Yarmouk University

Hijjawi Faculty of Engineering Technology

By Prof. AMMAR
Objectives:

1-To understand the stages that are involved in the creep test.
2. To obtain the creep curve experimentally.
3. To study the effect of temperature & stress on the creep behavior.
4. To measure the rate of deformation of the material to stress at a constant
temperature.
I-Introduction: -

Creep is the slow plastic deformation of metals subject to a constant stress. This becomes
important in Gas turbines working at very high temperatures, Steam and chemical plants
operating at 450 to 550°C and soft metals used at room temperature such as white metal
bearings or lead pipes although the latter are now rare due to the recognized health hazards
of lead.
The diagram below shows some typical creep curves. Creep can take place and lead to
fractures at static stresses much smaller than those which will break the specimen when
loaded quickly in the temperature range of 0.5 to 0.7 of the melting point.
The material, which has a higher melting point, has a good resistance to creep. Usually,
creep happens at long time with a strength less than the material strength therefore we must
be careful about this point in designs (constructions, machines, …………etc), creeping
occurs under multiple types of stresses such as: static tension, compression, bending,
torsion or shear stress.
Factors effect on creep:
1-Stress: creep increases when the stress increase
2-Temperature: creep increases when temperature increases and decreases when the
melting point of material increases
3-Time: creep increases after long periods of time
In engineering design, we must use a material that can handle the applied stresses so, there
is a concept called “maximum permissible stress “or “creep strength “ which indicates the
limits of applying loads and this concept is defined as: the highest stress that a material can
stand for.
In metallic materials, creep occurs above the crystal recovery temperature in the material
under load. Whereas in normal tensile test, the material is strain hardened below the crystal
recovery temperature and elongation comes to halt under constant load above crystal
recovery temperature, an equilibrium may occurs between recrystallization and strain
hardening. The material is continuously elongated with certain strain or creep rate.
In the creep test, the sample is subjected to constant load at a certain constant temperature.
The extension of the sample over time period is recorded. By recording the elongation over
time, the ε-t called creep curve is obtained. Three sections of the creep curves can be
distinguished:

Phase 1 (Primary creep): Reduction in the initially extremely high creep rate. At this point,
the influence of material hardening predominates.

Phase 2 (Secondary creep): Virtually constant creep rate. At this point the crystal recovery
and material hardening are in equilibrium. This section of the curve may not necessarily
occur in all experiments.

Phase 3 (Tertiary creep): As a result of increasing the reduction area of the sample after
failure and the rise in effective stresses, the creep rate increases again, leading to a fracture
of the material. In the case of low ductility fracture, phase three may be very short.
These stages are illustrated in Fig.1.

Fig.1 A typical creep curve.

a b

Fig.3. Creep strain curve for (a) various stresses with a constant temperature and (b)
various temperatures with a constant stress.

Components are generally loaded in such a way that they only enter the secondary creep
phase. This determines the life of the component. The time until fracture of the sample
various loads can be recorded in the creep diagram. This produce the creep strength curve.
Usual requirements for creep strength are that the applied stress should give only 1% creep
strain in 10,000 hours or 100,000 hours, as appropriate. The former length of time would
take a year to test and even then, it is inconvenient and of necessity creep data on a new
material would take a long time to obtain. As a result, a method is required whereby data
from short duration tests can be extrapolated to give long term information. Four quantities
are of interest; these are creep strain, time, temperature and stress. The main interest in
creep is in the constant rate secondary stage.

The most commonly used expression for relating secondary creep rate ε to stress σ and
absolute temperature T has the form:

The equation shows that the creep rate is increased by raising either the stress or the
temperature. Taking natural logarithms gives:
 Where:
ε is the creep rate.
n is a constant and equals to 10
R is the universal gas constant (8.31 J/mol.K)
E is the activation energy for creep in metals (120 kJ/mol).
σ is the stress.
A and B are constants.
α is a constant and approximately equals to 0.85.
Most metals have a stress exponent of about (n = 5) and this value is also applicable in the
case of lead, but only when the stress is below about 5 N/mm. At higher stress levels the
exponent n increases to about 10, and eventually the simple power law of Equation 2
ceases.

