Materials Science and Engineering A324 (2002) 235– 238

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Creep behaviour of leaded brass

V. Buršı́ková a,*, J. Buršı́k b, V. Navrátil c, K. Milička b
a
Department of Physical Electronics, Faculty of Science, Masaryk Uni6ersity, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
b
Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Z& ižko6a 22, 616 62 Brno, Czech Republic
c
Department of Physics, Faculty of Education, Masaryk Uni6ersity, Pořı́čı́ 7, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic

Abstract

The creep behaviour of Cu–36wt.% Zn alloys containing 2.5 wt.% of lead has been investigated. Constant tensile stress creep
experiments were carried out in the temperature range from 523 to 823 K and under constant stresses from 5 to 250 MPa.
Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis were performed on crept as well as uncrept parts of the
specimens in order to examine the mechanisms of creep deformation in leaded brass. Attention has been paid to the role of lead
on the creep behaviour of brass, the influence of temperature on creep curves, the stress sensitivity parameter and apparent
activation energy of creep. The creep data obtained are examined by several methods of conventional analysis of steady-state
creep. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Brass; Lead addition; Creep; Steady state creep; Stress sensitivity parameter; Activation energy

1. Introduction annealed in silica ampoules at 823 K for 4 h and the

The leaded brasses are well known for their free-ma-
chining properties. They constitute, from a tonnage
point of view, one of the most common copper-base
alloys. The benefits conferred by the presence of a small
percentage of lead have been appreciated for many
years [1]. The improved tool life, the reduction in
cutting forces, and, hence power consumption are very
desirable commercially [1,2].
2. Experimental
The material used was leaded brass of the nominal
composition Cu36wt.% Zn2.5wt.% Pb. The cylindri-
cal specimens of 50 mm in gauge length and 6 mm in
cross-section diameter were machined from hot rolled
strips of 10 mm in thickness and about 150 mm in
width. The longitudinal direction of the specimens was
parallel to the rolling direction. The specimens were

This paper is dedicated to Professor Pavel Lukáč on the occasion
of his 65th birthday.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: + 421-5-41129569; fax: + 421-5-
41211214.
E-mail address: vilmab@physics.muni.cz (V. Buršı́ková).
resultant mean grain size of the recrystallized material
was 25 mm.
The creep tests were isothermal constant-stress tensile
tests carried out in protective argon atmosphere on
creep machines described by Hostinský and C& adek [3].
The creep elongation was measured by means of LVDT
Hottinger-Baldwin extensometer (W10K+ KWS3073
set) and continuously recorded. The sensitivity of strain
measurements was approximately 2× 10 − 6 for the
gauge length of 50 mm of the used creep specimens.
The maximum creep strain allowed by the creep ma-
chine used was mmax = 0.35. Creep curves and all impor-
tant creep characteristics were very well reproducible
over a whole interval of testing conditions. The mi-
crostructure of the selected specimens crept at different
temperatures and applied stresses were investigated us-
ing a Philips SEM 505 electron microscope with an
X-ray energy dispersive analyzer EDAX.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 1 shows the steady state creep behaviour of the
Cu –Zn –Pb alloy plotted as steady-state creep rate, m; s
versus applied stress, | in double logarithmic coordi-

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236 V. Buršı́ko6á et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A324 (2002) 235–238

nates. The range of the testing stresses | was about two Table 2
Apparent activation energy Qa, Eq. (2), as a function of the applied
orders of magnitude in the whole temperature interval.
stress. The regression coefficient R was higher than 0.997 for all fits
The apparent stress sensitivity parameter na for differ- excluding fit for 20 MPa (R20 =0.994)
ent temperatures was calculated according to
relationship | (Mpa) Qa (kJ mol−1)

na =
 
(lnm; s
(1)
100
80
138 9 6
140 9 4
(ln| T 50 134 9 5
40 153 9 7
30 135 9 5
20 133 9 9
10 118 9 2

Fig. 1. Applied stress dependences of the steady-state creep rate m; s.

