MATERIALS

SCIENCE &
ENGINEERING

ELSEVIER Materials Science and Engineering A 194 (1995) 9-16

A

Choice of evolution equation for internal stress in creep

A. Orlovfi, K. Milieka, F. D o b e ~
Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 616 62 Brno, Czech Republic
Received 2 May 1994; in revised form 8 August 1994

Abstract
The internal stress values in the course of the primary and the steady-state stages of creep in a Fe-3wt.%Si alloy were measured by a
technique analogical to the strain transient dip test technique. Two types of evolution equation, i.e. phenomenological and derived from
dislocation kinetics, were examined by correlating them with the experimental data. In the application of the second group of
equations, characteristics of the real dislocation structure were taken into account. The results of structure investigations are discussed
in relation to the concept of internal stress in both homogeneous and heterogeneous dislocation structures, in the latter case using the
composite model of the dislocation structure.

Keywords:Stress; Creep

1. Introduction (e.g., [2,3]), we p r o p o s e that the internal stress esti-

In a constitutive description of the deformation
process, the internal stress generated in the material
seems to provide an a p p r o p r i a t e internal variable,
expressing the influence of the microstructure in
accord with theories of strain hardening. T h e internal
stress m a y be u n d e r s t o o d as an indirect characteristic,
reflecting the state of the microstructure and changes
therein that are relevant to the kinetics of straining. For
a constitutive description, this fact should be
e m b e d d e d in an adequate evolution equation for inter-
nal stress.
In the study of high-temperature creep, a certain
value of the 'internal stress' can be measured directly
by the strain transient dip test technique suggested by
Ahlquist and Nix [1]. T h e technique, consisting in a
detection of the strain response to applied stress reduc-
tions in conditions of non-changing microstructure, can
fairly easily be applied in steady-state creep conditions
when the microstructure has reached its (quasi)steady
state. With regard to primary transient creep, however,
the application of the m e t h o d is complicated by
changes in the microstructure, and a m o r e complex set
of tests must be p e r f o r m e d to obtain reliable internal
stress data. Following the findings of our earlier w o r k
mated by these methods is an adequate measure of the
real internal stress which is involved in the process of
creep. We thus believe that the ' m e a s u r e d ' internal
stress can be identified with the 'real' internal stress
considered as the internal variable of constitutive
equations.
T h e task of the present work is to examine several
evolution equations for the internal stress in creep, by
correlating them with sets of experimental data of
internal stress measured directly during primary creep.
T h e aim of the examination is to choose the best
equation that can a p p r o x i m a t e the data with minimum
deviations. T h e fact that some equations are derived
f r o m dislocation kinetics makes the examination of
dislocation structures and dislocation density a
relevant part of the work.
2. Material and experimental data
T h e experimental material was a solid solution of
Fe-3wt.%Si of technical purity, cold-rolled and
annealed to obtain a h o m o g e n e o u s microstructure with
average grain size 190 ktm and initial dislocation
density not exceeding 1 x 1012 m -2 (see Ref. [4] for

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I0 A. Orlovd et al. / MaterialsScience and EngineeringA194 (1995) 9-16

