Room Temperature Stress Relaxation of a Quenched and Tempered Steel

Metallic materials can exhibit creep or relaxation effects even at room temperature. For technical applications, this is typically not relevant because the effects are usually assumed to be small and therefore not relevant for the failure of components. However, relaxation effects may become important, particularly with regard to the prediction of the residual stress state or the distortion state arising from shot peening or jigging of components.