This article presents typical problems encountered in the analysis of experimental creep and creep-rupture data and the possible solutions to these drawbacks. It provides information on planning the test and creep strain/time relationships. The exponential creep equation and the rational polynomial creep equation are discussed. The article also describes the dependence of stress and temperature on equation parameters and explains the lot-centered regression analysis.

Compared to cold-formed parts, age-formed parts have lower residual stresses and consequently better stress corrosion resistance. This article addresses the technical issues that arise in the investigations of creep in precipitate-strengthened materials. The issues addressed help in developing alloys and tempers particularly suited for the age-forming process. The different steps involved in the program for predicting the final part shape are discussed. These basic steps involve developing mechanical tests to study creep at low temperatures and low stresses, describing low-temperature creep in terms of a constitutive model, and then using the constitutive model in a process model or finite element analysis to predict the final part shape.

This article presents effective stress equations that are based on the von Mises criterion, the Tresca criterion, and the Huddleston criterion. It describes the calculation of effective stresses for different cases: elastic stresses, steady-state creep stresses, stresses in a fully plastic case, and thermal stresses in a tube. The article illustrates the comparison of life predictions by the stress criteria and presents a simple mean diameter hoop stress equation, which is used for designing components. It also provides information on the multiaxial creep ductility of tubular components and multiaxial testing methods.

This article summarizes many approaches that are used to simulate relaxation of bulk residual stresses in components. It presents analytical examples to highlight the complexity of residual stress and strain distributions observed in simple geometries, with ideal material behavior and trivial loading and boundary conditions. The article discusses approximate and advanced solution techniques that can be employed in practice for simulation of residual stress relief: finite-difference method and finite-element method. It also describes advanced techniques applicable to transient creep, advanced constitutive models, and complicated stress and temperature loading histories.

This article reviews the basic equipment and methods for creep and creep rupture testing. It begins with a discussion on the creep properties, including stress and temperature dependence, as well as of the extrapolation techniques that permit estimation of the long-term creep and rupture strengths of materials. The article describes the different types of equipment for determination of creep characteristics, including test stands, furnaces, and extensometers. It also discusses the different testing methods for creep rupture: constant-load testing and constant-stress testing. The article presents other testing considerations and concludes with information on stress relaxation testing.

Creep deformation is normally studied by applying either a constant load or a constant true stress to a material at a sufficiently high homologous temperature so that a measurable amount of creep strain occurs in a reasonable time. This article provides the phenomenological descriptions of creep and explains the testing and mechanism of creep in crystalline solids. It also presents information on the creep response of crystalline and amorphous solids.

This article discusses stress relaxation testing on metallic materials, as covered by ASTM E 328. It reviews the two types of stress relaxation tests performed in tension, long-term and accelerated testing. The article illustrates load characteristics and data representation for stress relaxation testing used for the most convenient and common uniaxial tensile test. It concludes with information on compression testing, bend testing, torsion testing, and tests on springs.

This article reviews the basic mechanisms of elevated-temperature behavior and associated design considerations, with an emphasis on metals. It discusses the key concepts of elevated-temperature design. These include plastic instability at elevated temperatures; deformation mechanisms and strain components associated with creep processes; stress and temperature dependence; fracture at elevated temperatures; and environmental effects. The article describes the basic presentation and analysis methods for creep rupture. It provides information on the application of these methods to materials selection and the setting of basic design rules. The article examines the limitations of high-temperature components as well as the alternative design approaches and tests for most high-temperature components.

This article discusses the deformation and viscoelastic characteristics of plastics as polymeric materials, focusing on the test methods used for the evaluation of their mechanical properties, methods available for analytically predicting the deformation response of polymers, and the effect of viscoelasticity on the test methods used. Two common ways of evaluating viscoelasticity of plastics are by means of creep experiments and dynamic mechanical experiments. Graphic or tabular analysis of test data, time-temperature superposition, and empirical correlation methods are commonly employed for analytical prediction of deformation characteristics of polymers.

This article discusses the methods for assessing creep-rupture properties, particularly, nonclassical creep behavior. The determination of creep-rupture behavior under the conditions of intended service requires extrapolation and/or interpolation of raw data. The article describes the various techniques employed for data handling of most materials and applications of engineering interest. These techniques include graphical methods, methods using time-temperature parameters, and methods used for estimations when data are sparse or hard to obtain. The article reviews the estimation of required creep-rupture properties based on insufficient data. Methods for evaluation of remaining creep-rupture life, including parametric modeling, isostress testing, accelerated creep testing, evaluation by the Monkman-Grant coordinates, and the Materials Properties Council (MPC) Omega method, are also reviewed.