more details). The choice of this material for the study istics developing during the process (e.g., the growth of
of certain microstructural aspects of high-temperature dislocation density to a saturated value in the simplest
dislocation creep was prompted by the ease of etch case). The equations tested below start from the
pitting of dislocations and dislocation structure on the following ideas:
surface of an arbitrary crystallographic orientation. (1) The time derivative of the internal stress is a
Another advantage of the material is the very good simple function of its deviation from the steady-state
reproducibility of its creep behavior. v a l u e Ois ,
Specimens 50 mm in gauge length and 3.0 × 3.5
mm 2 in cross-section were subjected to creep at
oi)/ (1)
constant applied stress in a hydrogen atmosphere. The doi/dt=(1/r)(tyi,~- oi)' (2)
creep curves were composed of a digital record of true
where r is the 'relaxation time' of the primary creep
strain vs. time. For the evaluation of the internal stress,
stage, and l ¢ 1 is an exponent. Eq. (1) is a special form
the technique of constant structure creep experiments
of Eq. (2) with l = 1. Along with a simple kinetic
worked out earlier by Mili~ka [5] was used. On the
equation giving the strain rate proportional to the
basis of more extensive experimental data on creep
effective stress o*= o - o ~ , it leads to the McVetty
behaviour [6] and corresponding structure phenomena
equation describing the creep curve in its primary and
[4] in the present material over a wider range of stresses
steady-state stage, which is also a very acceptable
and temperatures, two conditions of creep were chosen
approximation of the creep curves of the present
for the present investigation:
material [6]. However, this kinetic equation seems to
(a) T = 8 2 3 K , o = 1 7 5 MPa, as representative of
assume an unrealistically weak effective stress sensi-
'lower temperature and high applied stress' condi-
tivity of the creep rate gs (e.g., in Ref. [7]). Therefore a
tions resulting in a non-polygonized dislocation
more general alternative evolution equation admitting
structure in the form of an irregular three-dimen-
the power-law effective stress dependence of g was
sional network filling the specimen volume fairly
suggested [6]
homogeneously.
(b) T= 973 K, o = 45 MPa, as representative of 'high
temperature and low applied stress' conditions
resulting in a heterogeneous dislocation structure \ ~ - ~1 J
of lower dislocation density, locally forming a
where m* > 1 is the effective stress exponent in the
substructure of well defined subgrains.
expression for the creep g(o*) dependence (for rn* = 1
The creep rates, ranging from (1 and 2)x 10 -4 tO
Eq. (3) is identical to Eq. ( 1 )).
(8 and 4 ) x 10 -5 s-1 in cases (a) and (b), respectively,
(2) The total dislocation density p, which deter-
were suitable for performing the internal stress
mines the value of the internal stress in accord with the
measurements.
Taylor relation
Dislocation structures of specimens subjected to
creep exposures at chosen points of the master creep oi = a M G b p ~/2 (4a)
curves were visualized on the surface of the specimens
(a is the parameter dependent on dislocation inter-
by the etch pit technique. The density of dislocations actions, M is the Taylor factor, G is the shear modulus
unbound in substructure boundaries was evaluated.
and b is the Burgers vector length) follows the
Johnston-Gilmann kinetics [8]

3. Evolution equations for internal stress in creep

Evolution equations for the internal stress in normal
dislocation primary creep should express the general
character of the evolution of this internal variable, i.e.
an increase with increasing exposure time from some
initial value oi0 to a saturation or steady-state value ai~,
which is reached in the steady-state creep. According
to the approach adopted in their derivation, the
equations may be classed into two groups: (1) equa-
tions based on purely phenomenological principles and
some experimental data, and (2) equations derived
from dislocation kinetics, assuming a relation between
the internal stress and dislocation structure character-
d p / d t = K , p - K2p2 = (p/ r) ( 1 - ~ ) (4b)
where p~ is the dislocation density reached in the
steady-state creep. The corresponding evolution
equation for the internal stress is
dai/dt = ~ 1- (4)
Another assumption which can be accepted for the
dislocation density evolution is the proportionality of
the time derivative of p to the deviation of dislocation
density from its steady-state value p~. The correspond-
 A. Orlovd et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A194 (1995) 9-16 11

ing equation
dp/dt=(ps-p)/r (5a)
combined with the Taylor relation gives the next evolu-
tion equation for oi,

oi F(o, /2
d o i / d t = ~-r L \ ~i } -
,] (5)

