SURVIVAL AT HIGH

TEMPERATURES

Sub-topics

High temperature materials

1 Creep
HIGH TEMPERATURE
APPLICATIONS

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 EXAMPLES OF HIGH TEMPERATURE
ACTIVITIES AND MATERIALS

High temperature materials

provide the basis for a wide variety of technology areas, including
energy, electronic, photonic, and chemical applications.

While some applications involve the use of these materials at high

temperatures,
others require materials processed at high temperatures for room
temperature uses.

Example: In electrochemistry, the interaction of these materials

with each other, the atmosphere, and the movement of electrons are
of high importance.

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WHAT IS HIGH TEMPERATURE?
A definition of high temperature can he confusing.

Definition in materials science and technology

it is a temperature equal to, or greater than, about two-thirds
of the melting point of a solid.

Another definition is that high temperatures are those at which

extrapolations of a materials properties, kinetics, and
chemical behavior from near ambient temperatures
are no longer valid.

For example, chemical reactions not favorable at room

temperature may become important at high temperatures
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TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
Materials properties change with temperature.

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SERVICE TEMPERATURE
Maximum service temperature Tmax the
highest T at which the material can be
reasonably used;
Minimum service temperature Tmin the T
below which the material becomes brittle or
otherwise unsafe to use.
Empirical => no universally accepted definitions
(only common sense)
Some properties (density, modulus, refractive
index) linear dependence
Mostly nonlinear dependence on T (strength,
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creep rate, etc.)
 CREEP
Materials are often placed in service at elevated temperatures and
exposed to static mechanical stresses:
Turbine rotors in jet engines and steam generators that
experience centrifugal stresses, and high-pressure steam lines

constant stress and

constant elevated temperature Deformation under such
circumstances is termed
creep.
Defined as the time-
dependent and
permanent deformation
of materials when
subjected to a constant
load or stress.
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The minimum creep rate /t is
the slope of the linear segment in
the secondary region.
CREEP TESTING
Creep is normally an undesirable
phenomenon and is often the limiting
factor in the lifetime of a part.
Specimen is loaded in tension or compression, usually at a constant
load, inside a furnace that is maintained at a constant temperature

Extension is measured as a function of time.

 CREEP BEHAVIOR OF METALS
For tertiary creep, there is
Primary or transient creep an acceleration of the rate
occurs first, typified by a and ultimate failure.
continuously decreasing
creep rate creep rate /t
is the
Why engineering
decreasing? design
parameter that
is considered for
long life
Elastic applications
deformation

For secondary creep, sometimes termed 9

steady-state creep, the rate is constant;
that is, the plot becomes linear. Why linear?
ACTIVATED ENERGY FOR STEADY-STATE
CREEP
Steady-state creep deformation predominates at
temperatures above 0.4Tm

The activation energy Q can be

calculated by assuming the temperature
interval is small so that the creep 10
mechanisms is not expected to change.
STEADY-STATE CREEP RATE

The constants 0, o, n, and Qc are experimentally

found and vary from material to material
INFLUENCE OF STRESS AND
TEMPERATURE T ON CREEP BEHAVIOR.
With either increasing
stress or temperature, the
following will be noted:

(1) the instantaneous strain at

the time of stress application
increases;
(2) the steady-state creep rate
is increased;
and
(3) the rupture lifetime is
diminished.

Steady state creep 12

rate as a function of
stress and T
STRESS-RUPTURE CURVE

Design data based on creep is generally presented in a

stress-rupture curve allows to identify either the
design stress or rupture life at a given temperature
 DATA EXTRAPOLATION METHODS
Often it is impractical to collect creep data from normal tests. This is
especially true for prolonged exposures. Solution performing the tests at T
in excess of the required, for shorter time periods and a comparable
stress level; then making extrapolation.
An extrapolation procedure employs the
LarsonMiller parameter, defined as

C is a constant (usually on the order of 20), for T

140 in Kelvin and the rupture lifetime tr in hours

Logarithm Using the LarsonMiller data for S-590

stress versus the iron, predict the time to rupture for a
LarsonMiller component that is subjected to a stress of
parameter for 140 Mpa at 800C.
an S-590 iron.
At 140 MPa the value of the Larson
Miller parameter is 24.0 x103, therefore 14
 STRUCTURAL CHANGES DURING CREEP

Different creep rates result

from changes in internal
structure of the materials
with creep rate and time.
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MECHANISMS OF CREEP DEFORMATIION
1) Dislocation slip
Involves dislocation moving along slip planes and
overcoming barriers by thermal activation.
Occurs at high stress.

2) Dislocation creep
Involves dislocation movement to overcome
barriers by diffusion of vacancies or interstitials.

3) Diffusion creep
Involves the flow of vacancies and interstitials through
a crystal under the influence of applied stress.

