ScriptaMetallurgica et Materiatia,Vol. 32, No. 8, pp. 1159-l 162.

1995
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A NEW APPROACH FOR CREEP LIFE ASSESSMENT

BASED ON THE IMAGINARY INITIAL STRAIN RATE

Jianzhong Shi and Takao Endo

Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science,
Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University.
Tokiwadai,Hodogaya, Yokohama 240. Japan

(Received July 29, 1994)

(Revised November 4, 1994)

&troduction

Certain parametric methods (1 -3) or a theta -projection concept(4) have been used to predict the creep life
of engineering materials. The physical significance of parameters appearing in the current parametric methods
is not very clear because they are determined usually on the basis of creep-rupture data under constant load.
Contrary to the parametric methods, four parameters of the theta projection concept are determined by fitting
an entire creep cJrve unde: constant stress to a specific equation. However, they lack physical significance
except for the fact that two out of four parameters specify the magnitude of primary creep and tertiary creep,
and the two remaining time constants designate the curvature of primary and tertiary creep. In the present
study, an attempl has been made to deduce the state equation for creep under constant load and to predict
creep life of a 2.25 Cr-1Mo steel therewith.

Experimental Procedure

(1) Specimen
The material is the heat-resistant ferritic steel of a 2.25 Cr-1Mo steel (STBA24 ) which is widely used as
power plant components. The chemical compositlon in wt.% is C:O.l, Si:0.27, Mn:0.43, P:O.O14, S:O.O08,
Cr:2.07, Mo:0.90, Fe:Bal. As-recelved material was austenitized at 1223K for 1 .8 ks and furnace-cooled to
993 K (cooling rate = 0.056 K/s). From 993 K to room temperature, it was air-cooled. The dimension of a
creep specimen is 30 mm in gage section and 6 mm in diameter.

(2) Creep test

Creep tests were carned out by a constant load creep tester with a simple lever. Thi, elongation and
temperature were con!lnuously recorded. In the present study, all specimens were prestramed up to 4.4, 7.7
or 12.0% under a condition of 11 7.6 MPa at 873 K. After prestralning, load was removed completely and the
testing temperature was changed to a programmed temperature wlthrrl 10 minutes, and then a programmed
load was applied after stabilization for one hour at a new temperature. In what follows. the first and second
stage of creep WIII be called precreep and reloading creep, respectively. The stress and temperature of the
second stage of creep are from 78.4 to 127 4 MPa and from 853 to 903 t<, respectively. The stress applied
in the second stage of creep, CJo was calculated on the basis of the Initial cross sectional area before precreep.
The true stress at the onset of reloading creep and that at a strain of E are readrly obtained by assuming the
constant volume of a test piece durtng creep.

1159
 1160 CREEPLIFE Vol. 32. No. 8

Results and Discussion

(1) Change of creep strain rate with strain

Prestrained specimens were crept under variou s reloading creep conditions. When the reloading creep
stress is lower than that of the precreep, the primary creep is suppressed greatly. Therefore, the linearity
between logarithm of strain rate and strain was obtained over an almost entire range of creep life. Some
examples of the relationship between logarithm of strain rate and true strain are shown in Fig.l, in which the
reloading creep condition and the amount of prestrain are given. From the results shown in Fig.1, creep rate IS
expressed by the following equation:

In i: = Inio +S&, (1)

where i is the creep rate, E is the strain measured from the onset of reloading creep, i: o is the creep rate
of c being zero, and S is the slope of the line in Fig.1. Hereafter, 6 o and S will be called the imaginary initial
creep rate and the strain rate acceleration factor, respectively. Investigation so far shows that S is strongly
stress dependent but less dependent of temperature.

(2) Factors affecting the imaginary initial strain rate

The previous works (5-6) have demonstrated that the imaginary initial creep rate is dependent on prestrain,
s p , stress in MPa and temperature, T as below ;

EL? = A, exp (mot p) e o o exp(-Q, /RT), (2)

where A, is a constant of the magnitude of 1 .55X1 O-3 /s , mo is a constant of the magnitude of 10.1, no IS
the stress exponent of 9.7 20.2, and Q, IS the apparent activation energy for creep which is independent of
stress and prestrain. Hereafter, A, will be called the mechanically defined structure factor for a virgin specimen.
In order to examine the validity of eq.(2), the value of E o exp (-mot p) exp( Q o I RT) is plotted against the
initial stress, o o in Fig.2. It is seen that all ihe datum points fall on the vicinity of a single line, This fact
demonstrates explicitly that there exists the state equation for the imaginary initial strain rate, Furthermore,
the apparent activation energy, Q, is ahout 400 kJ -mol 1, however, it l:an be reduced to 360 kJ-mol -1 when
the temperature dependence of Youngs modulus is taken into account. This reduced value is close to the
activation energy for self-diffusion at this temperature (7). This fact suggests that the state equation is
responsible for the rate controlling mechamsm. Let us denote o for the stress at the beginning of reloading
creep and a IS given by 0 o exp( E p) Substituting o exp( E p) for o o in eq.(2), one obtains the following
equation;

E 0 = A, exp I (m, no) E pl - on0 exp(-Q, /FIT). (3)

1274 873
l 12 98.0 873

0 5 10 15
E I% 0,IMPa
F1g.l RelatIonshIp between creep rate and creep strain at Fig.2 Temperature and prestrain compensated t o
various stresses for the samples precrept to 12% versus initial stress.
Equation (3) demonstrates that prestratn does not affect the rate controlling mechanism but only alter the
Vol. 32, No. 8 CREEP LIFE 1161

magnitude of tble structure factor of a virgin speclrnen from A, to A, exp [ (mo no) E p] by prestratning.

