Creep in Materials : A Brief Summary

Muhammad Joshua YB 1406563866

Creep in materials science is a phenomenon where a solid material has a tendency to

deform permanently under the influence of static load even though the overall stress are still below
the yield strength of the material. The rate of deformation usually will increase as the temperature
increases. Amorphous materials, which have large grain boundary are very sensitive to creep
deformation. This is because at high temperature, the temperature whdere creep can occur (about
0.4 of melting temperature), any defects or dislocation in the material can move and accumulated
in the grain boundary and thus create a void. Material resistances to creep can be tested by using a
creep test. Typical creep test is done by subjecting a specimen to a constant load or stress at
constant temperature. The resulting deformation or strain then can be plotted as a function of time.
The plot usually consists of three different stages which are classified by Neubauer as follows.

The first stage is also called primary creep, is showing a continuously diminishing creep strain rate
due to the effect of strain hardening. Stage II is also known as secondary steady-state creep, is a
region where the material sustains a constant creep strain rate. This stage is the longest and the
most important stage in creep analysis. At this stage, there is a balance competition between
competing strain hardening and recovery (or softening) of the material. Following that, the creep
strain rate will undergo an accelerated rate which can lead to material failure or creep rupture. That
happens because of the material experience intergranular cracking and the formation of voids and
cavities, either by diffusion of atoms or because of migrating dislocations. This third stage is also
called as the tertiary creep. The increase of stress applied or temperature will increase the creep
rate and steady-state region, creating instantaneous strain increases, and diminishing creep rupture
lifetime.

The creep strain at the steady state region can be measured by considering the empirical
relationship between the strain rate and the applied stress.

Where s is the creep strain rate, is the current stress of the material, and K1 and n are constants

that will depends on the type of the material.

The influence of temperature (T) can also be measured by applying the Arheniuss equation of
diffusion.

Where Qc is the activation energy that needed to start the diffusion which can be obtained by
plotting the natural log of creep rate versus the inverse of temperature. This equation simply told
us that the creep strain rate can be increased by increasing the temperature or reducing the amount
of activation energy needed. There are two mechanisms that explains this diffusion phenomenon
in creep: Nabarro-Herring creep, which describing vacancy diffusion through the lattice at high
temperature, and Coble creep, which explains the vacancy diffusion at the grain boundary. Creep
rupture tests usually done at a higher temperature under same applied stress to obtain creep data
for shorter times by using Larson-Miller Data Extrapolation parameter.