Table 1
Apparent stress sensitivity parameters na for different temperatures
calculated from Eq. (1) using power law dependence of the steady
creep rate on the applied stress
Fig. 3. Normalized creep data for calculating the apparent activation
energy, Qa. R is the universal gas constant.
T (K) na

523 4.4 90.2 using the power law dependence for a description of the
573 4.3 9 0.3 steady-state creep rate on the applied stress. The calcu-
623 4.09 0.1 lated values of na are reviewed in Table 1. The apparent
673 3.4 9 0.2
723 3.4 9 0.2 stress sensitivity parameter na decreases with increasing
773 3.4 9 0.2 temperature from 4.4 to 3.4 up to T =673 K and above
823 3.19 0.2 this temperature it is constant in the range of the
experimental errors. Such values of stress sensitivity
parameter are typical for many metallic materials. The
relatively high values of steady-state creep rate and
values of na from the range 4.4–3.1 suggest, that dislo-
cation creep was the mechanism controlling the creep
deformation.
The Arrhenius plots lnm; s = f(1/RT)corresponding to
seven levels of the applied stress are in Fig. 2 ( R is the
universal gas constant).
The values of apparent activation energy Qa calcu-
lated as

Qa =
 (lnm; s  , (2)
((−1/RT) |

are summarized in Table 2. The apparent activation

energy can be taken as constant for applied stresses
Fig. 2. Temperature dependence of the steady-state creep ratem; s. R is ranging from 20 to 100 MPa. The master curve shown
the universal gas constant. in the Fig. 3 can be obtained by multiplying each
 V. Buršı́ko6á et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A324 (2002) 235–238
Fig. 4. Dependence of the Zener – Hollomon parameter on the true
strain for applied stress 50 MPa. R is the universal gas constant.
Fig. 5. SEM micrograph of the initial state of the alloy.
Fig. 6. SEM micrograph of the specimen crept at 523 K and applied
stress 250 MPa.
237
Fig. 7. SEM micrograph of the specimen crept at 823 K and applied
stress 120 MPa.
measured creep rate by an exponential term of the form
exp(Qa/RT), where T is the test temperature. Assuming
that all data lie on a single straight line we obtained the
apparent activation energy Qa = 138 kJ mol − 1. Identi-
cal values were obtained also from other conventional
steady-state analyses, for example from the dependence
of the true strain on temperature compensated time or
from the dependence of the Zener–Hollomon parame-
ter on the true strain. An example of the strain depen-
dence of parameter Z for |= 50 MPa and for
temperature from 623 to 773 K using for Qa =
138 kJ mol − 1 is shown in Fig. 4.
The microstructure of the specimens crept at various
temperatures and applied stresses was observed using a
scanning electron microscope equipped with X-ray en-
ergy dispersive analyses (EDS). Fig. 5 shows the recrys-
tallized grain structure of the specimen in the initial
state before creep. EDS analysis yielded the composi-
tion of the initial state of the matrix as follows: 36.2
wt.% of Zn, 1.6 wt.% of Pb and Cu balanced. The
remaining part of the lead content was concentrated in
Pb-rich particles at a-brass grain boundaries. The num-
ber of lead particles was counted in the SEM micro-
graphs on cross sections of 0.2×0.35 mm2 and
expressed as number of particles mm − 2. The square
root of this number indicates the average number of
particles per millimetre and the reciprocal value of this
figure gives the ‘‘average distance’’ u( between the lead
particles. The average interparticle distance of lead
particles u( was 0.02 mm. The alloy contained also
approximately 2 vol% of large grains of irregular shape
with different contrast and composition of 55.8 wt.% of
Cu and 44.2 wt.% of Zn. They were identified as
ordered b’ phase grains.
Differences of the crept specimen microstructure
SEM micrographs below and above melting point of
238 V. Buršı́ko6á et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A324 (2002) 235–238
Fig. 8. Steady-state creep rate dependence of the average creep strain
