Probabilistic creep life assessment of austenitic stainless steel

Experimental investigations on the creep behaviour of engineering materials are frequently conducted for the purposes of design, development and service life prediction. However, tests on a single specimen yield a definite value for each material parameter. But when a number of specimens are tested, the parameter values randomly fluctuate from specimen to specimen. The scatter observed in creep deformation and failure data is of considerable technological importance because it greatly complicates the task of making accurate deformation and lifetime estimates for high temperature components. Repeat data on austenitic stainless steel provided a unique opportunity to identify stochastic creep properties and to use this information to build a probabilistic creep damage assessment for this alloy.