The shape of creep curve will slightly change according to

the applied stress at a constant temperature.
Applied stress Strain
Temp Creep rate
Tapany Udomphol
Suranaree University of Technology May-Aug 2007

The stress rupture test
Creep test Stress rupture test
Load Low load high load
Creep rate minimum creep rate high creep rate
Test period 2000-10000 h 1000 h
Total strain 0.5% 50%
Strain gauge Good strain Simpler strain
measuring devices measuring devices
The rupture test in carried out in a similar manner to the creep test
but at a higher stress level until the specimen fails and the time at
failure is measured.
• Rupture strength and failure time are
plotted, normally showing a straight line.
• Changing of the slope indicates structural
changes in the material, i.e., transgranular
intergranular fracture, oxidation,
recrystallisation, grain growth, spheroidization,
precipitation.
Stress rupture- time
data on log-log scale • Direct application in design.
Structural changes during creep
There are three principal deformation
processes at elevated temperature.
1) Deformation by slip
• More slip systems operate at high temperature
• Slip bands are coarser and widely spaced.
2) Subgrain formation
• Creep deformation produces imhomoginiety
Creep rate and total strain especially around grain boundaries, allowing
relationship dislocations to arrange themselves into a
low-angle grain boundary. Easy for metals
Different creep rates result with high stacking false energy.
from changes in internal
structure of the materials with 3) Grain boundary sliding
creep rate and time. • Produced by shear process and promoted by
increasing temperature/or decreasing strain rate.
• Results in grain boundary folding or grain
boundary migration.
Mechanisms of creep deformation
The chief creep deformation mechanisms can be grouped into;
1) Dislocation glide
Involves dislocation moving along slip planes and
overcoming barriers by thermal activation.
Occurs at high stress.
2) Dislocation creep
Involves dislocation movement to overcome
barriers by diffusion of vacancies or interstitials.
3) Diffusion creep
Involves the flow of vacancies and interstitials through
a crystal under the influence of applied stress.
4) Grain boundary sliding

Involves the sliding of grains past each other.

Deformation mechanism maps
• The various regions of the

map indicate the dominant
deformation mechanism for
the combination of stress and
temperature.
• At the boundary, two
mechanisms occur.
Simplified deformation mechanism map.
Note: G is the shear modulus

Activated energy for steady-state creep
• Steady-state creep deformation predominates at
temperatures above 0.5Tm.
• Steady state creep can be expressed by

•
ε s = Ae −Q / RT Eq.1
Where Q = the activated energy for the rate-controlling process

A = the material structural constant
T = the absolute temperature
R = the universal gas constant
• The activated energy Q can be calculated by assuming the
temperature interval is small so that the creep mechanisms is not
expected to change. • •
A = ε 1 e Q / RT1 = ε 2 e Q / RT2
• •
R ln(ε 1 / ε 2 ) Eq.2
Q=
(1 / T2 − 1 / T1 )
Superplasticity
•Superplasticity is the ability to withstand very large deformation in
tension without necking.
•Give elongation > 1000%.
•Materials with high strain rate sensitivity (m) at high temperature
(T>0.5Tm) superplasticity
• Materials characteristics: fine grain size (<10 µm) with the
presence of second phase of similar strength to the matrix to
inhibit grain growth and to avoid extensive internal cavity formation.
• Grain boundary should be high angle and mobile to promote grain
boundary sliding and to avoid the formation of local stress
concentration respectively.

Superplastic flow
The superplastic flow is given by
2
•
 σ  bD gb
ε = 10  
8
3
Eq.3 For grain boundary diffusion
E L
2
•
σ  D
ε = 2 × 10   2o
9
Eq.3 For lattice self-diffusion
E L
Where L is the mean linear intercept measure of grain size.

in this case n = 2, m = 0.5
The predominant mechanism for superplasticity deformation is

grain-boundary sliding accommodated by slip.