The constitutive relations for metalworking include elements of behavior at ambient temperature as well as high-temperature response. This article presents equations for strain hardening and strain-rate-sensitive flow, with alternate sections on empirically determined properties, followed by the models of constitutive behavior. It provides a discussion on creep mechanisms involving dislocation and diffusional flow, such as the Nabarro-Herring creep and the Coble creep. The equations for the several creep rates are also presented. Research on the mechanism of the superplastic flow in fine-grain metals has encompassed many ideas, such as the diffusional creep, dislocation creep with diffusional accommodation at grain boundaries, and concepts of grain-mantle deformation. The article concludes with information on the kinetics of superplastic deformation processes, including low stress behavior, concurrent grain growth, and high stress behavior.

Constitutive relations for metal-working include elements of behavior at ambient temperature as well as high-temperature response. This article presents the equations for the strain hardening and strain-rate-sensitive flow, with alternate sections on empirically determined properties, followed by models of constitutive behavior. These models include the isothermal constitutive model and the physical model for superplastic flow. A formal description of the superposition of the operative mechanisms for dynamic recovery at hot-working strain rates is also provided. The article describes creep mechanisms that are useful for illustrating the strong stress dependence of dislocation and diffusional flow.

This article emphasizes short-term tension and compression testing of metals at high temperatures. It describes the effect of temperature on deformation and strain hardening, occurrence of high-temperature creep in structural alloys, and the performing of mechanical testing for high-temperature structural alloys. The article discusses hot tension testing and measurements of temperature and strain in the hot tension testing. It also provides an overview of hot compression testing.

This article focuses on the evaluation of mechanical properties of freestanding films and films adherent to their substrates. Common methods of testing freestanding films, including uniaxial tensile testing, uniaxial creep testing, biaxial testing, and beam-bending methods, are discussed. For films which are adherent to their substrates, indentation testing is used to evaluate hardness, creep, and strength.

This article describes the phenomena of crack initiation and early growth. It examines specimen design and preparation as well as the apparatus used in crack initiation testing. The article provides descriptions of the various commercially available fatigue testing machines: axial fatigue testing machines and bending fatigue machines. Load cells, grips and alignment devices, extensometry and strain measuring devices, environmental chambers, graphic recorders, furnaces, and heating systems of ancillary equipment are discussed. The article presents technologies available to accomplish closed loop control of materials testing systems in performing standard materials tests and for the development of custom testing applications. It explores the advanced software tools for materials testing. The article includes a description of baseline isothermal fatigue testing, creep-fatigue interaction, and thermomechanical fatigue. The effects of various variables on fatigue resistance and guidelines for fatigue testing are also presented.

Thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) refers to the process of fatigue damage under simultaneous changes in temperature and mechanical strain. This article reviews the process of TMF with a practical example of life assessment. It describes TMF damages caused due to two possible types of loading: in-phase and out-of-phase cycling. The article illustrates the ways in which damage can interact at high and low temperatures and the development of microstructurally based models in parametric form. It presents a case study of the prediction of residual life in a turbine casing of a ship through stress analysis and fracture mechanics analyses of the casing.

Structural alloys are commonly subjected to a variety of thermal and thermomechanical loads. This article provides an overview of the experimental methods in thermal fatigue (TF) and thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) and presents experimental results on the structural materials that have been considered in TF and TMF research. Life prediction models and constitutive equations suited for TF and TMF are covered. The structural materials discussed include carbon steels, low-alloy steels, stainless steels, aluminum alloys, and nickel-base high-temperature alloys. The article explains crack initiation and crack propagation in TF and TMF. It describes thermal ratcheting and thermal shock behavior of structural metallic materials. The article concludes with information on life prediction of structural materials under TF and TMF.

The purity of aluminum is generally characterized in one of two ways, by terminology or by the Aluminum Association designation system. This article reviews the properties of pure aluminum in purities from 99.99 percent through commercial purity, 99.00 percent. The mechanical properties of aluminum are discussed in terms of tensile properties, stress-strain relationships, and creep. The article also reviews the physical properties of aluminum, such as atomic structure and nuclear properties, atomic spectrum, crystal structure, density, thermal expansion, and thermal conductivity. It discusses the chemical properties of aluminum and presents a summary tabulation of the mechanical strength, ductility, and hardness of pure aluminum.

Work or strain hardening is a natural consequence of most working and forming operations on aluminum and its alloys. This article describes the annealing practices of strain-hardened alloys. It lists the temper designations for strain-hardened alloys. The article discusses the annealing of worked structures in terms of recovery, recrystallization, and grain coarsening. It summarizes some of the annealing treatments used in conjunction with fabrication by metal working, including preheating, interannealing, self-annealing, stabilization, and stoving. The article concludes with information on the key process parameters affecting the final properties of aluminum alloys.

Grain boundaries are interfaces between crystallites of the same phase but different crystallographic orientation. They can be characterized as being low angle or high angle. This article discusses the measurements of grain-boundary energy with a brief summary of different schemes for measuring grain-boundary surface tension. The atomistic simulations of grain-boundary energy, measurement of grain-boundary migration and the techniques used to monitor grain-boundary migration are reviewed. Several considerations and effects influencing the computation of grain-boundary mobility are also discussed.