A Modern Philosophy for Creep Lifing in Engineering Alloys

Lifing of components which are likely to be subject to high temperature creep deformation is a critical area to a range of industries, particularly power generation and aerospace. In particular, extrapolation of short term data to predict long-term allowable creep stresses is an area of significant importance, since no appropriate method of accelerating tests has been discovered. Traditional methods for extrapolation are mainly based around power law type equations that have historically formed the basis of creep mechanism understanding. The current chapter however, seeks to offer alternative approaches in the field, particularly emphasising the need to link lifing approaches to observable micro-mechanical behaviour.