Creep-fatigue deformation behaviour of OFHC-copper and CuCrZr alloy with different heat treatments and with and without neutron irradiation

The creep-fatigue interaction behaviour of a precipitation hardened CuCrZr alloy was investigated at 295 and 573 K. To determine the effect of irradiation a number of fatigue specimens were irradiated at 333 and 573 K to a dose level in the range of 0.2 - 0.3 dpa and were tested at room temperature and 573 K, respectively. The creep-fatigue deformation behaviour of OFHC-copper was also investigated but only in the unirradiated condition and at room temperature. The creep-fatigue interaction was simulated by applying a certain holdtime on both tension and compression sides of the cyclic loading with a frequency of 0.5 Hz. Holdtimes of up to 1000 seconds were used. Creep-fatigue experiments were carried out using strain, load and extension controlled modes of cyclic loading. In addition, a number of “interrupted” creep-fatigue tests were performed on the prime aged CuCuZr specimens in the strain controlled mode with a strain amplitude of 0.5% and a holdtime of 10 seconds. The lifetimes in terms of the number of cycles to failure were determined at different strain and load amplitudes at each holdtime. Post-deformation microstructures was investigated using a transmission electron microscopy. The main results of these investigations are presented and their implications are briefly discussed in the present report. The central conclusion emerging from the present work is that the application of holdtime generally reduces the number of cycles to failure. The largest reduction was found to be in the case of OFHC-copper. Surprisingly, the magnitude of this reduction is found to be larger at lower levels of strain or stress amplitudes, particularly when the level of the stress amplitude is below the monotonic yield strength of the material. The reduction in the yield strength due to overaging heat treatments causes a substantial decrease in the number of
cycles to failure at all holdtimes investigated. The increase in the yield strength due to neutron irradiation at 333 K, on the other hand, causes an increase in the number of cycles to failure. The irradiation at 573 K to a dose level of 0.2-0.3 dpa does not play any significant role in determining the lifetime under creep-fatigue testing conditions.