4) Grain boundary sliding

Involves the sliding of grains past each other.
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Each leads to a different value of the
stress exponent n
 DIFFUSION
Diffusion is the spontaneous intermixing of
atoms over time the rate of diffusion
is expressed by Ficks law:

D: diffusion constant
dc/dx: concentration gradient

In a crystalline solid,
two things are needed
for an atom to switch
sites:

1) Enough thermal energy

2) An adjacent vacancy
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DIFFUSIONAL FLOW
Diffusion can change the shape
of polycrystalline materials

Grain boundaries act as sources

and sinks for vacancies

If a vacancy joins a boundary,

an atom must leave it if a
vacancy leaves a boundary,
and atom must join it
DISLOCATION CLIMB
Diffusion can allow a dislocation to
move beyond particles in its path

The half-plane of atoms is eaten

away by diffusion, allowing the
dislocation to climb over the
impeding particle

This is the basis of power-law-creep

which is defined by:

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DEFORMATION MECHANISMS
Materials can deform by dislocation movement, or
at high temperatures, by diffusional flow or
power-law creep

Deformation
mechanism maps

Map shows the range of stress and temperature in 20

which we expect to find each sort of deformation and the
strain rate that any combination of them produces.
MELTING POINT
The temperature at which a material starts
to creep depends on its melting point
Polymers can start
to creep at room
temperature

Metals - 0.35Tm

Ceramics - 0.45Tm

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HIGH TEMPERATURE MATERIALLS
PROBLEM

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Materials with high melting point and
large grains and obstacles for dislocations;
Single crystals are the best choice
 HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPER-ALLOYS
High temperature alloys are complex in their
microstructures to obtain the required properties at
service temperatures.
High melting point alloys normally have high creep
resistance.
Fine precipitates having high thermal stability are
necessary for high creep resistance (prevent dislocations
movement).

Examples: (1) Nickel base alloy containing fine

precipitates of intermetallic compounds Ni3Al, NI3Ti or
Ni3(Al,Ti),
(2) Creep resistant steels containing fine
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carbides VC, TiC, NbC, Mo2C or Cr23C6.
 STRUCTURES FOR HIGH T USE

High-temperature creep resistance is improved as a result of an oriented

columnar grain structure (b) produced by a sophisticated directional
solidification technique.

Creep resistance is further enhanced when single-crystal blades (c) are used24
HIGH T CERAMICS
High temperature materials include not only advanced alloys,
but also oxide and non-oxide ceramics and
various composite materials.
In addition to the chemical and physical properties that make a
material important for technology, the ability to synthesize the
material in physical forms ranging from powders to thin films to
bulk pieces of varying macroscopic sizes and shapes is crucial to
their applications.

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DESIGN TO COPE WITH CREEP
Creep problems are of four types:

Those in which limited creep strain can be accepted but

creep rupture must be avoided (creep of pipework; lead
roofs)

Those in which creep strain is design limiting, as for

blades in steam and gas turbine

Those involving more complex problems of creep strain,

loss of stiffness and risk of bugling a potential problem
with space-frames of supersonic aircraft and space vehicles

Those involving stress relaxation the loss of tension in a

pre-tightened bolt
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STRENGTH MAXIMUM SERVICE
TEMPERATURE

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 At room temperature, material selection requires only a single
strength-density chart

For high-temperature design, charts are needed that account for

temperature and an acceptable strain rate

Materials: engineering, science, processing and design, 2nd edition Copyright (c)2010 Michael Ashby, Hugh Shercliff,
David Cebon
 HIGH-TEMPERATURE PIPEWORK
Typical operating conditions of 650 C at
a pressure of 15 MPa

Suppose, you have been asked

to recommend a pipe required
as a temporary fix while
modifications are made to
plant. Space is constrained :
pipe cannot be more than 300
mm in diameter.
A design life is 6 months.

A steel pipe with a wall 29

thickness of 10.0 mm is
available. Will it function safely?
POLYMERS TO RESIST CREEP
As in crystalline solids, polymers creep and
the creep is often related to diffusion
diffusion requires free volume (vacancies for metals)
which is found dispersed among all atoms in a polymer
since there is no lattice structure

Free volume increases with

temperature and does so
most rapidly at Tg

Polymers behave in a
visco-elastic manner
around their Tg meaning
they act neither as an
elastic solid nor viscous
liquid 30
CREEP MODULUS OF POLYMERS

Creep modulus is used

to provide an estimation
of the deformation during
the life of the structure.

The visco-elastic nature of polymers reduces the rate of creep

while being loaded and allows for a small amount of reverse
creep upon unloading

The creep modulus Ec is used when designing polymers

against creep
MATERIALS TO
RESIST CREEP

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