CRETE CODE OF PRACTICE FOR EUROPEAN CREEP CRACK GROWTH TESTING OF INDUSTRIAL SPECIMENS

A Code of Practice (CoP) drafted in the partially EC funded project CRETE is presented. The guidelines are followed in specimen selection for the experimental work. The CoP is prepared based on the authors’ and project partners long years of experience in the subject field of high temperature testing, deformation studies and creep crack growth on ferritic and austenitic materials including C-Mn, P22, P91 and 316 steels, in internal as well as various European and international projects. FE calculations and validation tests were carried out on industrially relevant specimen geometries. The CoP gives advice on testing, measurements and analysis of test data for a range of creep brittle to creep ductile materials. The code may be used for material selection criteria and inspection requirements for damage tolerant applications and life assessment of components.