CHAPTER IV: THE FAILURE OF
MATERIALS BY FLOW OR CREEP
The Concept of Creep
What is Creep?
• It refers to how materials, especially metals and polymers,
gradually deform and eventually fail when subjected to
sustained stress over a long period of time, even if the
stress is below the material's yield strength.
• It can also be referred to as a slow, progressive deformation
of materials under sustained stress, often worsened by high
temperature, that can eventually lead to fracture or rupture.
• It's a critical concern in engineering design, especially in
high-temperature applications.
• A steam pipe operating at 600°C may look fine for years, but
internal creep can cause it to bulge or burst, leading to
catastrophic failure if not inspected or replaced in time.
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The Phenomena of "Creep" of
Materials.
• If solids are heated to a take place, they are melted. In most cases, at
temperatures well below sufficiently high temperature, and if chemical
decomposition does not those required for complete fusion, evidence is
given of the beginning of the liquefying process, and the material begins
to act somewhat like a very viscous liquid. This action is illustrated by
the softening of an asphalt pavement on a hot summer day, and by the
sagging of steel beams caused by the heat of a conflagration.
• The most marked effect of this elevated temperature is to cause a very
slow flow or "creep" to take place under stress. The rate of flow of a
given metal depends on the magnitude of the stress and on the
temperature. Whether for any given temperature there is a definite
limiting stress below which flow absolutely ceases is an unsettled
question, as is also the question whether there is a definite limiting
temperature below which flow absolutely ceases. For practical purposes
of design and use of materials, limiting stresses and temperatures may
be determined below which the rate of flow is so small as to do no
appreciable structural damage during the expected "life" of a machine or
structural part.
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Creep Compared with Slip
• In a solid metal in which creep is taking place, inelastic
action (slip) may be present also. Structural damage by
distortion is a common feature for both creep and slip.
The limiting stress for negligible slip of a metal is better
defined than the limiting stress for negligible creep.
• For steel and most of the common materials of
construction at ordinary temperatures, when slip has
occurred under a given stress, the motion of distortion
diminishes after a short time; below the ultimate
strength, slipping intracrystalline flakes soon come to
rest, even though the stress which started the slip is still
acting. Creep, on the other hand, continues as long as
the stress is applied, or until the material is actually
fractured. 5
Fig. 18 is the graph of a test of lead showing creep to fracture at
150°F. The slope of the graph is a measure of the rate of flow, and
it will be noted how the rate of flow decreases from the beginning
of the test to about 1.0 per cent total creep (A), remains practically
constant during the middle portion of the test (AB), and increases
during the last stage of the test (BC).
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Damage Due to Creep.
• Creep in a material causes distortion, and in
that respect resembles inelastic failure by
slip, but the tendency of creep to continue
indefinitely under load brings in the danger
of progressive structural damage by long-
time steady loading. Creep continued long
enough produces fracture.
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Materials Subject to Creep.
• Metals at elevated temperatures furnish the most
conspicuous examples of failure by creep. At ordinary
atmospheric temperatures, none of the common stress-
carrying metals shows In fact, the limiting condition for the
development dangerous creep.
• In fact, the limiting condition of efficient heat engines is the
lack of known metals which, without disastrous creep, can
withstand the required combination of high stress and high
temperature. Some soft metals, such as lead and zinc, show
distinct creep at ordinary room temperatures, and under the
extreme stress developed near the ultimate in an ordinary
tension test, most metals show a distinct "necking down"
which seems to indicate appreciable flow of the metal.
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• Organic materials, notably wood, suffer chemical
decomposition before developing any very large
amount of creep. However, wood fractures under a
long-continued stress about half as great as that
which will cause fracture in an ordinary testing
machine test. Some plastics show distinct creep at
room temperature.
• Burnt-clay products include the materials most
resistant to creep at high temperatures but even
burnt-clay products show signs of flow at very high
temperatures. Under long-continued steady load,
concrete shows appreciable creep
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Determination of Practical
Creep Limit
• It is a method used to identify the maximum stress a
material can withstand for a long period of time
without undergoing unacceptable deformation
due to creep.
• The practical creep limit is the highest stress level
at which a material can operate over a specified time
and temperature without exceeding a pre-defined
creep strain (e.g., 0.1% or 1% total strain).
• It's "practical" because it's based on real-world
limits like service life and tolerable deformation
— not just theoretical strength. 10
Determination of Practical
Creep Limit
• A creep diagram is shown in Fig. 18. The rate of creep is
measured by the slope of the creep-time diagram at any
point. There is a short first stage, in which the rate of
creep is fairly high (OA in Fig. 18); then a second stage
(AB), a long time during which the creep rate is fairly
constant; and a third stage (BC), in which the rate of
creep shows a great increase, and finally fracture occurs.