A n evolution equation for internal stress can be

derived also from the evolution of dislocation density
in relation to the growth of the creep strain [9]
d p / d e = k i p 1/2 - k2p (6a)
i.e.
d a i / d s = ( k 2 / 2 ) ( o i s - ai) (6b)
Fig. 1. Dislocation structure after a creep exposure under condi-
To obtain the evolution of internal stress in time, the tions (a): T = 973 K, o = 175 MPa, up to the strain e = 0.095.
s(t) function should be known. T h e following variants
were tested for comparison:
(i) e(t) is derived from the McVetty equation (primary
and steady-state terms), which was found accept-
able in approximating the creep curves of the
present material [6]
s(t) = gst + eV[1 -- exp( -- t/r)] + e 0 (6)
(ii) e(t) is expressed in the A n d r a d e form with the
steady-state term, i.e.
e( t)= AtP + g~t + eo (7)
(iii) and in the form suggested in [10], i.e.
s( t) = A( t - to)" (8)
Integral forms of Eqs. ( 1 )-(8) contain the initial internal
stress oi0 in the time t = 0 a n d / o r e ( 0 ) = e 0 as an inte-
gration constant.
Fig. 2. Dislocation structure after a creep exposure under condi-
tions (b): T = 973 K, o = 45 MPa, up to the strain e = 0.108.
4. Evolution of dislocation structure and dislocation
density

As mentioned in Section 2, the chosen external
conditions for creep resulted in different types of dis-
location structure being developed in the course of the
creep tests (a) and (b). T h e dislocation structures
observed after a major part of the creep exposure are
d o c u m e n t e d by the micrographs in Figs. 1 and 2.
T h e three-dimensional irregular dislocation network
filling rather homogeneously the volume of the speci-
mens tested under conditions (a) was characterized by
a growth of dislocation density with increasing creep
strain, see Fig. 3(a). Qualitatively, this tendency corre-
sponds well to the growth of internal stress in the
course of normal primary creep. T h e correlation of
internal stress with dislocation density illustrated by
Fig. 4(a) shows that the original Taylor formula should
be modified by adding a constant term, i.e.
oi = aMGblol/2+ O'ix (9)
Having accepted the last equation in the derivation of
Eqs. (4) and (5), we obtained their modified forms (4m)
and (5m) with (oi - oix) and ( o i s - aix) substituted for oi
and ~.~, respectively.
A different behavior of the dislocation structure
corresponds to the curve under creep conditions (b).
T h e dislocation density plotted in Fig. 3(b) vs. the
creep strain shows an evident tendency to decrease
12 A. Orlovd et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A194 (1995) 9-16

4.0E+12 becomes rather well defined at strains e > 0.05. The

T=82.3 K, o = 1 7 5 MPo increase in p ( e ) dependence is easily understood in
view of the growing internal stress. The relation
~3.0E+12
7 between the internal stress and the dislocation density
E
(Fig. 4(b)) can again be described by the Taylor formula
Q
2.0E+12 with an additive term, aix(hI = 8.3 MPa. However, within
this simple concept of internal stress, the decrease in
Z
LJ
C23
p(e) is not explicable.
1.0E+12 I I i
Z 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 The decrease in p(e) dependence can be qualita-
0
F-- 2.5E+12 tively explained when the two-component model of
(,.P
0 T = 9 7 3 K, 0`=45 MPo dislocation structure [11,12] is applied. The model
2.0E+12
c]
considers the heterogeneous dislocation structure as a
composite material, consisting of soft regions of sub-
1.5E+12
grain interiors bounded by hard regions of subgrain
boundaries. The regions are characterized by local
1.0E+12
stresses a s and o H and by volume fractions fs and fH in
5 . 0 E + I 'I I I
the structure (fs +fH = 1); under the applied stress o, a
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 condition of mechanical equilibrium
STRAIN