A plot of Ln ε against σ will therefore yield a straight line of slope α. If the stress is in units
on N/mm2 (or MN/m2) the value of α is approximately 0.8 to 0.9 and varies somehow with
the stress level.

Experimental Procedure: -

1- Lift the arm and insert the setting pin from the rear of the bracket.
2- Fix the specimen from the top and bottom using the two holes shown in Fig.4. of
the specimen to the two screws (18) of the creep testing machine. Take care when
tightening the caps screws not to bend the specimen and ensure that the specimen is
vertical and that there is no slack in the system.
3- let the arm rest against the setting pin. Ensure that the pin does not touch the
specimen holder.
4- Apply a load 0on the specimen using the creep testing machine. Specimen load = 5
(hanger + weights + initial load)
5- Adjust the dial gauge of the testing machine to a zero reading.
6- Withdraw the setting pin and simultaneously start a stopwatch.
7- Note the dial gauge readings at regular time intervals.
8- The time interval will depend upon the rate of extension and may typically be
between 10 and 60 seconds. It is recommended that one student observes the
stopwatch and gives advance warning of a time interval whilst the second reads the
gauge. At a time, interval of 10 seconds, it may be convenient if a third person note
down the time and the dial indicator readings.
 9- Plot, for the purpose of comparison, on the sheet of a graph paper the relationship
between time and strain of the differently loaded specimens.
10- Cool the second specimen to a temperature lower than room temperature using
blocks of ice and repeat the same steps of the test using a load.
11- Plot the creep curve of the cooled specimen on the same graph paper and compare
between the results obtained of the first and the second specimens, which were both
under the same load, but at different temperatures.
12- The temperature of another specimen can be increased to be above the first
specimen temperature, then repeat the experiment and draw the correlation in the
same sheet for the three specimens.
13- The relation between stress and time can be obtained from the computer instead of
manually obtaining it, by connecting the device to the computer.

The extension is the actual dial gauge reading - the initial dial gauge reading. The behavior
of the creep specimens can be found by plotting the extension, load and time. It is not
necessary to convert the data into strain, stress and time. The conversion is merely a simple
multiplication factor and as such will not alter the shape of the graphs, just the numerical
figures upon the axes. The experimental series should consist of three tests each at a
different load. Then repeat the tests, using the same load values but at two other
temperatures. Tests at other temperatures are conducted using the glycol packs and the
shroud. As the shroud takes one pack at a time; one pack may be cooled in a freezer and the
other gently heated in a pan of water. DO NOT exceed 50 ℃. Test specimens should also
by placed with the glycol pack to ensure the same test temperature. Observe safety
precautions and wear suitable gloves to handle hot / cold objects. Fit the specimen to the
apparatus, place the glycol pack in the shroud and place the shroud on the apparatus. Let
the temperature stabilize for a few minutes. Use the digital thermometer to check the
specimen temperature before and during a test.

The Creep test machine can be connected to a data acquisition tool (i.e., laptop) this allows
for a clear demonstration for the creep
curve.
 Fig.4. Creep test machine.

1-Load hanger, 2-Lever, 3-Bearing, 4-Post, 5-Indicator bracket, 6-Dial indicator, 7-Base, 8-
Rubber pad, 9-Logo badge, 10-Product label, 11-Shroud, 12-Glycol pack, 13-Bracket,
14-Rubber foot, 15-Specimen holder, 16-Clamp plate, 17-Test specimen, 18-m6 cap screw,
19-Specimen holder, 20-Holder pivot bracket.

Fig.5. Load set and specimen.

Results:-
Your results may be tabulated as below: -
Specimen load = N
Specimen temperature = C

REFERENCES

1-Meyers, M. A. and Chawla, K. K. (1999). Mechanical Behavior of Materials. Cambridge

2- Thomas, H. C. (2000). Mechanical Behaviour of Materials. Mc Graw Hill Inc., USA.

3- Callister Jr, W. D., & Rethwisch, D. G. (2020). Fundamentals of materials science and
engineering: an integrated approach. John Wiley & Sons