Assignment-1
1. Creep Behaviour
Definition: Creep is the slow, permanent deformation of a material under constant stress,
typically occurring at high temperatures relative to the material's melting point. Unlike
immediate elastic deformation, creep deformation continues to accumulate over time,
making it a key consideration for materials that operate under stress for long periods.
This phenomenon is particularly important in high-temperature applications, such as
turbines, jet engines, nuclear reactors, and pipelines.
Significance: Creep is crucial because it affects the reliability and lifespan of components
in systems exposed to high-stress environments. Engineers must account for creep
behavior to ensure the safety and longevity of materials used in critical applications.
Stages of Creep:
1. Primary Creep (Transient Creep):
This stage features a relatively high strain rate that decreases over time as the
material begins to resist further deformation.
During this stage, dislocations in the material’s crystal lattice start to move and
rearrange, but they gradually encounter resistance due to work hardening.
2. Secondary Creep (Steady-State Creep):
In this stage, the strain rate stabilizes and becomes nearly constant, making it the
longest stage of creep.
The balance between the rate of work hardening and the rate of softening due to
recovery mechanisms leads to a steady-state deformation rate.
This stage is crucial for predicting material life since the steady strain rate can be
extrapolated to estimate long-term deformation.
3. Tertiary Creep:
The strain rate accelerates due to microstructural changes, such as cavity
formation, grain boundary sliding, and necking.
Tertiary creep eventually leads to the rupture or fracture of the material.
This stage is marked by a significant reduction in cross-sectional area, accelerating
strain rate as failure becomes imminent.
2. The Creep Curve
Definition: A creep curve is a graph plotting strain (deformation) versus time for a
material under constant load and temperature. It illustrates how strain accumulates over
time, highlighting the three stages of creep.
Key Components of the Curve:
Primary Creep Stage: This segment of the curve shows a downward slope, indicating a
decreasing strain rate as the material adapts to the applied stress.
Secondary Creep Stage: This part of the curve appears as a linear section where the
strain rate is constant. The slope of this portion corresponds to the steady-state
creep rate.
Tertiary Creep Stage: The curve bends sharply upwards, showing an accelerating
strain rate due to structural damage within the material. This region leads to material
failure.
Importance of the Creep Curve:
The creep curve helps engineers understand how much deformation will occur over
time, which is essential for designing components that must withstand high-stress
environments.
By analyzing the secondary creep rate, engineers can estimate the material’s long-
term durability, allowing them to predict when maintenance or replacement might be
necessary.
The creep curve also helps in material selection by identifying materials with lower
creep rates under given conditions, making them more suitable for high-temperature
applications.
3. Stress and Temperature Effects on Creep
Stress Influence:
Higher stress levels cause increased movement of dislocations within the material’s
crystal structure, resulting in a higher creep rate.
As stress increases, primary and secondary creep stages are shortened, and the
material reaches the tertiary stage more quickly.
In engineering, materials are often designed to withstand stresses below a certain
threshold to minimize creep effects.
Temperature Influence:
Creep becomes significant only at temperatures above a certain threshold, usually
about 30-40% of a material's melting temperature in Kelvin.
At elevated temperatures, atomic movement is facilitated, allowing mechanisms such
as diffusion and grain boundary sliding to occur more readily.
Increasing temperature accelerates all three stages of creep, reducing the material’s
service life.
Combined Effect of Stress and Temperature:
The creep rate follows an Arrhenius-type relationship, where an increase in either
stress or temperature leads to an exponential increase in creep rate.
Engineers must carefully control both stress and temperature to reduce creep
deformation, especially in applications like power plants, where components are
under constant load at high temperatures.
4. Mechanisms of Creep Deformation
Creep deformation mechanisms vary depending on stress, temperature, and the material's
microstructure. The primary mechanisms include:
Diffusion Creep:
This mechanism occurs at high temperatures and low stresses. Atoms migrate within
grains (Nabarro-Herring creep) or along grain boundaries (Coble creep).
In Nabarro-Herring creep, atoms move through the lattice, leading to deformation.
Coble creep, which involves atomic diffusion along grain boundaries, is more
prominent in fine-grained materials and results in grain elongation over time.
Dislocation Creep:
Dislocation creep is prominent at higher stress levels and moderate to high
temperatures.
It occurs through the movement of dislocations, which are line defects in the crystal
structure. These dislocations move and multiply under stress, leading to permanent
deformation.
As dislocations interact with obstacles in the crystal, they cause strain hardening,
which can slow the creep rate temporarily.
Grain Boundary Sliding:
At elevated temperatures, grains can slide past each other along their boundaries,
leading to overall deformation of the material.
This mechanism is often assisted by diffusion along grain boundaries and is
particularly significant in polycrystalline materials, especially those with smaller
grains.
Grain boundary sliding can contribute to both secondary and tertiary creep, as it
allows grains to accommodate each other’s movement under stress.
Nabarro-Herring and Coble Creep:
Nabarro-Herring Creep: This is a diffusion-based mechanism where atoms migrate
within the grains due to stress, leading to elongation of the grains.
Coble Creep: Similar to Nabarro-Herring creep but occurs along the grain boundaries
instead of within the grains, making it significant in fine-grained materials at relatively
low temperatures.
