Creep testing was conducted on the pre-crept specimens of a 2.25Cr-1Mo
steel under constant load. The amount of pre-strain was between 4.4 a
nd 12.0%, and the range of temperature and initial stress was 853 to 9
03 K and 78.4 to 127.4 MPa, respectively. The relation between creep r
ate, epsilon and creep strain, epsilon was expressed as below over a w
ide range of creep strain: epsilon = epsilon0exp(Sepsilon), where s is
the acceleration factor, epsilon0 is the imaginary initial strain rat
e, and the stress and temperature dependence of epsilon0 is given as:
epsilon0 = Asigma(n)exp(- Q(o)/RT), where Q(o) is the apparent activat
ion energy for creep of the magnitude of 400+/-10kJ . mol-1, sigma is
the true stress, n is the stress exponent of the magnitude of 9.7 and
A is the mechanically defined structure factor expressed as below: A =
A(o)exp [(m - n)epsilon(p)], where A(o) is the structure factor for v
irgin specimens and m is the constant. These experimental facts lead t
o the conclusion that pre-strain and creep strain do not alter the cre
ep mechanism but cause the increase in the mechanically defined struct
ure factor, and creep life, t(r) is given by t(r) = 1/(Sepsilon0).