Creep

• time-dependent and permanent deformation of materials when subjected to a

constant load or stress
• for metals it becomes important only for temperatures greater than about
0.4Tm

W filament bulb ?
Turbine blades ??

Slope – Creep rate

 Creep test
Duration – 1000s h
Strain – less than 0.5%

• Load and temperature are kept

constant and the elongation is
monitored with time.
• The strain (typically engineering strain)
computed from the elongation is
plotted as function of time. The loads
employed are typically below the
elastic limit.
Stage-I
▪ Creep rate decreases with time.
▪ Effect of work hardening more than recovery.

Stage-II
▪ Stage of minimum creep rate → ~ constant.
▪ Work hardening is balanced by recovery.

Stage-III
▪ Absent (/delayed very much) in constant stress tests
▪ Necking of specimen starts in this stage.
▪ Specimen failure processes set in.
Stress and temperature effects

Jet engine alloy

0.0001% per hour
1% per 10000 hour
2.8×10-10 /sec

Steam turbines
0.00001% per hour
1% per 100000 hour(11.5 years)
2.8×10-11 per sec

a) the instantaneous strain at the time of stress application increases

b) the steady-state creep rate is increased
c) the rupture lifetime is diminished
 Stress-Rupture Test
Creep test – carried out to the failure of the material
Time to cause failure at a given nominal stress for a constant temperature
Extrapolation ???
• Higher loads
• Creep rate is higher
• Strain ~ 50%
• Duration: <1000 h

Change of slope:
• Transgranular to intergranular fracture
• Oxidation, RX, Grain growth, Phase t/f
Effect of high temperature

▪ Deformation by slip
▪ Increased vacancy concentration
▪ Thermal expansion
▪ High diffusion rate
▪ Phase transformations can occur
▪ Grain related – subgrain formation, grain boundary sliding, recrystallization, grain
growth
Dislocation related – Climb, activation of new slip systems, dislocation density.
▪ Over-aging of precipitates and precipitate coarsening
▪ The material may creep
Equicohesive temperature –
the temperature at which the strength of the grains and the grain boundaries is
considered equal.
Mechanism of creep deformation:

• Dislocation glide – glide and overcoming barriers by thermal activation

occurs at high stresses σ/G > 10-2
• Dislocation creep – involves the movement of dislocations which overcome barriers
by thermally assisted mechanisms – diffusion of vacancies/interstitials
occurs at high stresses 10-4 < σ/G <10-2
• Diffusional creep – σ/G <10-4
Nabarro-Herring (Lattice diffusion controlled)

Coble creep (Grain boundary diffusion controlled)

• Grain boundary sliding – sliding of grains past each other

Power law relation σ/G < 5×10-6
Dislocation creep σ/G > 5×10-3
n=1
Harper-Dorn creep Power law breaks
Climb controlled creep
 Diffusional creep High Temp, low stress σ/G <10-4
• In response to the applied stress vacancies preferentially move from surfaces/interfaces (GB)
of specimen transverse to the stress axis to surfaces/interfaces parallel to the stress axis→
thus causing elongation.

• Diffusion of vacancies in one direction can be thought of as flow of matter in the opposite
direction.

• The diffusion could occur predominantly via the lattice (at high temperatures) or via grain
boundaries (at low temperatures). The former is known as Nabarro-Herring creep, while the
later is known as Coble creep. 
Grain boundary sliding
• At low temperatures the grain boundaries are ‘stronger’ than the crystal interior and impede the
motion of dislocations.
• Being a higher energy region, the grain boundaries may pre-melt before the crystal interior.
• Above the equicohesive temperature, due to shear stress at the ‘local scale’, grain boundaries slide
past one another to cause plastic deformation.
• The relative motion of grain boundaries can lead to wedge cracks at triple lines (junction of three
grains). If these wedge cracks are not healed by diffusion (or slip), microstructural damage will
accumulate and will lead to failure of the specimen.
• GBS – Strain - a few % to 50 % - Metals-Test conditions Amount of grain-boundary area decreases
with increasing grain size.
A material with a larger grain size will have
higher strength above the ECT than a fine-
grain material.
Grains Below the ECT, the reverse is true.

Wedge crack due to

grain boundary sliding
Deformation mechanism maps
given the appropriate deformation mechanism map and any two of the three parameters—
temperature, stress level, and creep strain rate—the third parameter may be determined.

Pure Ni, d= 32 μm