Fig. 3. Dislocation density as a function of strain in creep under a=f.ou + fsOs (10)
conditions (a) and (b). is fulfilled.
The evolution of dislocation density and stress com-
ponents in accord with the above-described hetero-
110 geneization of structure is schematically depicted in
Fig. 5. At the start of the creep test, the dislocation
structure consists of a more-or-less homogeneous
t o
100 three-dimensional network. The dislocation density
~g
13_ _L------- grows in this stage and the internal stress, related to it
by the Taylor equation (see Section 3), increases simi-
90
6- larly. At the end of this stage, the dislocation density
(13
U3 T=825 K, ~ = 1 7 5 MPa
reaches a saturated state in which it can be related to
i,i
¢Y externally acting applied stress in a way analogous to
80 i i i
o~ 1.0E+6 1.2E+6 1.4E+£ 1.6E+6 1.8E+6 the Taylor equation
z
rY 28 o oO
(o = OtAMGbpa/i)sa, (11)
bJ
l-- ........ o
z - --4 ............. . ...... ~.
with a a ¢ a. At this instant, the newly formed super-
24
o
o
saturated dislocations start to 'condense' to energeti-
STRUCTURE:
o cally more favorable planar subgrain (or cell)
• HOMOGENEOUS boundaries. Thus the first seeds of heterogeneous
20 o POLYGONIZED structure are initiated. From this instant, the structure
T=973 K, e = 4 5 MPo has to be treated as a composite of different regions of
1 i I I I different mechanical properties. The applied stress
6.~E+5 8.0E+5 1.0E+6 1.2E+6 1.4E+6
starts to redistribute to fulfill the condition of mechan-
n '/2 [m-'] ical equilibrium (10). The local stress acting in subgrain
Fig. 4. Experimental values of internal stress o~ plotted v s , D 1/2 interiors, Os, decreases in the course of gradual forma-
under conditions (a) and (b). Straight lines correspond to simple tion of heterogeneous structure and, in a parallel
regression of data in homogeneous dislocation structures (full manner, the dislocation density in subgrain interiors,
lines, black points) and in the inner part of subgrains in polygon-
ized substructures (dashed line, white points). Ps, decreases too [13]. The dislocations in subgrain
interiors can be considered as existing in approxi-
mately saturated state and thus Eq. (11) can be now
written
with increasing strain, probably after a small initial
( o s = a A MGbpsl/2)sat ( 1 la)
growth early in the primary creep stage. The change in
p ( e ) dependence from increase to decrease coincides The Taylor equation (4a), which relates dislocation
with the formation of polygonized substructure, which density to internal stress, is now valid only in the
 A. Orlovd et al. / MaterialsScience and Engineering A194 (1995) 9-16 13

where A s is a temperature-dependent factor and n is

Homogeneous i / Heterogeneous an exponent. The corresponding strain rate after a
Z
structure I[ structure
klA stress reduction is
C~

Z
G:const~ ~ _ _ gs ' = As[os - (ai)s - Aa]" (15a)
(2)
II O'l
MAX Owing to the compatibility condition, the plastic strain
f.D
0 rate in hard regions (subgrain boundaries) prior to the
J
stress reduction has to be equal to the corresponding
C~
strain rate in soft regions:
~4
U?
W
I
~H=gS (16)
~22
I
O~ I The local stress acting in the hard regions finally
±
overwhelms substantially the local stress in the soft
STRAIN c regions, OH> OS- In the hard region, the same stress
Fig. 5. Scheme of evolution of average (or) and local (Ors,oH) flow decrement does not have so steep an influence on the
stress, average (oi,criMAx) and local ((Oi)s) internal stress and strain rate as in the soft region. For the estimation of
schematical evolution of total dislocation density p of homo-
geneous dislocation structure and of dislocation density Ps in the the lower bound we will, therefore, assume that the
soft regions established in the process of dislocation structure strain rate in hard regions gH' immediately after the
heterogeneization (compare real experimental data in Fig. 3). stress reduction is almost equal to the strain rate prior
to the stress reduction
e . ' = eH (17)
The critical stress reductions for zero strain rate A o c
subgrain interiors: must obey the condition:
(oi) s = a M G b p s 1/2 (12) fsAs[os - ( o i ) s - Aoc] . . . . fngH '= -- fHAs[Os --(ai)S]"

