the observation time during recovery. The initial strain, ε i, on full loading provides an “effective” elastic modulus, Ei, which can be compared with Young's modulus, E, obtained from seismic or resonance technique. The difference ΔE = E−Ei provides a measure of the weakness in the loading sequence and can be improved and optimized by decreasing ΔE. The residual strain after full recovery provides a measure of the “viscous” strain, ε v, and the “average viscous strain” rate, An example of the above approach is illustrated in Figure 1.5. It shows that the “pseudo” or the average strain rate (
Most fundamental studies have concentrated exclusively on “steady‐state” behavior and ignored the primary or the transient creep – which are of high importance for the engineering design of various components. These fundamental studies shaped the materials world, including the rock mechanics people, even though it is well known that earthquakes are linked to transient creep, which are known to depend on materials characteristics, temperatures, strain/stress rate, etc. As a consequence, most experimental investigations, undertaken to understand dependence of creep and failure on materials variables, reported only the characteristics of the mcr.
The approach of opening the door for the “hindsight” described above was taken by the senior author while investigating high‐temperature rheo‐optical behavior of glass in connection with the thermal tempering of structural glass (Sinha 1971). On application of external forces, shearing between ordered (crystal‐like) and disordered zones may develop internal strain (stress) concentrations in silicate glasses with no long‐range orders in the matrices (see Section 2.4.2, “Structure of Real Glass”). These stress concentrations, in absence of any relaxation processes, could become the driving forces on unloading and generate delayed elastic effects in glass. The question is, what happens when the size of the “ordered zones” increases drastically at the cost of “disordered zones”? Do we end up with polycrystalline (ordered) materials with thin layers of grain boundaries (disordered)? Shearing between grain‐boundaries during loading could therefore develop stress concentrations (elastic distortion of the lattice) at triple boundaries because of intragranular lattice distortions near triple‐grain boundaries. The approach used for examining delayed elastic effects in glass was then successfully applied to directionally solidified columnar‐grained pure S‐2 ice (Sinha 1978b) using a conventional dead‐load lever system. However, state‐of‐the‐art, computer‐controlled, servo‐hydraulic technology has provided us with the opportunity to load fully and unload completely in fractions of second for a wide range of stress. Moreover, improvements in measuring specimen strain at high temperatures and controlling it by closed‐loop systems (such as truly constant rate) provide a measure of deformation that was not possible in the past (details are provided in Chapter 4). This is the main reason why the above‐described creep and recovery methodology required a new name – SRRT.
To better understand the need for a new name, let us divert our attention a bit to stress relaxation. Engineering components of nuts and bolts face serious problems at high temperatures, because the bolts lose their grip with time. To understand this issue, Stress Relaxation Tests (SRTs) are performed. An SRT is performed by suddenly applying a strain (constraint) and monitoring the decrease in stress with time. SRT is a universally accepted name. To be consistent, why not use “strain relaxation test” (also SRT) for the test in which a stress is suddenly applied and the increase in strain is monitored thereafter? But that term may create confusion. A clear distinction can be made, however, by adding the “hindsight” or the “recovery” aspect of the new test method to the name. Hence, the name SRRT was chosen for the test approach described above.
As mentioned, the SRRT approach was first applied to soda–lime–silica glass in late 1960. It was extended to natural water ice during the late 1970 and finally to a wide‐ranging nickel‐, titanium‐, and iron‐base complex superalloys in late 1990 and early 2000. The authors have not performed SRRTs on geologic materials and are not aware of any SRRT type of test methodology applied to rocks. However, Chopra (1997) reported two CL creep and recovery tests (on full unloading), essentially SRRTs, on an olivine basalt. Chopra focused on the delayed elastic recovery in order to model transient creep, but inadvertently missed the fact that the permanent strains, he reported, could provide a measure of the average viscous strain rate during loading time, equivalent to the reported steady‐state strain rate. This is presented in Figure 5.5. and discussed further in Section 5.6 in Chapter 5.
Significant progress has been made in physically based holistic modeling of microstructure‐sensitive reversible and irreversible deformation and failure processes based on SRRT. The basic principles of the model can be applied to performance problems of wide‐ranging materials at high temperatures. It includes some very new ideas in the field of gas turbine materials engineering, which could have important practical implications if it stands up to the close scrutiny by others working in the field.
SRRT is a novel approach to the way in which creep and creep‐rupture properties are measured and have been measured for a great many years. This book deals with work that has been done at various homologous temperatures and works well for a number of wide‐ranging materials. What is needed now is to understand if there are any limitations to the technique in terms of the temperatures and stresses that can be used.
