Solid Mechanics EMM331

Ir. Dr. Feizal Yusof P.E (Mal) C.Eng (UK) MIMechE

Creep mechanics 2
Week 9-10 (6 hrs)

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WW 9 – CREEP
EMPIRICAL REPRESENTATION OF CREEP BEHAVIOR

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 Designing with Creep
1. Creep affects materials performance as its Tm is
approached.
2. Creep also caused by severity of load applied
3. Many materials especially plastics creep at
fluctuating ambient temperature. 0.5Tm = 20-
30°C
4. How much of creep can be allowed in design?
5. So we will look at how to describe creep
mathematically and technique for allowable
creep strain calculation. 3
 Empirical rep. of creep behavior
1. Typical of the standards of creep
strength required for metals are the
stresses to give minimum creep rates
1% strain in 10 000 hours, or 1% strain
in 100 000 hours.
2. A 10 000 hour test occupies approx 1
year, it is very slow and inconvenient
process for obtaining a range of data
at different stresses and temps.
3. As a result, empirical representation
of creep behavior have been sought
from short-term tests.
4. Creep strain, , which is a function of
stress, , time , and temp. can be
represented as follows:
5. (a) Stress function; most commonly
used are:
(2a)
(2b)
(2c)
Where A1, A2 and A3 are constants and
so and s’o are reference stresses.
5. (b) Time function: this is usually
addressed as a polynomial:
in which a, b, g are material constants
but are functions of stress and
temperature relating to the primary,
secondary and tertiary stages
respectively.
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 Empirical rep. of creep behavior
5. (c) Temp function: the most generally being the intercept of the
used temp function is: extrapolated secondary stage back on
to the strain axis (Fig. 10)
6. Where DH is the activation energy, R
is the universal gas constant and T is
the absolute temp.
7. When we come to designing for
creep in components, interest
centres principally on the secondary
stage, where at low stresses the
creep rate is constant for very long
times producing the major Fig. 10
contribution to the total creep strain
to fracture.
8. Consequently in Eq. (3), the tertiary 9. Where de/dt = is the secondary-
term is neglected and the primary is stage creep rate.
replaced by a constant strain eo
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 Empirical rep. of creep behavior
10. This minimum creep rate has been
experimentally related to stress by
the empirical expression:
11. Where B and n are material
constants.
12. The dependence on temperature can
be included by writing:
13. A log-log plot of vs s produces a
straight line. However extrapolation
of the data, particularly at high stress,
can be unreliable owing to the
dependence of n and DH on the
particular stress/temperature regime.
14. Alternatively, combining eqns. (5) and
(6), we can express the time to reach
a specified value of total creep strain
in the secondary stage as :
15. However this approach can be
uncertain in that tertiary creep may
commence before the predicted
value of secondary creep is achieved.
16. A safer approach of predicting the
stress and temperature permissible
for a specified creep strain of say
0.5% in 100 000 hours is as follows:
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 Empirical rep. of creep behavior
18. A safer approach of predicting the c) Next we plot graphs of temp vs log time
for various stresses at the strain limit of
stress and temperature permissible 0.5% as shown in Fig 12.
for a specified creep strain of say
0.5% in 100 000 hours is as follows:
a) Creep tests are carried out at various
stresses and temperatures to obtain a
significant part of the secondary-stage
creep in each test.
b) Graphs of creep strain vs log time for
several temp at a particular stress are
then extrapolated to the limiting creep
Fig. 12
strain of say 0.5% as in Fig. 11.

19. These curves are then extrapolated

to a required life of say 100 000
hours.
20. Although several extrapolations are
involved in this method, they tend to
Fig. 11 be more reliable than a simple
extrapolation of creep-time curve 7
 Example 1
A steel member 3m long is subjected to an axial tensile load of 45.4 kN at an operating
temperature of 400oC. Determine the cross-sectional area required for an estimated life of 20
years based on an allowable creep rate of 0.001 mm/mm/year using creep relation, where n =7,
𝜎 ! =7 MPa and B=5.2e-12 mm/mm/day
Let
𝜎 = 𝜎/𝜎 !
Then from Eq. (6)
P P 𝜀 𝜎 "
=𝐵
𝑡 𝜎′
0.001 𝜎 &
List all infos given: = 5.2𝑥10#$%
L = 3m 365 7000
𝜎 &
P = 45.4kN 2.73𝑥10#' = 5.2𝑥10#$%
T=400oC 7000
𝜎 &
t=20 years = 526870.38
7000
𝜀=0.001
̇ mm/mm/year 𝜎
n=7 7 log$( = log$( 526870.38
7000
𝜎 ! = 7 MPa 𝜎 = 45971 𝑘𝑃𝑎
B = 5.2x10-12 mm/mm/day 𝑃
Creep Eq. (6) : 𝜀̇ = 𝐵 𝜎 " 𝜎=
𝐴
where in this case, 𝜎 = 𝜎/𝜎′ 𝑃 45.40 𝑘𝑁
𝐴= =
𝜎 45971 𝑘𝑃𝑎
𝐴 = 9.875 𝑥10#) 𝑚𝑚%
= 987.5 𝑚𝑚%
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WW 8 – CREEP
STRESS RELAXATION IN CREEP