(3) Effect of prestrain, stress and temperature on the

magnitude of S
Figure 3 shows the effect of stress and temper-
ature on the strain rate acceleration factor, S for
specimens prestrained up to 4.4 %. One can see that
the magnitude of S decreases with an increase in
temperature and increases with a decrease in stress at
the onset of reloading creep. Along with the studies on
the prestrain effect on the magnitude of S, the
following equation was deduced to expr.:ss the L...3,...S....I J
magnitude of S: 80 90 1L:o 120 140
Initial stress / MPa

S = A, exp (m,; E p) - u o s exp ( OS /RT), (4) Flg.3 Effect of stress and temperature on the magnitude
of strain rate acceleration fact0r.s

where A, , m, , ns and 0, are constants and their

magnitudes are G900, 0.58, -2.2 and 28.4 kJ / mol ,
respectively.
Since it is viewed intuitively that the magnitude of
I- l I
Sdepends on the magnitude of i: o, the value of SIS
tentatively plotted against i: o on a double
logarithmic scale !n Fig.4. There is some scatter of
datum points, however, the magnitude of S can be
correlated with the value of E o in the form

S=a bomb, (5)

4L..L ..,. .... ,(I t

where a and b are constants of the magnitude of to 8 10. 10-& 1o-5
0.74 and 0.18, respectively. The validity of eqs. (4) Imaginary initial strain rate / 5-l
and (5) is examined in Fig.5. One can see that both
Flg.4 Relationship between strain rate acceleratron
equations are effective to evaluate the magnitude of factor S and imaginary initial creep rate.
S, however, the former is more suitable than the
latter to produce the magnitude of S as long as the
values of ,J,s, rns , ns and 0, are availabl-.

(4) Creep life assessment l Calculated from eq.(4)

Rewriting eq.(l) and integratlrlg it with respect to
time from zero to t results in eq.(6):

E =(1/s) In[l/(l-s 0 ot)]. (6)

Using eq.(6), creep curve can be drawn if s and i o

are known. TypIcal Lreep curves are shown in Fig.6, in
which calculated creep curves are also drawn by solid
curves. The calculated creep curves agree well with
measured ones lover a wide range of strain,
Measured S value
Replacing t arld E with 1, and E r, respectively, one
obtains the following equation results. Fig.5 Comparison of calculated S v/lth measured one.
 1162 CREEPLIFE Vol. 32, No. 8

tr =[I exp(-Sc,)l i (SE,,), (7)

where t r is the rupture ttme and c r ISthe rupture stram. In the present study, the magnitude of exp ( -s E I )
was between 9x10.2 and 9X10-s. These values are much smaller than unity, so eq.(7) can be reduced to
eq.(8), which is widely applicable within the range of industrial interest because the magnitude of exp ( s Er )
decreases greatly as the stress level decreases.

1, = 1 / (Sk,). (8)

The validity of eq.(8) is examined in Fig.7. Equation (8) is able to predict the remaining creep life of prestrained
specimens successfully if s and L o are known. Since the knowledge of m, and m s IS not necessary to predtct
creep life of virgin specimens, the magmtude of c ,) and S can be esttmated readily from eqs.(l) and (4) as a
function of temperature and stress. In prachce, using the value of constants such as A,, mo, no , Cl,, A,, ms
ns and OS, which are all obtained in the present study, creep life up to 105 h ( the corresponding stress IS
above 49MPa) was predicted successfully. The details of the calculated results will be written elsewhere.

30- . ,,.., mm., -

Ep/% a,/MPa T/K
l Calculated from eq.(8)
A 4.4 127.4 903

20 l 4.4
- Calculated

w
.E

/ 1
IO IO3 lo4 IO5 IO6 d IO lo2 IO3
Time/s Measured creep life /h r
Fig.6 Comparison of calculated creep curve with measured one. Fig.7 Comparison of calculated creep life with
experimental one.

Summary

The imaginary initial creep rate E o and the strain rate acceleration factor S were tntroduced to express
the creep rate under constant load for a prestramed 2.25Cr-1 MO steel. By the use of i o and S , creep rate at
any strain can be given by es.(l) over an almost entire creep life. The magnitude of E oand S are both
dependent upon prestrain before reloading creep, testing temperature and stress. The magnitude of e o and
Sare given by eqs.(2) and (4), respectively. Creep life under constant load, t, is given by eq.(8), namely, t, is
equal to the reciprocal of the product of C.o and S.

References

1. F.R.Larson and J.Mtller,Trans. ASME, 74,765(1 952).

2. R.L.Orr,O.D.Sherbyand J.E.Dorn, Trans.ASM, 46,l 13(1954).
3. S.S.Manson and A.M.Haferld, NASA, TN2890, Mar. (1952).
4. R.W.Evans, J.D.Parker and B.Wtlshire, Recent Advances in Creep and Fracture of Engineering Materials
and Structure, ed.by B.Wilshtre and D.R.J. Owen, p,l35. Pineridge Press, U.K.(1982).
5. T.Endo and JShi, Strength of Materials, (ICSMA 1 0), p.665, JIM,Sendar (I 994).
6 J Shi and T Endo. Tetsu-to-Hagane 80, 61 (1 994).
7. B.Million and J.Kucera, Kovove Mater.,22,372(1984).