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Procedia Engineering 55 (2013) 64 – 69

6th International Conference on Cree

ep, Fatigue and Creep-Fatigue Interaction [CF-6
6]

Creep Deformation and Ruppture Behaviour of P92 Steel at 92

23 K
E. Isaac Samuel, B. K. Chouddhary∗, D.P. Rao Palaparti, M.D. Mathew
Mechanical Metallurgy Division, Indira Gandhi C
Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam – 603102, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Creep deformation and rupture behaviour of P92 steeel has been examined at 923 K for stresses ranging from 75 to 150
MPa. The steel exhibited well defined primary, seccondary characterized by minimum creep rate and prolonged tertiary
creep stages. The stress dependence of minimum ccreep rate obeyed Norton’s power law and exhibited distincct stress
regimes characterised by separate values of stresss exponents in low and high stress regimes. Similarly, thee stress
dependence of rupture life also obeyed power law annd displayed two stress regimes with separate stress exponent values.
The steel displayed decrease in creep ductility wiith increase in rupture life in the low stress regime and fo ollowed
generalised Monkman-Grant relation interrelating miinimum creep rate and rupture life. Modified Monkman-Grant relation
r
has been found to be valid for the steel. Fractographhic examination indicated dominance of transgranular fracturee on the
fracture surfaces of tested specimens.

©
©2013
2013The Authors.
The Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published by Ltd.
Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Indira
Selection
Gandhi and peer-review
Centre under responsibility
for Atomic Research. of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research.

Keywords: P92 steel; creep deformation; creep-rupture; creeep ductility

1. Introduction

The chromium–molybdenum (Cr–Mo) familyy of ferritic steels form an important group of alloys dev veloped
as structural materials for elevated temperaturre applications in the chemical, petrochemical and fossiil-fired
power generating industries [1,2]. The propertiees of Cr–Mo steels are controlled by the microstructures such
s as
type of structures, grain size, solid solution streengthening and precipitation hardening. Advancement to owards
new generation power plants such as Ultra Supper Critical (USC) power plants has increased operating steam
temperatures and pressures to achieve higher effficiency and better environmental protection. This has led
d to the
development of improved versions of 9% Cr stteels with excellent combination of creep strength and du uctility
for steam generator applications. The improvved versions mainly include 9Cr-1Mo steel modified by b the
addition of strong carbide forming elements ssuch Nb and V known as P91 steel [3]. The steel is further
modified by the addition of W with reduced Moo designated as P92 steel [3]. As mentioned earlier, the driving
d
force in the development of P91 and P92 steeels has been to achieve improved creep-rupture strength h, it is
therefore essential to emphasize that understanding of creep behaviour is of paramount importance. Amo ong the

∗
Corresponding Author:
E-mail address: bkc@igcar.gov.in

1877-7058 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2013.03.220
 E. Isaac Samuel et al. / Procedia Engineering 55 (2013) 64 – 69 65

9% Cr family of steels, P92 steel exhibits superior creep-rupture strength at elevated temperatures [4-10]. In
this paper, creep-rupture properties evaluated for a wide stress range at 923 K have been presented. Creep-
rupture properties have been examined in terms of stress dependence of creep rate and rupture life, variations in
creep ductility with rupture life and fracture behaviour. The applicability of Monkman-Gant (MGR) [11] and
modified Monkman-Grant (MMGR) [12] relations to P92 steel, interrelating creep rate and rupture life useful
for creep life extrapolation has been discussed.

2. Experimental

P92 steel pipe of dimension 260 mm outer diameter and 25 mm wall thickness was used in this study. The
chemical composition of the steel was conforming to ASTM standards [3]. Specimen blanks of size 20 mm
diameter and 130 mm length were machined in the length direction of the pipe. Specimen blanks were
subjected to normalising at 1338 K for 2 h followed by air cooling and tempering at 1053 K for 2 h followed by
air cooling. Microstructure in normalised and tempered (N+T) condition was composed of tempered lath
martensite and precipitates along the lath boundaries and prior austenite grain boundaries. The intralath matrix
regions contained fine precipitates. Creep specimens of dimension 50 mm gauge length and 10 mm gauge
diameter were machined from the N+T specimen blanks. Uniaxial creep tests were carried out at 923 K
employing stresses ranging from 75 to 150 MPa. The test temperature was maintained within ± 2 K during all
the tests. The elongation values were measured using LVDT transducer at room temperature attached to the
bottom of the high temperature extensometer mounted at the gauge end portion of the specimens. The strain
resolution was 4×10−4 for LVDT transducer. Fractographic examinations were performed on creep tested
specimens using scanning electron microscope (SEM).