Fracture at elevated temperature
Transgranular fracture Temp Intergranular fracture
Slip planes are weaker Grain boundaries are
than grain boundaries weaker than slip planes.
Transgranular cleavage fracture
Grain boundary fracture
The formation of
intergranular crack by
grain boundary sliding
Transgranular microvoid coalescence
Note: at T just below Trecrys, ductility drops due to grain boundary
sliding intergranular failure.
Equicohesive temperature
Grain
Strength
• Strength of GB = grain at the
equicohesive temperature (ECT).
Grain boundary
Strain rate ECT ECT Temp

Transgranular Intergranular
Increasing the tendency for fracture fracture
intergranular failure
• Below ECT small grain sized material

is stronger due to high density of grain
boundaries to improve strength.
• Above ECT large grain sized material
is stronger due to less tendency for
grain boundary sliding.
Note: Single crystal structure is therefore
appreciable for high temperature
applications, i.e., nickel base alloy single
crystal turbine blade. Fracture mechanism map for nickel
High temperature alloys
• High temperature alloys are complex in their microstructures
to obtain the required properties at service temperatures.
• High melting point alloys normally has high creep resistance.
• Metals with high stacking false energy easy for slip creep.
• Fine precipitates having high thermal stability are necessary for
high creep resistance (prevent grain growth). Ex: (1) Nickel base
alloy containing fine precipitates of intermetallic compounds Ni3Al,
NI3Ti or Ni3(Al,Ti), (2) Creep resistance steels containing fine
carbides VC, TiC, NbC, Mo2C or Cr23C6.
Drawbacks
• Difficult to fabricate by hot-working,

cold working or welding.
• Highly alloyed metals are difficult to
produced by precision casting.
Microstructure of nickel base alloy
Composition of some high
temperature alloys

Presentation of engineering
creep data
Creep strength is defined as the stress at a given temperature,
which produces a steady-state creep rate (10-11 to 10-8 s-1.)
Stress vs minimum creep rate
• Log-log plot is used so that the extrapolation of one log-cycle

represents a tenfold change.
Creep data
Creep data can also be presented as a plot of stress and
time to produce different amounts of total strain.
• The upper most curve

is the stress rupture
curve.
• The percentage
beside each data point
is the percentage
reduction at failure.
Deformation time curve

Example: Determine the working stress at 600oC and 800oC for type
316 stainless steel if the design criterion is a creep strength based on
1 percent extension in 1000 hr. Use a factor of safety of 3.
−5 −1 10 −5 −1
1% creep in 1000h = 10 h = s = 2.8 × 10 −9 s −1
3600
From stress and minimum

creep rate curve, the
working stress using the
safety factor of 3 can be
obtained in the table below.

Example: For the stress-minimum creep rate curve, determine the
activation energy for creep at a stress of 100 MPa.
•
at T2 = 700 C = 973K ; ε 2 = 10 −8 s −1
o
•
at T2 = 800 C = 1073K ; ε 1 = 10 −5 s −1
o
From Eq.2
• •
R ln(ε 1 / ε 2 ) (8.3 Jmol −1 K −1 ) ln(10 3 )
Q= = = 599kJmol −1
(1 / T2 − 1 / T1 ) 1 / 973 − 1 / 1073

Reference
• Dieter, G.E., Mechanical metallurgy, 1988, SI metric edition,

McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-100406-8.

Fatigue [6]
¾Fatigue is the lowering of strength or failure of a material due to
repetitive stress, which may be above or below the yield strength. For
fatigue to occur at least part of the stress in the material has to be
tensile.
¾Many engineering materials such as those used in cars, planes, turbine

engines, machinery, shoes, etc are subjected constantly to repetitive
stresses in the form of tension, compression, bending, vibration, thermal
expansion and contraction or other stresses.
¾There are typically 3 stages to fatigue failure.

¾1) a small crack is initiated or nucleates at the surface and can include
scratches, pits, sharp corners due to poor design or manufacture,
inclusions, grain boundaries or dislocation concentrations.
¾2) the crack gradually propagates as the load continues to cycle.
¾3) a sudden fracture of the material occurs when the remaining cross-
section of the material is too small to support the applied load.
1>
Fatigue under cyclic/repeated loading
¾ Cracks generally grow under repeated loading
¾ Trucks passing over bridges,

¾ Sailboat rudders
¾ Bicycle pedals
¾ Shift gears
¾ May result failure or fracture: fatigue fracture

