Stress relaxation testing as a basis for creep analysis and design of silicon nitride

A new approach to tensile creep resting and analysis based on stress relaxa tion is described for sintered silicon nitride. Creep rate data covering up to Jive orders of magnitude were generated in tests lasting less than one day. Tests from various initial stresses at temperatures from 1250 degreesC to 1350 degreesC were analyzed and compared with creep rates measured duri ng conventional constant load testing. It was shown that at least 40 percen t of the creep strain accumulated under all test conditions was recoverable , and that the deformation could properly be described as viscoelastic/plas tic. Tears were conducted to establish the level of repeatability and the e ffects of various thermomechanical histories, It was shown that none of the prior exposures led to significant impairment in creep strength. The resul ts were used for three different grades to establish the value of the accel erated rest to compare creep strengths for acceptance and for optimization. Several useful correlations were obtained between stress and creep rate. T he systematic creep rare dependence as a function of loading strain prior t o relaxation provided a possible basis fill design in terms of a secant mod ulus analysis.