Effect of prior deformation on the subsequent creep and anelastic recovery behaviour of an advanced martensitic steel

Abstract The creep and anelastic recovery characteristics of a 10%Cr steel have been systematically investigated at 600 °C after subjecting the test material to various prior deformation histories. Constant-load forward creep tests on specimens, either with a tensile or compressive preloading history, indicated that over- and reverse-preloading respectively decreases and increases the early primary creep rate of the steel. The extent of decrease (or increase) in early primary creep rate is also found to be directly proportional to the magnitude of stress during prior loading while such a correlation is not clearly evident for material deformation in the secondary and tertiary stages. Specifically, the creep rate in the secondary and tertiary stages is lower for specimens with a compressive prior loading while the rupture time is notably shorter for tensile pre-loaded specimens. The observed effect of prior loading on the early primary creep behaviour can be explained by considering micro-backstress development (as a consequence of dislocation pile-up formation during the prior loading phase) that subsequently introduces a kinematic hardening effect to the material's viscoplastic response. The second set of experiments involve monitoring the anelastic recovery behaviour immediately after accumulation of a similar amount of time-dependent strain either under forward creep (load control mode) or stress relaxation (strain control mode) condition in completely unloaded 10%Cr steel specimens at 600 °C. Experimental observations indicate that the higher the stress magnitude during the prior loading phase, the greater and faster the anelastic recovery at zero stress. Further findings show the mode of prior deformation (creep or relaxation) to also not noticeably influence the subsequent anelastic recovery behaviour. The observed anelastic recovery characteristic can be mechanistically interpreted by consideration of the time-dependent material back-flow due to the relaxation of dislocation bows and pile-ups generated during the prior deformation.