Materials Science and Engineering A 419 (2006) 168171

A thermodynamic theory of short-term and creep rupture

strength of materials
B. Goldenberg
Physics Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102,
USA
Received 17 August 2005; received in revised form 12 December 2005; accepted 12 December 2005

Abstract
The objective of the work is the investigation of the relationship between the mechanisms of the short-term tensile strength and the creep
rupture strength at testing temperatures more than 2/3 of the materials melting temperatures.
The fundamental equations relating the materials tensile strength to the creep rupture strength at different temperatures and structural factors
are obtained. These equations are derived by the use of the phenomenological and statistical thermodynamics of the crystalline lattice. The
derived theoretical equation is used to determine creep on the bases of experimental values of the short-term test. The agreement between
experimental and theoretical values of the creep is demonstrated. The presented results can be applied for prediction of the creep strength of
new materials, particularly materials with enhanced mechanical properties.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Tensile strength; Creep rupture strength; Thermodynamic

1. Introduction
For most materials, the ultimate tensile strength decreases
regularly with the increase of the temperature. Creep is normally observed by placing a constant load on a specimen and
measuring its deformation in the course of time at a constant
elevated temperature. For most materials curves of the stress at
elevated temperature (above 0.75 of the absolute melting
temper- ature, Tm ) for lines of constant rupture life or constant
minimum creep rate are common and give a complete
description of the mechanical behavior over a wide
temperature range. At low tem- peratures, when creep is less
important, the engineering design is based on the result of
short-term tensile tests; at higher tem- peratures, when the
creep rupture strength curves are below the tensile test curves,
designs must be based on the creep rupture behavior.
In many applications, the life of a part far exceeds that of a
practical laboratory test. Thus, the experimental data acquired
in the course of laboratory study must be extrapolated. The
long- range creep deformation is often estimated as the
product of the minimum creep rate and the rate prior to the
materials destruc

Tel.: +1 973 596 5714; fax: +1 973 596

5794.
E-mail address: boris.goldenberg@njit.edu.
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reserved. doi:10.1016/j.msea.2005.12.022

tion. Minimum creep rates can be established with sufficient

accuracy using calculations based on the data acquired during
the tests running from 1000 to 10,000 h (i.e. between 42 days
and about 14 months). The results of these calculations can be
used to estimate the deformation that would result from
continuous running for 100,000 h (about 11.5 years) or more.
During the last 90 years, significant effort has been devoted
to the development of relations between stress, strain and time.
Basically, a variety of empirical laws have been suggested
for description of creep rupture. Attempts have been made to
describe creep rupture strength or lifetime and other behavior
at elevated temperatures of materials based on tensile strength
(also known as short-term tensile or short lifetime). In most
cases sep- arate techniques are used to describe material
deformation for short and long lifetime.
The goal of this work is to find a correlation between the
short and long lifetime tests of metal creep and to use this
correlation to predict long lifetime behavior using the results
of the short time testing.
2. Deformation and creep at an elevated temperature
Numerous investigations [13,7] showed that the tensile
strength of materials, subjected to short-term testing, decreases

B. Goldenberg / Materials Science and Engineering A 419 (2006) 168171

with the increase of testing temperature, particularly at the

tem- peratures exceeding 2/3Tm K. In a simplified manner this
change is represented by the empirically equation similar to
the Arrehenius equation:
= 0 exp(BT )

(1)

where is the tensile strength, T the test temperature, 0 is

the empirical constant representing the critical tensile strength
extrapolated to T = 0 K and B is an empirically constant independent from deformation and temperature. B is the apparent
activation energy correlating with the melting temperature.
The experimental information about tensile strength [11]
demon- strates that in most cases Eq. (1) accurately describes
metals behavior.
Notwithstanding, a considerable number of published
results on creep rupture strength [17], based on the theory of
thermo- dynamic fluctuations, can be given by Garofalo [1]
Hi (T, S)
Zi (, T, S)i (T, S) exp RT

(2)

where is creep rate, Zi depends on temperature (T) and

contains the normal frequency () for the flow unit, the entropy
change and a structure term (S) which correlates with grain
size,

tion in which they change in various irreversible processes. At

a constant temperature and deformation we have:

d =

dP
P
Substituting (4) into (3) and making the needed
transformations, we obtain:

(4)

dP

(5)

d
=

On the other hand, Frenkel [8] has shown that the difference
between thermodynamic potential and free energy does not
explicitly depend on temperature and is in fact the difference
equal to the potential energy (internal energy) of the
crystalline system:
F = U0

(6)

At the same time:

d = S dT

(7)

or, taking in account that S = F/T, we obtain

d =
F dT
T

precipitation dispersion phases, density, distribution and length

of dislocations. The stress function i may depend on
tempera-

Substituting (6) and (8) into (5), we have:

ture and structure because creep mechanisms are temperatureand structure-dependent. Hi in the exponential term is the
true
activation energy for ith process governing the creep rate and
is
temperature- and structure-dependent.
Many experimental results and also theoretical works
confirm this equation in different experimental forms and with
different degrees of accuracy.
Most experimental results of creep rupture strength are used
as bases for mathematical equations and to extrapolate long
lifetime for different materials. Unfortunately, most of these
experimental equations have been determined only in
qualitative manner, and such evidence does not add
sufficiently to the basic understanding of mechanism creep.

dP = (F/T ) dT
P
U0

3. Statistical thermodynamics analysis of the crystalline

lattice
Eqs. (3)(10) based on fundamental principles of statistics
physics are well described [8,9], and derivation was given here
for clear understanding of the logic of the theory to combine
the
short-term and creep rupture strength of the solid state.
Eq. (1) suggested by Zaikov [11] is taken as the basis for
the following derivation and based on the free energy of the
solid state, at an applied external force P, can be written in the

169

(8)

(9)

Free energy of the solid state can be presented in the form [9]:
ln(1 ehv / kT )

F = F0 + kT

(10)

In this case the summation is carried out over all oscillations

3N with an index . The constant F0 , the energy of interaction
of all atoms of the body in the state of equilibrium, i.e. in the
state of zero oscillations of frequency 0 , is added to the sum
of all oscillations. At any given volume it does not depend on
temperature. At high temperatures one can assume that
h
1 eh /kT
kT

(11)

and with sufficient degree of accuracy (as noted in [10]), free

energy of metals can be written in the form
F = 3RT

ln
0

(12)

form [8]:

F = P
P

(3)

where is the thermodynamic potential, a function of

tempera- ture, load and deformation. The free energy and
thermodynamic potential have an important property which
determine the direc-

with regard to time = 1/ , where is oscillation of the

atoms that lose their bond with each other. The derivative of
the free energy with respect to temperature sum time for all
atoms which lose their bond during falure has the form (13)
0
F = 3RT ln
(13)

where 0 is period oscillation atoms in solid state at low

tepera- ture close to 0 K and assumed value 1013 s. is the
total time of period of oscillation atoms that achieved the
amplitude to lost bonds of atoms and the fact failure of a solid
state.

170

B. Goldenberg / Materials Science and Engineering A 419 (2006) 168171

Table 1
Calculation of the tensile strength 0 and activation energy U0 of the elements of the periodic table at elevated temperature
No.

Chemical
element

Mode of
production

Melting
temperature (K)

Temperature
testing (K)

Type of crystalline
lattice

Tensile strength,
0 (MPa)

Activation energy,
U0 (kJ/mol)

Ref.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Pb
Al
Cu
Cu
Ni
Ni
Sn
V
Nb
Mo
Ta
W

NA
NA
NA
Forging
Casting
Forging
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

600
933
1357
1357
1728
1728
505
2183
2750
2896
3290
3695

423538
673913
8731273
810995
11731573
11441366
426500
10001500
11731573
18002300
21553090
22553033

fcc
fcc
fcc
fcc
fcc
fcc
bcc
bcc
bcc
bcc
bcc
bcc

313.8
941.3
3853.0
2990.0
5020.0
6520.0
402.0
1304.0
2598.2
2692.3
3392.4
4520.0

123.5
147.8
185.1
185.1
224.4
253.7
85.4
317.4
444.2
522.5
493.6
592.5

[12]
[12]
[12]
[12]
[12]
[12]
[12]
[13]
[13]
[13]
[13]
[13]

Substituting (13) into (9) and assuming that for a solid state
P = , where is the critical tensile strength, one can
rewrite:
d
3R ln(0 /) dT
=