¾ Periodic inspections required for fatigue critical systems
¾ Thermal fatigue: repeated heating and cooling can

cause a cyclic stress due to differential thermal
expansion and contraction
2>
Fatigue
¾ Repeated, also called cyclic loads resulting in cyclic
stresses can lead to microscopic physical damage.
¾ Accumulation of this microscopic damage with continued

cycling is possible until it develops into a macroscopic
crack such as cracks that may lead to failure
¾ Fatigue: Damage progression to failure due to repeated or

cyclic loading at amplitudes considerably lower than
tensile or yield strengths of material under a static load
¾ Estimated to causes 90 % of all failures of metallic

structures (bridges, aircraft, machine components, etc.)
¾ Fatigue failure is brittle-like (relatively little plastic

deformation) - even in normally ductile materials. Thus
sudden and catastrophic!
3>
Dynamic Loading and Fatigue
4>
Definitions and Concepts
¾ Constant amplitude
stressing
¾ Mean stress
¾ Stress amplitude (half
of the range)Æ
variation about the
mean
¾ Stress ratio R,
Amplitude ratio
¾ Completely reversed
stressing, R = -1
5>
Fatigue Tests
¾ Types of stresses for fatigue tests:

axial (tension – compression)
flexural (rotating/bending)
torsional (twisting)
¾ Flexural stress Sb *
M b . 32 P .l .32
Sb = =
3 3
π .d 2 .π . d
* for round specimens 6>
S-N Curves
¾ The most important fatigue data for engineering

designs are the S-N curves, which is the Stress-Number
of Cycles curves.
¾ In a fatigue test, a specimen is subjected to a cyclic

stress of a certain form and amplitude and the number of
cycles to failure is determined.
¾ The number of cycles, N, to failure is a function of the

stress amplitude, S.
¾ A plot of S versus N is called the S-N curve.
7>
S-N Curves
(a) Typical S-N curves for two metals. Note that, unlike steel, aluminum
does not have an endurance limit. (b) S-N curves for common polymers
8>
S-N Curves
Fatigue Limit:
¾ For some materials such as BCC steels and Ti alloys,
the S-N curves become horizontal when the stress
amplitude is decreased to a certain level.
¾ This stress level is called the Fatigue Limit, or
Endurance Limit.
Fatigue Strength:
¾ For materials, which do not show a fatigue limit such as
Al, Cu, and Mg (non-ferrous alloys), and some steels with
a FCC structure, fatigue strength is specified as the stress
level at which failure will occur for a specified number of
cycles, where 107 cycles is often used.
9>
Fatigue Strength vs Tensile Strength
10>
Fatigue Life
¾ Fatigue life: indicates how

long (number of cycles) a
component survives a
particular stress.
Fatigue strength is applicable to a component with No endurance limit. It

is the maximum stress for which fatigue will not occur at a particular
number of cycles, in general, 108 cycles for metals.
Endurance ratio: the endurance limit is approximately ¼ to ½ the tensile

strength.
endurance limit (fatigue strenght)
Endurance ratio = ≈ 0.25 − 0.5
tensile strength
11>
Factors Affecting Fatigue Life
¾ Magnitude of stress (mean, amplitude...)
¾ Quality of the surface (scratches, sharp transitions and

edges).
¾ Solutions:
¾ Polishing (removes machining flaws etc.)
¾ Introducing compressive stresses (compensate for
applied tensile stresses) into thin surface layer by “Shot
Peening”- firing small shot into surface to be treated.
High-tech solution - ion implantation, laser peening.
¾ Case Hardening - create C- or N- rich outer layer in
steels by atomic diffusion from the surface. Makes
harder outer layer and also introduces compressive
stresses
¾ Optimizing geometry - avoid internal corners, notches
etc.
12>
Fatigue failures
¾ The fracture surface near the origin is usually smooth
(Beach mark-crack initiation point). The surface
becomes rougher as the crack increases in size.
¾ Striations (concentric line patterns): the slow cyclic
build up of crack growth from a surface intrusion.
Striations are on a much finer scale and show the
position of the crack tip after each cycle.
¾ Granular portion of the fracture surface: rapid crack
propagation at the time of catastrophic failure.
13>
Fatigue failures
Typical fatigue-fracture surface on metals, showing beach marks.