3. Results and discussion

The variations of creep strain with time at different stress levels at 923 K are shown in Fig. 1. Creep
deformation of P92 steel was characterised by a small amount of instantaneous strain followed by well defined
but short primary, secondary and tertiary creep stages. Deceleration in creep rate from initial high value after
loading can be seen in the double logarithmic plots of ε vs. t in Fig. 2 at all stress levels. This decrease in creep
rate in the primary creep approaches to a minimum creep rate, ε m , in the secondary creep. A systematic
increase in the time to the occurrence of minimum creep rate with decrease in applied stress can be seen in Fig.
2. Following the occurrence of minimum creep rate, creep rate increases rapidly with time in tertiary creep
resulting in failure. The variations in creep rate with creep strain are shown in the plots log ε vs. logε in Fig. 3.
A systematic decrease in creep rate in the primary creep followed by minimum creep rate and a prolonged
tertiary creep in terms of large creep strain accumulation can be seen in Fig. 3. A systematic decrease in the
strain to the occurrence of minimum creep rate from 3.2% at 150 MPa to 0.57% at 75 MPa has been observed
(Fig. 3).

Fig. 1. Creep curves obtained at 923 K for P92 steel at Fig. 2. Variations of creep rate with time obtained for different
different stress levels. stress levels at 923 K for P92 steel.
66 E. Isaac Samuel et al. / Procedia Engineering 55 (2013) 64 – 69

Fig.3. Variations of creep rate with creep strain obtained for different stress levels at
923 K for P92 steel.

Stress dependence of minimum creep rate is shown as log ε m vs. logσ in Fig. 4. P92 steel obeyed Norton’s
power law ( İ m = A ı n , where A is constant and n is the power law exponent) exhibiting two-slope
behaviour characterised by distinct values of stress exponent n as 4.4 and 10.2 in the low and high stress
regimes, respectively. The variation of rupture life with applied stress is presented as log tr vs. logσ in Fig. 5.
Like, stress dependence of minimum creep rate, stress dependence of rupture life (tr) also obeyed power law of
the form t r = A' ı , where A′ is constant and n′ is the power law exponent. Two slope behaviour with
-n'

separate values of exponent n′ = 3.9 and 9.7 in the low and high stress regimes, has been observed. The
variations in creep ductility measured in terms of % elongation (strain to failure) and % reduction in area with
rupture life are shown in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively. Both % elongation and % reduction in area exhibited a
marginal decrease in the high stress regime followed by rapid decrease in the values with increase in rupture
life in the low stress regime. SEM investigations on the fracture surface of creep tested specimens revealed
dominance of transgranular fracture resulting from coalescence of microvoids at all stress levels (Fig. 8).
However, signatures of a few isolated intergranular cracks (shown by arrows in Fig. 8b) at the fracture surface
in the low stress regime was observed.
Distinct stress regimes in the stress dependence of minimum creep rate and rupture life with separate
respective values stress exponents observed in the present investigation is in agreement with those reported by
Ennis et al. [9, 10], Kimura et al. [4,5] and Lee et al. [8] for P92 steel. Sklenicka et al. [7] reported high values
of stress exponent i.e., n = 12 and 18, for the P91 and P92 steels, respectively, in the high stress regime at 873
K. In 9Cr-1Mo steel, Choudhary et al. [13] observed n = 5.5 and 10.2 in low and high stress regimes,
respectively. Different values of stress exponent have been associated with different apparent activation energy
values in the low and high stress regimes [8]. Invoking resisting stress concept, the different values of stress
exponent and apparent activation energy in the two stress regimes have been rationalised into a single values of
stress exponent and activation energy. Based on this, it was suggested that creep behaviour is controlled of
climb of dislocations in both the stress regimes in 9Cr-1Mo steel [13,14]. Detailed analysis has been
undertaken to resolve the observed two slope behaviour in P92 steel. Further, similar values of power law
exponents n and n′ observed for the stress dependence of creep rate and rupture life indicate that the creep
deformation and fracture processes are not different but are same in P92 steel. The interrelation between
minimum creep rate and rupture life is further demonstrated by the applicability of minimum creep rate-rupture
life relations of Monkman-Gant [11] and modified Monkman-Grant [12] type for the steel described below.
 E. Isaac Samuel et al. / Procedia Engineering 55 (2013) 64 – 69 67

Fig. 4. Variation of minimum creep rate with applied stress Fig. 5. Variation of rupture life with applied stress at 923 K for
at 923 K for P92 steel. P92 steel.

