A Critical Examination of Steady State Creep

Almost all tensile creep tests conducted at homologous temperatures greater than one-half and carried out at constant nominal stress lead to regimes of flow for which the true strain rate becomes relatively constant for a considerable period of time. This regime is customarily termed the “steady state” creep regime, and the existence of a measurable steady state flow for metals is widely accepted in both the materials and the mechanics communities. In actuality, for ever test carried sufficiently far, the “steady state” creep rate is a strain rate minimum. This paper will examine the question of the interpretation of the text.