Characterizations of creep crack growth in 1 per cent Cr Mo V steel

Estimates of stress intensity factor, K, reference stress, σref, and creep parameter, C∗, have been made for compact tension (CT) and double cantilever beam (DCB) test-pieces containing side grooves. Limit analysis techniques were used to determine the latter two parameters. It is shown that the expressions developed for σref are sensitive to the collapse mode proposed, whereas those for C∗ are largely independent. Comparisons of predictions of creep crack growth data on CT and DCB specimens of a 1 per cent CrMoV steel in terms of K and σref have revealed different dependences for the two geometries, suggesting that neither parameter gives satisfactory correlations. Better overall agreement is obtained with the C∗ parameter, even though gross creep deformations were not observed. It is suggested that further improvement may be gained with this parameter if more accurate estimates of C∗, which allow the inclusion of elastic terms, are used.