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Materials at High temperature , Creep

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Materials at High Temperature

Microstructure Change Stability of Materials

Grain growth
Second-phase coarsening
Increasing vacancy density

Mechanical Properties Change

Softening
Increasing of atoms mobility
Increasing of dislocations mobility (climb)
Additional slip systems

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Time-dependent Mechanical Behavior

- Creep

Creep: A time-dependent and permanent deformation

of materials when subjected to a constant load at a high
temperature (> 0.4 Tm). Examples: turbine blades, steam
generators.

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Creep Testing

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Creep Curve

Typical creep curve under constant load

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Creep Curve

1. Instantaneous deformation, mainly elastic.

2. Primary/transient creep. Slope of strain vs.
time decreases with time: work-hardening
3. Secondary/steady-state creep. Rate of
straining is constant: balance of work-hardening
and recovery.
4. Tertiary. Rapidly accelerating strain rate up to
failure: formation of internal cracks, voids, grain
boundary separation, necking, etc.

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Creep Curve Constant Stress

Comparison between constant load and constant stress

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Parameters of Creep Behavior

The stage secondary/steady-state creep is of

longest duration and the steady-state creep
rate is the most important parameter of the
creep behavior in long-life applications.

Another parameter, especially important in

short-life creep situations, is time to rupture,
or the rupture lifetime, tr.

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Parameters of Creep Behavior

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Power-Law Creep

By plotting the log of the steady creep-rate ss, against log

(stress, ), at constant T, in creep curve, we can establish

ss = B n

Where n, the creep exponent, usually lies between 3 and

8. This sort of creep is called power-law creep.

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Power-Law Creep

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Creep: Stress and Temperature Effects

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Creep: Stress and Temperature Effects

With increasing stress or temperature:

The instantaneous strain increases
The steady-state creep rate increases
The time to rupture decreases

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Creep: Stress and Temperature Effects

The stress/temperature dependence of the steady-

state creep rate can be described by

where Qc is the activation energy for creep, K2 is

the creep resistant, and n is a material constant.

(Remember the Arrhenius dependence on temperature for

thermally activated processes that we discussed for diffusion?)

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Creep: Stress and Temperature Effects

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Creep: Stress and Temperature Effects

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Larson-Miller Relation for Creep

&s A exp(G / RT )
G
ln( s ) ln( A)
&
RT
G
T (ln( A) ln(&s ))
R

Since &s tr Cons tan t

G
T ( B ln(tr ))
R
LMP T (C log(tr ))

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Larson-Miller Plot
Extrapolate low-temperature data from fast high-
temperature tests

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Creep Relaxation

Creep Relaxation: At constant displacement, stress

relaxes with time.

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Creep Relaxation
tot = el + cr (1)
But el = /E (2)
and (at constant temperature)
cr = Bn (3)
Since tot is constant, we can differentiate (1) with respect
to time and substitute the other two equations into it give

(4)

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Creep Relaxation

Integrating from = i at t = 0 to = at t = t gives

(5)

As the time going on, the initial elastic strain i/E is slowly
replaced by creep strain, and the stress relaxes.

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Creep Damage & Creep Fracture

Void Formation and Linkage

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Creep Damage & Creep Fracture

Damage Accumulation

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Creep Damage & Creep Fracture

Since the mechanism for void growth is the same as

that for creep deformation (notably through diffusion),
it follows that the time to failure, tf, will follow in
accordance with:

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Creep Damage & Creep Fracture

As a general rule:

ss tf = C

Where C is a constant, roughly 0.1. So, knowing the

creep rate, the life can be estimated.

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Creep Damage & Creep Fracture

Creep rupture Diagram

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Creep Design

In high-temperature design it is important to make sure:

(a) that the creep strain cr during the design life is

acceptable;
(b) that the creep ductility fcr (strain to failure) is adequate
to cope with the acceptable creep strain;
(c) that the time-to-failure, tf, at the design loads and
temperatures is longer (by a suitable safety factor) than
the design life.

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Creep Design

Designing metals & ceramics to resist power-law creep

(a)Choose a material with a high melting point

(b)Maximize obstructions to dislocation motion by alloying
to give a solid solution and precipitates; the precipitates
must be stable at the service temperature
(c)Choose a solid with a large lattice resistance: this means
covalent bonding.

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Creep Design

Designing metals & ceramics to resist diffusional flow

(a)Choose a material with a high melting point

(b)Arrange that it has a large grain size, so that diffusion
distances are long and GBs do not help diffusion much
(c)Arrange for precipitates at GBs to impede GB sliding.

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Creep
Resist
Materials

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Creep Resist Materials

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Creep Resist Materials

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Case Study Turbine Blade

General Electric TF34 High Bypass Turbofan Engine

For (1) U.S. Navy Lockheed S-3A anti submarine warfare aircraft
(2) U.S. Air Force Fairchild Republic A-10 close support aircraft.
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Case Study Turbine Blade

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Case Study Turbine Blade

Alloy requirements for turbine blades

(a) Resistance to creep
(b) Resistance to high-temperature oxidation
(c) Toughness
(d) Thermal fatigue resistance
(e) Thermal stability
(f) Low density

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Turbine Blade Materials

Nickel-base Superalloys

Composition of typical creep-resistant blade

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Turbine Blade Materials

Nickel-base Superalloys
Microstructures of the alloy:

(1)Has as many atoms in solid solution as possible ( Co,

W, Cr)

(2) Forms stable, hard precipitates of compounds like

Ni3Al, Ni3Ti, MoC, TaC to obstruct the dislocations

(3) Forms a protective surface oxide film of Cr2O3 to

protect the blade itself from attack by oxygen

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Turbine Blade Materials
Nickel-base Superalloys

Microstructures of the alloy

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Turbine Blade
Development of Processing

Investment Casting of turbine blades

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Turbine Blade
Development of Processing

Directional Solidification (DS) of turbine blades

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Turbine Blade Blade Cooling

Air-Cooled Blades
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