However, the internal stress oi, which is measured by

the dip test technique, must reflect the properties of
both subgrain interiors and subgrain boundaries. We
can assess its magnitude by means of the composite
model as follows.
T h e strain rate of the composite structure is given as
a weighted mean of plastic strain rates in both regions
[11]
~ =fH~H +fs~s
(The small contribution related to the change in the
volume fractions is ignored [14].) In the dip test tech-
nique a strain rate equal to zero is sought. The zero
strain rate will be achieved when the negative rate in
subgrain interiors exactly compensates the positive rate
in subgrain boundaries. To induce a negative rate in
subgrain interiors the local stress has to be decreased
by A o = O s - (Oi)s. The upper bound for internal stress
measured by the dip test is thus
Oi M A X = O ' - - a S "F (ori) s
For the initial stage of the formation of heterogeneous
structure (a s = On = o) it represents also the lower
bound.
Let us assume that the strain rate in soft regions is
described by a power-law dependence on the local
effective stress
gs = As[os - (Oi)s]"
(18)
The estimated minimum internal stress is then
oiMIN=o--Ao~=O--[I+(fH/fS)W"][OS--(Oi)S] (19)
A survey of various potential methods for the estima-
tion of the volume fraction of hard and soft regions
under conditions of high-temperature creep is given in
Ref. [15]. It was shown that steady-state values o f f u of
the order of 10-2 are to be expected. We will use as
(13) limiting values fH = 0.01 and fu = 0.1 for an approxi-
mate evaluation of Eq. (19). Consequently, the numeri-
cal value of the term [ l + ( f u / f s ) w"] ranges for
developed heterogeneous structures from 1.22
(fu = 0.01, n = 3) to 1.64 (fH = 0.1, n = 5). For the fully
developed subgrain structures the minimum estimate
of the internal stress is thus only slightly lower than its
maximum estimate. For the initial stages of substruc-
ture formation (fu limiting to zero) Eq. (19) is identical
to Eq. (14). The maximum estimate of the internal
stress given by Eq. (14) represents quite a realistic
(14) assessment of the internal stress measured in hetero-
geneous structures by the dip test technique. This value
is illustrated in Fig. 5. The schematic figure clearly
demonstrates a possible explanation of the above-
mentioned problem: although the dislocation density in
subgrain interiors decreases, the internal stress as
measured by the dip test technique increases.
In Ref. [16], the composite model was utilized in an
(15) estimate of the strain-transient-dip internal stress in a
14 A. Orlov6 et aL / Materials Science and Engineering A 1 9 4 (1995) 9-16

