Proposal of a new concept on creep fracture remnant life for a precracked specimen

The creep life time of a smooth specimen can be predicted using existing laws for creep deformation and steady state creep rate. When crack growth behaviour is involved, it is necessary to construct a law of creep crack growth rate to predict creep fracture life. Creep fracture life can be measured by integrating the law of creep crack growth rate. One example is the creep crack growth rate, represented by the parameter Q*. In this study, we investigated the applicability of this prediction method to creep fracture remnant life for a cracked specimen. The ? criterion is proposed to predict creep fracture remnant life for a smooth specimen for creep ductile materials. In this study, the correlation between Q*L derived from the paremeters Q* and ? is investigated. The correlation between QL* and ? provided a unified theoretical prediction law of creep fracture remnant life for high-temperature creep-ductile materials in the range from smooth to precracked specimens.