• The beginning of this stage marks the beginning of
fracture and may be used safely as a measure of time to
fracture under the given temperature and stress. The
method of measuring the creep rate is shown in Fig. 18
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Figure 19(a) shows this method as applied to the test of a specimen of
commercial lead tested at constant temperatures and for stresses at 200, 300,
and 400 lb. per sq. in. for 1,600 hr. However, in this length of time none of the
specimens fractured or reached the "third stage" of creep. Figure 19(b) shows
the rate of creep in the second stage for the range stress (200 to 400 lb. per sq.
in.).
By extrapolation, assuming the rate of strain to stay constant, the creep which
may be expected after one year is shown, but the length of time to fracture or to
the beginning of the third stage of creep is not shown and may have been less 12
than one year.
Mechanism of Creep in Metals.
• The mechanism of creep in metals refers to
the physical processes by which a metal
slowly deforms over time under constant
stress, especially at elevated temperatures
(typically > 0.4 × Tm, where Tm is the
melting point in Kelvin).
• Creep deformation happens in three stages
and is driven by atomic movement —
dislocations, diffusion, and grain boundary
activity — depending on stress and
temperature. 13
Dislocation Creep (Power-Law Creep) - is a time-dependent
deformation mechanism in which dislocations move through
the crystal lattice under applied stress, often aided by
dislocation climb, allowing them to bypass obstacles. It
typically occurs at moderate to high stresses and elevated
temperatures.
Diffusional Creep -Diffusional creep is a creep mechanism
where atoms diffuse through the crystal lattice (Nabarro–
Herring creep) or along grain boundaries (Coble creep) under
stress, leading to a slow, uniform deformation. It occurs at
low stresses and high temperatures, especially in fine-
grained materials.
Grain Boundary Sliding (GBS) - is a creep mechanism where
adjacent grains slide past each other along their boundaries
Fracture under Creep.
• It is the final stage of creep deformation, where a
material fails (breaks or ruptures) due to long-term
exposure to stress at elevated temperatures. This
failure occurs after significant time-dependent
deformation and is typically associated with the
tertiary stage of creep.
• As creep progresses:, microvoids and cracks form,
especially along grain boundaries.. These defects
grow and coalesce due to continued stress and
temperature. Eventually, the material loses its load-
carrying capacity and fracture
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•Characteristics of Creep Fracture:
Occurs at high temperatures and relatively low
stress.
• Often involves intergranular fracture (along grain
boundaries).
• Accompanied by necking, void formation, and
grain boundary cavitation.
• Ductile or brittle in appearance depending on the
material and conditions.
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Creep under Repeated Stress at High
Temperatures..
• In fatigue tests at temperatures high
enough to cause creep, the effects of both
creep and repeated stress must be
considered. Under a steady load a creep test
can be conducted with no "fatigue" effects,
but under repeated stress at high
temperatures both fatigue and creep come
into the picture. As creep is a function of
time, while fatigue damage is a function of
number of cycles of stress, it is evident that
the frequency of cycles of stress may be
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expected to affect the results of the tests.
Creep at Room Temperature.
• For iron and steel, and for most of the structural metals,
creep, at stresses within the elastic range, does not become
an appreciable factor in strength until a temperature of
several hundred degrees Fahrenheit has been reached. Lead,
tin, and zinc show evidences of creep at ordinary room
temperatures, as do such nonmetallic solids as asphalt, tar,
sealing wax, glass, and some plastics.
• Wood shows a distinct reduction of ultimate strength under
long-time tests. The resistance both to shearing and to tensile
stresses is much less along the grain of wood than across the
grain. Possibly creep occurs in wood mainly along the grain.
• R. E. Davis and H. E. Davis at the University of California and
F. E. Richart at the University of Illinois have reported creep
tests of concrete in compression and, at ordinary room
temperatures, have obtained creep-time diagrams similar in 18
shape to those shown in Fig. 19a. The chief danger of
Creep of Nonmetals at High Temperatures.
• For the nonmetals, the importance of creep
depends largely on whether chemical change is
caused at temperatures lower than those at which
disastrous creep is liable to take place. Of course, if
disastrous chemical action takes before the
temperature has risen high enough to cause creep,
the question of creep becomes of no further
importance. The ceramic materials, brick, terra
cotta, tile, etc., withstand high temperatures
without disintegration due to chemical action, and
they also have high creep strength. Their use as
materials for machine parts subjected to very high
temperatures, such as gas-turbine blades, is a
matter for study and experiment. However, such
ceramic materials in general have very little 19
ductility. The use of high-temperature- resistant
Questions
1. State the resemblances and the differences
between creep and slip.
2. Is creep an important cause of structural
damage in bolts in rail joints? In b in high-
pressure steam-pipe flanges? In lead
sheathing for electric power cab In a plain
concrete wall? In a reinforced-concrete
3. Does wood creep? State evidence for your
answer.
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MEMBERS:
REYNO BRIAN JEFFREY
thank you MATUGUINA, HYNE
REYNADA, RICHARD
ADORZA, ANTONIO JR.
GUINTADCAN, MAC JANDY