Magnification: left, 500x; right, 1000x. Source: Courtesy of B.J.
Schulze and S.L. Meiley and Packer Engineering Associates, Inc.
14>
Fatigue Crack Propagation (FCP) Testing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPYw8hRkyVA
Cambridge Polymer Group has developed an automated FCP imaging system

that images the sample every 500 cycles of cyclic loading, without any user
input required. The FCP imaging system is independent of the load frame
performing the cyclical loading, and is therefore simple to transfer and set up
at a new location. In the video above, every second is equal to 2000 cycles
of loading. Each frame is analyzed to measure the crack length, using the black
dots to guide the measurement. 15>
Standards relating to Fatigue Test
¾ American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM):
• ASTM E466 - Standard Practice for Conducting Force

Controlled Constant Amplitude Axial Fatigue Tests
of Metallic Materials (2015)
• ASTM E606 - Standard Test Method for Strain-Controlled

Fatigue Testing (2012)
• ASTM E1823 - Standard Terminology Relating to

Fatigue and Fracture Testing (2013)
16>
Fatigue Test Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhUclxBUV_E 17>
References
¾ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_(material)
¾ Kelly, S. M. Fatigue.
http://sv.rkriz.net/classes/MSE2094_NoteBook/97ClassProj/anal/kelly/fatigue.html
¾ ASTM International. ASTM E466 - Standard Practice for Conducting Force
Controlled Constant Amplitude Axial Fatigue Tests of Metallic Materials.
West Conshohocken, 6 p., 2015.
¾ ASTM International. ASTM E606 - Standard Test Method for Strain-Controlled
Fatigue Testing. West Conshohocken, 16 p., 2012.
¾ ASTM International. ASTM E1823 - Standard Terminology Relating to Fatigue
and Fracture Testing. West Conshohocken, 25p., 2013.
¾ Kalpakjian, S.; Schmid, S. R. Manufacturing Engineering and Technology,
6th Edition. Prentice-Hall, 1197p. (2009).
¾Metals Handbook, ASM. Mechanical Testing and Evaluation, volume 8.
ASM, 9th edition, 1981.
Notas de aula preparadas pelo Prof. Juno Gallego para a disciplina Lab. Materiais de Construção Mecânica II.
® 2016. Permitida a impressão e divulgação.
http://www.feis.unesp.br/#!/departamentos/engenharia-mecanica/grupos/maprotec/educacional/
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Chapter 13

Creep and stress rupture

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

• This chapter provides the understanding of

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

High temperature applications

Steam power plant www.ideas-eng.com

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol Process plant May-Aug 2007

Temp • Atoms move faster diffusion-controlled process.

High temperature materials/alloys

• Improved high temperature strength.

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

At which temperature that material will creep?

• The creep test measure the dimensional changes which occur

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

The creep test is carried out by applying

Creep test setting

Typical creep curve

εo is instantaneous strain on loading which is partly recoverable

1) Primary creep is a period of

The shape of creep curve will slightly change according to

Applied stress Strain

Temp Creep rate

Suranaree University of Technology May-Aug 2007

4) Grain boundary sliding

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

• The various regions of the

Simplified deformation mechanism map.

Note: G is the shear modulus

• Steady state creep can be expressed by

Where Q = the activated energy for the rate-controlling process

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

The superplastic flow is given by

Where L is the mean linear intercept measure of grain size.

The predominant mechanism for superplasticity deformation is

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

Transgranular cleavage fracture

Grain boundary fracture

Strain rate ECT ECT Temp

• Below ECT small grain sized material

• Difficult to fabricate by hot-working,

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

Stress vs minimum creep rate

• Log-log plot is used so that the extrapolation of one log-cycle

• The upper most curve

Deformation time curve

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

From stress and minimum

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

• Dieter, G.E., Mechanical metallurgy, 1988, SI metric edition,

Suranaree University of Technology Tapany Udomphol May-Aug 2007

¾Many engineering materials such as those used in cars, planes, turbine

¾There are typically 3 stages to fatigue failure.

¾ Cracks generally grow under repeated loading

¾ Trucks passing over bridges,

¾ May result failure or fracture: fatigue fracture

¾ Thermal fatigue: repeated heating and cooling can

¾ Accumulation of this microscopic damage with continued