Fig. 6. Variation in strain to failure with rupture life at 923 K Fig. 7. Variation in reduction in area with rupture life at 923 K
for P92 steel. for P92 steel.

Fig. 8. Fracture surface of the P92 steel specimen after creep testing at 923 K at (a) 125 and (b) 75 MPa corresponding to
rupture lives of 748 and 18,865 h, respectively. The arrow marks show the isolated evidences for intergranular cracking in (b).
68 E. Isaac Samuel et al. / Procedia Engineering 55 (2013) 64 – 69

Fig. 9. Rupture life vs. minimum creep rate plot showing Fig. 10. Rupture life/strain to failure vs. minimum creep rate
applicability of generalised form of Monkman-Grant relation plot showing the validity of modified Monkman-Grant
in P92 steel. relation in P92 steel.

Figure 9 shows the variation in rupture life as a function of minimum creep rate. The steel followed
generalised form of Monkman-Gant relation (MGR) expressed as
α
ε m ⋅ t r = C , (1)

where α is slope of logtr vs. log ε m plot and C is constant. The values of α = 0.903 and C = 0.063 have obtained
for P92 steel at 923 K. The observed value of α less than unity indicates that the contribution of secondary
creep strain, i.e., ε m ⋅ t r decreases with increase in rupture life and decrease in stress. The variation in tr/εf
(where εf is strain to failure) with ε m depicting applicability of modified Monkman-Grant relation (MMGR)
proposed by Dobes and Milicka [12] as
tr
εmα ′ ⋅ = C′ , (2)
εf
is shown in Fig. 10. In Eq. (2), α′ and C′ are the slope and intercept of log(tr/εf) vs. log ε m plot, respectively.
The validity of modified Monkman-Grant relation in P92 steel is observed as the slope α′ equals to unity in the
plot of log(tr/εf) vs. log İ m (Fig. 10) and Eq. (2) can be expressed as
tr
ε m ⋅ = constant = C MMG . (3)
εf
CMMG = 0.11 has been obtained for the steel. This suggests that the term (tr/εf) × ε m do not vary with
stress/rupture life at 923 K for the steel and CMMG is real constant independent of stress. It can be seen that
contrary to stress dependence of creep rate and rupture life, both MGR and MMGR do not exhibit separate and
different stress regimes. Further, the observed lower value of CMMG = 0.11 indicates that the contribution from
secondary creep is small and the most of the creep strain is derived from tertiary creep in P92 steel. High creep
damage tolerance factor λ = 9 evaluated from λ = 1/ CMMG indicates microstructural degradation as the
dominant damage mechanism in P92 steel. Ennis et al. [9,10] observed microstructural degradation in terms of
decrease in dislocation density, precipitate coarsening and subgrain coarsening in the steel. The microstructural
degradation was more dominant at low stresses compared to that observed at high stresses. Choudhary et al.
[14] reported similar influence of degradation in microstructure in the two stress regimes in 9Cr-1Mo steel.
Apart from microstructural degradation in P92 steel, it is equally important to point out that the loss of creep
ductility indicates occurrence of localised cracking particularly at longer durations in the low stress regime. The
observed loss of ductility in the present study is in agreement with that reported by Lee et al. [8] for the steel.
 E. Isaac Samuel et al. / Procedia Engineering 55 (2013) 64 – 69 69

Loss of creep ductility associated with intergranular cracking in the form of wedge cracks and r-type cavities in
the low stress regime has been reported in P92 steel [8]. In view of this, detailed metallographic examination on
longitudinally sectioned creep tested specimens have been undertaken to ascertain the creep damage
mechanism appropriate for the steel.

4. Conclusions

Creep deformation of P92 steel indicated well defined primary, secondary characterised by minimum creep
rate and prolonged tertiary creep stages. The stress dependence of minimum creep rate obeyed Norton’s power
law and exhibited two-slope behaviour with separate values of stress exponents. Similarly, the stress
dependence of rupture life also obeyed power law and displayed distinct values of stress exponent in the low
and high stress regimes. The steel displayed decrease in creep ductility with increase in rupture life in the low
stress regime and followed generalised form of Monkman-Grant relation interrelating minimum creep rate and
rupture life. Modified Monkman-Grant relation has been found to be valid for the steel. Apart from the
dominance of microstructural degradation as shown by high creep damage tolerance factor, P92 steel also
exhibited some evidence of damage due to localised cracking associated with loss of creep ductility at longer
durations.

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