Mechanisms-based creep constitutive equations for an aluminium alloy

Abstract A number of mechanisms-based constitutive equations were assessed in an effort to describe the creep behaviour of an aluminium alloy at 150°C. It was found that a sinh function of stress, rather than the usually used power law, is best able to describe the strain rate and rupture behaviour over the narrow stress range analysed. A single state variable theory which represents a dominant damage mechanism is not capable of predicting the shape of the tertiary curve; however, a two state variable theory which represents two mechanisms provides a good description. The two relevant mechanisms identified are creep-constrained cavitation and ageing of the particulate microstructure. The non-linear equations which describe both these physical mechanisms are complex and strongly coupled. This makes it difficult to determine the constants in the constitutive equations from experimental data. The paper reports the development of automated numerical optimization techniques which overcome these difficulties.