The creep behavior of austenitic alloys was investigated by crack mouth opening displacement measurements conducted on compact tension specimens in 288°C air. This approach was designed to determine the effects of composition and cold work on the primary and secondary creep response of these materials for eventual correlation with the stress corrosion cracking behavior in BWR environments and other methods to assess the crack tip strain rate. The creep rates for various austenitic
stainless steels were found to be similar, but significantly slower when compared to Ni-base alloys 600 and 690. Solution annealed materials exhibited well defined primary creep regimes, with the following ranking from most to least primary creep; 304L > 304, 316L > A600, A690. Cold work appeared to have suppressed the amount of primary and steady state creep. Cyclic loading of solution annealed 304L and 316L materials at...
Keywords: creep, crack mouth opening displacement, crack tip strain rate