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 Stress relaxation
1. So far we have dealt with creep in the
form of time-dependent increase in
strain at constant stress.
2. An alternative manifestation is time-
dependent decrease in stress at
constant strain.
3. A common example of this Fig. 13
phenomenon is the relaxation of
tightening stress in the bolts of 6. Where thermal expansion has set up
flanged joints in steam and other hot compressive stress followed by
piping, with the resulting possibility relaxation with time.
of leakage. 7. On cooling down, a higher residual
4. Another important case is the tensile stress is set up than if there
component subjected to a cycle of had been no relaxation of
thermal strain. compressive stress.
5. The effect is illustrated by means of
the stress-strain curve in Fig 13.
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 Stress relaxation
8. This situation can lead to failure
eventually in metal such as a flake
cast iron which is weak in tension.
9. Thermal strain concentration around
nozzle openings in pressure vessels is
another example where reversal of
stress after relaxation could in time
lead to a thermal fatigue failure. Fig. 14

10. A curve of stress relaxation against

time is similar to a mirror image of a
curve of creep strain against time as
shown in Fig 14.

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 Stress relaxation in a bolt
1. Bolted flanged joints at high temp 4. Now, the total strain must remain the
represent an example of the problem same if the flange is rigid, therefore:
of stress relaxation.

5. Or differentiating with respect to

time,
2. Consider a bolt which is initially
tightened to a stress so, producing an 6. Or
elastic strain eo and to simplify the (9)
problem it is assumed that the flange
7. Substituting for in terms of stress,
is not deformed by the bolt stress.
3. After a period of time, t, the effect of
creep is to induce plastic deformation 8. Therefore
or creep strain, which allows a (10)
relaxation of stress s and elastic 9. The time for relaxation of stress, from
strain. so to st is then given by integrating
eqn (10)
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 Stress relaxation in a bolt
10. Therefore
(11)

11. It is found in practice that relaxation

of stress is more rapid than that given
above owing to the effects of primary
creep, and allowance for this can
only be made by using a more
complex creep-rate-stress-time
function.

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 Example 2
For a bolted flange to remain rigid in a creeping environment, the total strain must remain
the same.

Based on this condition, the time for relaxation of stress from initial stress σo to final
stress sf at time t can be obtained through:

Solve the integration of the above equation to determine the relaxed stress, sf , of bolts in
a flanged joint in steam piping after 10000 hours as the bolts were tightened to an initial
stress so of 400 MN/m2. Use these information in your calculation: E = 200 GN/m2, n = 3
and B = 4.8e-34 per hour per N/m2.

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 Example 2 - solution
1. Integrating 2. Given:
1"+ 𝑑𝜎
𝜎' = 400 MN/m2
𝑡=− (
𝐸𝐵 "* 𝜎 # t = 10000 hours
1 1 1 1 E = 200 GN/m2
𝑡= − n=3
𝐸𝐵 𝑛 − 1 𝜎$#%& 𝜎'#%&
B = 4.8e-34 /hour/N/m2
If n = 3:
1 1 1 We derived earlier the time to stress relaxed
𝑡= −
2𝐸𝐵 𝜎$( 𝜎'( 1 1 1 1
𝑡= −
𝐸𝐵 𝑛 − 1 𝜎$#%& 𝜎'#%&
If n = 3:
1 1 1
𝑡= −
2𝐸𝐵 𝜎$( 𝜎'(
1 1 1
10𝑒3𝑡 = × −
200𝑒9×4.8𝑒 − 34×2 𝜎𝑒6$( 400𝑒6(
1 1
19.2𝑒 − 7 = ( −
𝜎$ 400(
𝜎$ = 349.8 𝑀𝑁/𝑚(
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 What did we learn today?
1. From the creep curves, we 6. We looked at the stress
use the secondary stage to relaxation (which is strain is
calculate the creep strain of constant but stress reducing)-
components under creep. opposite to creep strain.
2. The basic formulae for creep 7. Stress relaxation is given by
strain rate is 𝜀̇ = 𝐵𝜎 : ----(6) !
𝑡 = "#
! !
"#$
!
− &"#$ ----(11)
$%! &! %
3. We can relate this Eq.6 to
creep strain curve in the
secondary stage
𝜀;< = 𝛽𝑡 + 𝜀= ----------(5) and
𝛽 is the slope of the creep
curve from Fig 10.
4. 𝛽 is the Δ(𝜀> − 𝜀= )/Δ(𝑡> −
𝑡= ) or in simple term is
𝑑𝜀/𝑑𝑡
5. Putting Eq. (6) and (5) give
𝑡 = (𝜀; − 𝜀= )/𝐵𝜎 : -------(8)
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Check out Exercise 2 problem on e-learning at week 9
- You have to do within 30 mins
- You need to submit your solution on power point and
provide a recorded voice to explain your answers to the
questions.

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