Improvements in the Measurement of Creep Crack Initiation and Growth Using Potential Drop

To predict the residual life of components operating in the creep regime, it is vital to accurately identify crack initiation, and measure subsequent crack growth, in laboratory tests. Potential drop (PD) measurements, used for this purpose, are susceptible to errors caused by the accumulation of creep strain. For creep ductile materials, this can result in highly conservative crack initiation models and the implementation of unnecessary inspection and maintenance programmes that can cost millions of pounds in lost revenue. Conversely, the crack growth models can be non-conservative.

Using a novel combination of interrupted creep crack growth (CCG) tests and sequentially coupled structural-electrical finite element analyses a new method of interpreting PD data has been developed and validated. It uses an increase in gradient on a plot of PD vs. load-line displacement to accurately identify crack initiation. This has been compared to the current method in ASTM E1457-15 by reanalysing data from CCG tests performed on a range of materials at various temperatures and loads. The initiation times, measured using the current ASTM method, were underestimated by factors of up to 23 and the subsequent crack growth rates were underestimated by factors of up to 1.5.