U0

(14)

As the temperature increases from 0 up to T K, the strength

decreases from 0 to . So 0 could be interpreted as a stress
limit for solid states at temperature close to 0 K. Integrating
(14) with the corresponding limits, we obtain (15):

d= T 3R ln( /)
0
dT0
U0

or

3RT ln(0 /)

ln =
0
U0
(15)

Since 0 / < 1 and / 0 < 1, ln( 0 /) and ln(/ 0 ) are

negative and in the case under consideration it follows that
the tensile strength always decreases with the increase of
temperature. Tak- ing into account the negative sign one can
write:
= 0
exp

3RT ln(0 /)
U0

(16)

Comparing expressions (16) and (1) we see that

B=

3RT ln(0 /)
U0

(17)

that is, it depends on time of deformation and energy U0 .

From (16) it is easy to obtain the relation for the lifetime of
mate- rials depending on stress (), temperature (T) and
structure of materials ( 0 , 0 , U0 ):
U0 ln(/0 )
= 0
exp

3RT

(18)

In this case the dependence of on temperature has the

purely exponential character. At the same time with the
increase of the deformation rate in (19) the value of ln(0
)/ decreases, i.e.
increases, which is a good correlation with the data given by
Zaikov [3].
4. Experimental results and discussion
In order to estimate quantitatively the values of 0 , and U0

of (16), I used the results given by the mechanical tests [12,13]

and the standard procedure approximated by the trend line as
calculated by the program Excel.
The corresponding values of 0 and U0 for 12 pure elements
of the periodic table determined from computed coefficients
with
regard to the time of the mechanical tests, given in [12,13],
were processed according to (16) regarding 0 = 1013 s. The
results of the calculations are presented in Table 1. Fig. 1
shows
that dependence of U0 on Tm K is analogous to the wellknown
dependence of self-diffusion activation energy on Tm K [1].
The way 0 depends on Tm K is rather complex and is
different for
the crystalline lattices of the studied metals (Fig. 2). Following
Fig. 2 and taking into account (18) one can see that at higher
testing rates the fcc lattice metals are more advantageous,
since at the same melting temperature they have a higher value
of 0 .
In order to check (18), the calculation of creep rupture
strength of Al was carried out, using the computed values of
0 = 941.3 MPa and U0 = 147.8 kJ/mol (the value is close to
acti- vation energy of self-diffusion) (Table 1). The obtained
results

Expression (18) is written with regards to / 0 < 1 and, thus,

ln(/ 0 ) < 0.
Eq. (14) can be written with regards to the deformation rate
and = / as:
3RT ln(0 /)
= 0 exp

U0

(19)

Since the short-term tests, as a rule, are being carried out at

constant rates of loading, the value of the natural logarithm in
(16) can be considered to be approximately constant.

Fig. 1. Relation between activation energy and temperature melting of some

elements of periodic table in accordance with Table 1.

B. Goldenberg / Materials Science and Engineering A 419 (2006) 168171

2.
3.
4.
Fig. 2. Tensile strength of periodic table elements extrapolated to T
=0K
depends on temperature melting and structure of crystalline lattice.

5.

171

term lifetimes for temperature test at more than 2/3 of the

melting temperature which tell us about the one physical
mechanism for both short- and long-term lifetimes at this
temperature.
The empirical coefficient (B) from Eq. (1) is physical interpreted in the obtained Eq. (17).
The lifetime dependent on the structure of the crystalline
lattice is shown.
The lifetime should be better for fcc crystalline lattice at the
homological temperature.
The long-term lifetime of materials should be calculated
based on short-term test results of the same materials.

References

Fig. 3. Compare experimental lifetime pure Al with theoretical prediction in

accordance with Eq. (18).

for aluminum tested at 673 K in the strength range from 1.86

to
19.6 MPa are presented in Fig. 3, in comparison with the
exper- imental results from [3]. Fig. 3 shows that the
calculated value of the lifetime agrees with the experimental
results.
Thus, the tensile strength at high temperature tests of the
metals allows the calculation of the creep rupture strength in
this temperature range.
5. Conclusion
1. Based on statistical thermodynamics, Eqs. (18) and (19)
are received which can be used for both short- and long-

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