Cardiff School of Engineering

Laboratory Lf CREEP TESTING Dr Luiz Kawashita

October 13th 2011 James Vallance, Group P

Tests were carried out to determine how creep effects the materials used for components in high temperature environments. Samples used were polypropylene and lead due to testing equipment constraints (lead behaves at room temperature in a similar manner to steel in a high temperature environment). Both examples exhibited significant creep effects, with the lead sample breaking. The test results show that creep is a significant factor in material choice, especially in high temperature environments where materials operating near their melting point.

Contents:

(1 ) (2 ) (3 ) (4 ) (5 ) (6 ) (7 ) (8 ) (9 )

I n tr o d u c ti o n Th eo ry P roc e du re R e s u lts D is c u s s io n C o n c lu s i o n R e fe re n c e s A p p e n d ix 1 A p p e n d ix 2

P age 1 P age 3 P age 4 P age 6 P age 7 P age 8

(1) Introduction: Creep is the tendency for a material to slowly deform when subject to stress. All materials experience creep but its influence is negligible until the absolute temperature reaches 40% of the materials melting point. This means that in metals creep only occurs at high temperature. This is a problem for materials used in turbines and jet engines where they are run at the highest temperature as possible to achieve maximum efficiency (Carnot's theorem). Failure to accommodate creep into designs can lead to catastrophic failure of components. The polypropylene and lead samples were used because of their low melting points, due to the difficulty in testing at high temperatures. However lead behaves in a manner similar to steel in a high temperature environment so the results from the tests can be used to comment on creep in these higher melting point materials. (2) Theory: Creep is the tendency for a material to plastically deform under stress. It is normally only a significant factor when the homologous temperature of the material (Th ) is above 0.4. Th = T/Tm Where Th is the homologous temperature, T is the absolute temperature and Tm is the materials melting point. Creep normally occurs in three stages[1], in the primary stage strain rapidly increases and then levels off into the secondary stage which is also called the steady state. In this state the strain rate is constant thereby giving a linear relationship on a graph. It is in this region that the material spends the most time when under stress. The tertiary stage of creep occurs when the material starts necking (reduction in cross sectional area). This creates a rapid increase in stress and therefore strain that will ultimately lead to the materials failure. As significant deformation occurs in this stage it is undesirable to have a material operate in this region. The distribution of these stages can be seen on a strain over time graph (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Strain over time graph where is the strain. [2] Creep in the primary stage is caused by the movement of dislocations in the material which are free to move in the materials lattice until the dislocations become 'stuck'. This results in the material becoming harder in a process called work hardening. When the material enters the steady state stage the strain rate reaches a minimum constant value. This is the slowest rate of creep the material will experience. The tertiary stage is a result of necking in the material. This creates a reduction in cross sectional area which increases the stress and therefore strain on the material. This creates a positive feedback loop which starts to exponentially increase the strain rate until the material fails.

(3) Procedure: Testing was carried out on two specimens, one polypropylene and one lead. The specimens were provided in the shape as seen in figure 2. The region of the specimen that was tested is called the gauge length. The length width and depth of this region was measured with a digital micrometer and digital calliper. Readings were taken at different points and then averaged.

Width

Length Depth

Figure 2: Specimen diagram. The specimen was then loaded into the creep testing machine. The slack was then taken up and the display zeroed. The ambient temperature was then recorded before the test was started. The testing arm was then released and readings were taken every 15 seconds for 10 minutes. For the polypropylene sample the test weight was removed and the recovery of the material was recorded. Stress and homologous temperature was then calculated from the results along with strain. The secondary strain rate was also calculated from the plotted graphs.

(4) Results: Lead results: Stress on specimen: 11.7 MPa Th of specimen = 0.489 Secondary strain rate = 1.87x10-4S-1

7 6
Extension /mm

5 4 3 2 1 0 0 100 200 300

Time /s

400

500

600

Figure 3: Lead extension graph

Polypropylene results: Stress on specimen: 19.2 MPa Th of specimen = 0.643 Secondary strain rate = 2.42x10-4S-1

4 3.5 3
Extension /mm

2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 100 200 300

Time /s

400

500

600

700

Figure 4: Polypropylene extension graph

3 2.5
Recovery /mm

2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 50 100 150

Time /s

200

250

300

350

Figure 5: Polypropylene recovery graph

(5) Discussion: Lead experienced the expected creep behaviour outlined earlier. It exhibits distinct primary, secondary and tertiary stage behaviour as shown in figure 3. This is consistent with the Th value of the specimen of 0.489, which is above the 0.4 value where creep starts to become apparent. The secondary strain rate value of 1.87x10-4s-1 is lower than the value for polypropylene (2.42x10-4S-1 ), which seems odd considering the Th value for polypropylene was 0.643. However this can be explained by the lower stress value exhibited in the lead sample, 11.7MPa compared to 19.7MPa, due to its larger cross sectional area. The test could not be run over the full length of time on the lead specimen because the sample broke after 530 seconds. This failure occurred rapidly after entering the tertiary phase. The polypropylene specimen did not experience the tertiary stage of creep. However it was starting to exhibit an increasing strain rate. If the test was repeated again a longer test time should be used for this sample to determine how it behaves in this stage. The polypropylene also recovered to some extent when the load was removed, however it did not recover back to its original dimensions indicating that some plastic deformation had occurred.

