Microstructural Changes during Creep and Life Assessment of Mod.9Cr-1Mo Steel

Abstract

Several microstructural changes take place in a material during the course of creep. These changes can be a measure of creep life. In this paper, microstructural changes in Mod.9Cr-1Mo steel were studied and it was examined which is a good measure of creep life.
Microscopic structural changes, such as void growth, lath structure uniformly oriented to the tensile axis and elongation of grains, are evident only in the necked portion of ruptured specimens. These macroscopic structural changes are not useful for creep life assessment.
Lath width increases and dislocation density within lath decreases with increasing creep duration. These changes in dislocation substructure start in the early stage of creep life, and cause the increase of strain rate in the tertiary creep stage. The lath width and the dislocation density reach a saturated value before rupture. The saturated values are independent of temperature, and uniquely related to creep stress normalized by shear modulus. The extent of these microstructural changes are greater at lower stresses under which the material is practically used. These facts suggest that the lath width and the dislocation density within lath can be a useful measure of creep life.
Hardness of crept specimens is closely related to the lath width and the dislocation density within lath. The changes of these microstructural features can be evaluated by the measurement of hardness.