heterogeneous dislocation structure and in is evalua-
tion from dislocation structure data. The maximum
internal stress in Ref. [16], estimated to be equal to the
long-range internal stress in the soft region,
OiMAX= fH(CrH- aS)= O-- Os (20)
differs from the present estimate of this value, Eq. (14),
by the local internal stress (Oi)s inherent in dislocations
in the soft region. This local internal stress was ignored
in Ref. [16]; only the contribution of elastic stresses in
the composite structure was considered as the source
of the macroscopic internal stress. As in the present
work, the internal stress oi in Ref. [16] was found to
increase, while the local dislocation density Ps in the
soft regions was decreasing in the course of creep.
The composite model assumes that a majority of the
dislocation density is stored in the subgrain bound-
aries. The process of this storage during creep makes
the total dislocation density in the structure increase
with the growing strain [17]. This may make accept-
able, as a first approximation, equations based on the
kinetics of total dislocation density also in the case of
heterogeneous dislocation structures. The total dis-
location density, to which the internal stress then might
be related by the Taylor formula, should contain not
only the dislocation density observed in the subgrain
interior but also the dislocation density stored in the
subgrain boundaries. However, if the dislocation struc-
ture heterogeneity is respected by accepting the two-
component model, it is probably more convenient to
take internal variables other than the average internal
stress whose relation to the parameters of the two-
component structure is not immediate.
allowed evaluation of ai0 and other characteristic
parameters of the strain evolution e(t).
Table 1 summarizes the optimized parameters of
Eqs. ( 1 )-(8) and the corresponding standard deviations
of experimental and calculated ai(t) data. Figs. 6 and 7
show the optimized oi(t) curves.
If we bear in mind the experimental error of the
measured ai data, which can be estimated at about
0.05~, we come to the conclusion that all the equa-
tions are acceptable within this error, as in all data
points it exceeds the value of the standard deviation S.
From this point of view, the evolution of oi can be
described reliably by any of these evolution equations.
An important result of the examination of Eqs. (1)-(8)
is the value of the initial internal stress ai0 at the start of
the creep curve at t = 0. Depending on the chosen
equation, it represents (0.83-0.88)a~s under creep
conditions (a) and (0.36-0.69)ais under conditions (b);
i.e. a substantial contribution to the internal stress
operating in creep exists as early as after the initial
elongation. Eqs. (1)-(5) indicate very similar values of
the relaxation time r of the internal stress evolution
process. The r values from Eqs. (1) and (3), which
combined with corresponding simple kinetic equations
are compatible with the McVetty equation, fit well a
description of the creep curves (a) and (b) by this
Table 1
Parameters of internal stress evolution, Eqs. ( 1 )-(8 ) for
conditions of high-temperature primary creep and standard
deviations S of experimental and calculated o~(t) data
Eq. S c% r Other
(MPa) (MPa) (s) parameters

5. Correlation of evolution equations with (a) T = 8 2 3 K, o = 175 MPa

1 0.525 87.9 922
experimental data 2 0.186 86.5 964 l=1.1
3 0.636 88.4 888 m*=3
Eqs. (1)-(8) were integrated to obtain o i as a 4 0.661 88.5 882
function of time. These functions were fitted to experi- 4m 1.038 89.7 744 ~r~x= 76 MPa
mental oi(t) by linear regression of a linearized form. 5 0.473 87.7 936
5m 0.225 86.0 986 o~x = 76 MPa
For Eqs. ( 1 )-(5) the resulting linear form was 6 0.144 85.9 k 2 = 29.9
Y(oi)=A(t/r)+ B (21) k I = kzcris/ceMGb
7 0.556 87.2 p = 0.375
where Y(cr~) is a function of o i dependent on param- 8 0.120 85.0 p'=0.85
eters ois, l and m*, A / r and B are coefficients of linear (b) T = 973 K, ~r= 45 MPa
regression of Y vs. t data, A =A(/) and B = B(cri0, oi~, l). 1 0.434 17.1 884
Parameters l and m* and in some cases also oi0 had to 2 0.302 18.9 927 •=0.9
3 0.317 19.0 814 m * = 3.4
be determined by an optimization. Parameter r in these
4 0.329 19.2 819
equations has a similar meaning of 'relaxation time' of 5 0.559 15.4 906
the evolution process and its values derived from the 6 0.934 10.0 k2=41.7
equations can be compared. A criterion of experi- k 1 = k 2cris/a M G b
mental and calculated data correlation was the stan- 7 0.486 16.5 p=0.311
dard deviation. Linearized forms of Eqs. (6)-(8) 8 0.318 18.4 (1421) p ' = 1.05
 A. Orlova et aL Materials Science and Engineering A 194 (1995) 9-16 15