for samples crept at T=573 K (tf is time to fracture and mf is creep
strain to fracture).
lead are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. Under the melting
point of lead an extensive precipitation at the grain
boundaries is observed both in crept part of the speci-
men (Fig. 6.) and in uncrept specimen head. Moreover,
voids around lead and at the boundary of the large b’
grains and lead particles were observed. They probably
serve as starting point to the fracture. The values of the
coefficient of thermal expansion for lead and brass are
hPb =29.3x10 − 6 K − 1 and hbrass =20.9 ×10 − 6 K − 1,
respectively. Thus using a value of Young’s modulus E
for brass of 97 GPa and assuming no stress relaxation
due to dislocation movement, the stress due to the
differential thermal expansion at a lead particles is
given by ~ = E(hPb −hbrass)DT. For example, for DT =
100oC, the value of ~ is 81 GPa, which is a substantial
fraction of the published values of the shear strength of
a-brass [4]. Thus, it is expected that the superposition
of the applied stresses and the thermal expansion causes
the void formation at the lead particles. They may be
nuclei of fracture so can cause the subsequent fracture
propagation. This fact could explain the observed frac-
ture below mmax of specimens crept under melting point
of lead.
Fig. 8 shows the verification of modified Monkman–
Grant equation [5]:
t f m0
m; =c0,
mf
where m0 and c0 are constants, tf is time to fracture
and mf is creep strain to fracture. The measured data for
specimens crept at 573 K fit well the relation (3). This
can be considered the support of the assumption that
the development of intercrystalline creep damage was
controlled by dislocation glide. From steady-state creep
rate dependence of the average creep rate mf/tf in Fig. 8
was obtained the value of m0 =1.07 90.04. This value
also indicates, that the dominant mechanism of the
crack growth was dislocation glide [6]. The stress sensi-
tivity parameter of the time to fracture nf was calcu-
lated using the relation
(lntf
nf = − . (4)
(ln| T
The value of nf = 3.59 0.1 is in good accordance
with the value of apparent stress sensitivity parameter
na (Table 1). EDS analysis of the fracture surface of the
specimen crept at 573 K showed that intercrystalline
fracture was initiated preferentially at the interfaces
between of lead and b’ particles.
Fig. 7 shows the changes in the lead distribution for
specimens crept above the melting point of lead is
apparent. We can observe both coalescence of the lead
particles at the grain boundaries and an increase in the
interparticle distance of lead. Process of the filling out
the possible voids by lead prevents the fracture of the
specimens at low strains.
4. Conclusion
Leaded brass of the nominal composition Cu–
36wt.% Zn–2.5wt.% Pb was tested under different
stresses from 5 to 250 MPa in the temperature range
from 523 to 823 K using a constant stress tensile
tests.
The conventional steady state analysis yielded phe-
nomenological characteristics of the creep behaviour.
The apparent stress sensitivity parameter was found to
be in the range from 4.5 to 3.4 and the apparent
activation energy was found as (1389 7) kJ mol − 1.
According to SEM analysis, the fracture of speci-
mens crept under the melting point of the lead was
caused by voids created at the boundaries of lead
particles and at the interfaces of lead and b’ grains.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Grant Agency of the
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic for its
partial support under the contract no. A2112901.
(3)
References
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Metals Technology, May (1979) 176.
[2] N. Gane, Phil. Mag. A 43 (1981) 545.
[3] T. Hostinský, J. C& adek, J. Test. Evaluation 4 (1976) 26.
[4] A. Wolfenden, P.K. Wright, Metals Technology, August (1979)
297.
[5] F. Dobeš, K. Milička, Met. Sci. 10 (1976) 382.
[6] J. C& adek, Creep in Metallic Materials, ACADEMIA, Praha, 1984.