A technique for identifying the initial stage of the extension of low-temperature creep cracks

A technique that makes it possible to obtain the initial data for constructing growth diagrams for low-temperature creep cracks is proposed. This technique is based on the acoustic-emission method. It is shown that the application of this method makes it possible to efficiently reveal early stages in the extension of creep cracks in structural steels. Using the data of experiments performed with this technique, the value of the lower threshold stress-intensity factor was obtained for constructing the first region of the diagram.