105 present constitutive description accepted ad hoc that

the transient creep process is the process of internal
100 stress evolution in creep.
T13- In what follows the description of the present
95 samples of ai(t) data will be discussed in some detail.
~ ~ . ( 4 ) The lowest values of standard deviation S in Table 1
6-
CO 90
I1~ - - Eqn.(2) - - - Eqn.(4rn) allow Eq. (8) to be chosen as the most successful in
r ..... Eqn.(3)
CO
kl3
r'¢
describing the present data of oi(t) under the creep
t---
conditions of curve (a), and Eq. (2) as the best approxi-
CO
85
105 mation of the results corresponding to curve (b). Eq. (2)
z in both data samples is very successful, too, better than,
o¢
100 for example, Eq. (1) or (3) used in Ref. [6] in the
Z
suggested constitutive description leading to an experi-
95 MPo mentally supported McVetty equation for the creep
9O .... Cqn.(5) - - - eqn.(7)
curves. Eq. (3) applied to curve (b) yields m* = 3.4 as
..... Eqn.(Sm)-- Eqn,(8) the optimum value of the parameter, indicating thus a
....... Eqn.(6)
85 power-law effective stress dependence of the creep
rate. This supports the admission of power-law kinet-
i b i i
8O o I000 20 0 3000 4000 5000 ical equation g(o*) in the constitutive description of
TIME t [s] McVetty creep curves suggested in Ref. [6]. Unfortu-
Fig. 6. Curves describingthe evolutionof the internal stress a i in nately, an application of Eq. (3) to curve (a) gave no
time in correspondence with the evolution Eqs. (1)-(8) under optimum value of m* in the admissible range of values;
conditions (a). the value m* -- 3 was chosen in analogy to curve (b).
Exponent p in Eq. (7) was calculated in accord with
the creep curve data. Eq. (8) with the value of p' very
30 close to 1 for the curve (b) approaches in fact Eq. (1),
and the 'relaxation time' can be estimated from its
25
parameters (see the value in brackets).
From a comparison of the pairs of Eqs. (4), (4m) and
T 20
(5), (5m) it can be seen that by replacing the Taylor
relation between oi and p by its modified version
6- .... Eqn.(1) ....... Eqn.(3)
- - Eqn.(2) ..... Eqn.(4) supported by experimental data, no important changes
CO
CO
15 in the characteristic parameters o-i0 and ~- of the
Lul
C12
F- equations arise. Unfortunately, a substitution analo-
CO
10 gous to that leading to Eqs. (4m) and (5m) for curve (a)
30
Z cannot be done for curve (b).
n--
U3

Z 25
, T=973 K, o'=45 MPa 6. Conclusion
2O
::::,, ..... Eqn.(5) ....... Eqn.(7)
A testing of evolution equations for internal stress in
.... Eqn.(6) - - Eqn.(8)
15 normal primary creep by their correlation with two
samples of internal stress data measured in the course
100 1000
I I I of the corresponding creep curves showed the applic-
2000 3000 4000 5000
ability of all equations within the margins of error of
TIME t [s]
the present experimental data. The correlation has
Fig. 7. Curves describing the evolution of the internal stress in
time in correspondence with the evolution Eqs. (1)-(8) under shown that a substantial part of the internal stress
conditions (b). operating in creep exists in the material after the initial
elongation at the start of the creep curve. The fact that
the evolution of internal stress is characterized by the
equation, within a standard deviation in creep strain same time constant value (i.e., the relaxation time) as
between experimental and calculated creep curves of the evolution of the creep strain supports the basic idea
1.12 x 10 -3 for curve (a) and 8.73 x 10 .4 for curve (b). that the primary transient creep is a stage of internal
This may support the fundamental assumption of the stress evolution.
16 A. Orlovd et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A194 (1995) 9-16
T h e internal stress growth in the course of the
primary creep reflects the growth of total dislocation
density. In homogeneous dislocation structures, the
relation between internal stress and dislocation density
may be described by the Taylor formula of dislocation
strengthening, completed usually by an additive term,
which expresses the strain-independent components of
the internal stress. This relation can be fairly easily
respected in deriving the evolution of internal stress
from evolution of dislocation density. M o r e compli-
cated relations between internal stress and dislocation
structure characteristics may be expected when a
heterogeneization of the dislocation structure proceeds
and a polygonized substructure is formed in the course
of creep.
References
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