(6) Conclusion: The tests conducted show that creep is a major concern when designing components. Creep was exhibited by the lead specimen at a Th value just above the 0.4 value where creep starts to occur and the specimen failed during the test. This shows that a materials creep properties must be taken into account when deciding which materials to use, especially in high temperature environments.

(7) References: Iowa State University: < URL http://ndeed.cnde.iastate.edu/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/Materials/Mechanical/Creep. htm > Accessed 21/11/2011

UC Berkeley, Jason L. Rhoads : < URL http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/thyd/ne161/jlrhoads/creep.html#recovery > Accessed 21/11/2011

(8) Appendix 1: Units: mm S mm/s

o

millimeters seconds millimeters per second degrees Celsius Kelvin Mega Pascals Newtons

K MPa N

(9) Appendix 2: Dimension measurements:

W idth /mm S pec imen: Lead P oly propy lene 1 4.868 4.947 2 4.785 4.818 3 4.814 4.819 4 4.878 4.853 A ve 4.836 4.859

Specimen: Lead Polypropylene

Thickness /mm 1 1.728 1.061

2 1.738 1.059

3 1.769 1.063

4 1.747 1.061

Ave 1.746 1.061

Specim en: Lead Polypropylene

Polypropylene extensions (ambient temperature 20oC):
Tim e /s 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150 165 180 195 210 225 240 255 270 285 300 E xte n sio n /m m 0 .0 0 1 .0 6 1 .2 2 1 .3 2 1 .4 1 1 .4 9 1 .5 6 1 .6 1 1 .6 8 1 .7 3 1 .7 9 1 .8 5 1 .9 0 1 .9 6 2 .0 0 2 .0 6 2 .1 0 2 .1 6 2 .2 1 2 .2 6 2 .3 1 Tim e /s 315 330 345 360 375 390 405 420 435 450 465 480 495 510 525 540 555 570 585 600

Length /m m 21 17

E xte n sio n /m m 2 .3 6 2 .4 2 2 .4 7 2 .5 3 2 .5 8 2 .6 4 2 .7 0 2 .7 6 2 .8 3 2 .9 0 2 .9 6 3 .0 3 3 .1 0 3 .1 6 3 .2 4 3 .3 1 3 .3 8 3 .4 7 3 .5 4 3 .6 3

Extension rate during secondary stage: 0.00411 mm/s 8

Secondary strain rate: 0.00411/17 = 2.42x10-4S-1 Lead extensions (ambient temp 20oC): T im e / s 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150 165 180 195 210 225 240 255 270 285 300 E xte n s io n /m m 0 .0 0 1 .2 2 1 .3 3 1 .4 1 1 .4 7 1 .5 3 1 .5 8 1 .6 3 1 .6 7 1 .7 1 1 .7 6 1 .8 1 1 .8 7 1 .9 2 1 .9 7 2 .0 3 2 .1 0 2 .1 7 2 .2 4 2 .3 2 2 .4 1 T im e / s 315 330 345 360 375 390 405 420 435 450 465 480 495 510 525 530 E xte n s io n / m m 2 .5 1 2 .6 1 2 .7 3 2 .8 6 3 .0 0 3 .1 6 3 .3 4 3 .5 2 3 .7 3 3 .9 6 4 .2 3 4 .5 6 4 .9 2 5 .4 0 6 .2 4 F a ilu r e

Extension rate during secondary stage: 0.00392 mm/s Secondary strain rate: 0.00392/21 = 1.87x10-4S-1 Recovery of Polypropylene (ambient temperature 20oC):

Time /s 0 15 30 45 60 120 180 240 300

9

Rec overy /mm 0 1.98 2.12 2.22 2.27 2.41 2.49 2.57 2.62

Load on specimen: 8(0.16+0.9+0.16+0.04)g = 98.9N Stress on polypropylene: 98.9(4.859*1.061) = 19.2MPa Stress on Lead: 98.9(4.836*1.746) = 11.7MPa Homologous temperature of polypropylene: 20oC = 293K Tm = 456K Th = 293/456 = 0.643 Homologous temperature of lead: 20oC = 293K Tm = 599K Th = 293/599 = 0.489