UNIAXIAL CREEP OF LONG-FIBER REINFORCED METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITES

A generalisation of McLean's (Directionally Solidified Materials for H igh Temperature Service, 1983, The Metals Society, London) uniaxial cr eep model which accounts for the effects of inherent residual stresses , matrix primary creep and the treatment of the effect of possible ins tantaneous matrix yield upon loading is presented. The model and numer ical micromechanics approach are used to analyse the uniaxial creep of Ti-6Al-4V/SiC metal matrix composites. Excellent agreement is obtaine d between the analytical and numerical models and predicted results ar e in reasonable agreement with published experimental results.