Examination of breakdown stress in creep by viscous glide in Al–5·5 at.-%Mg solid solution alloy at high stress levels

Abstract

Creep tests on Al–5·5 at.-%Mg solid solution alloy show that the stress exponent n increases with increasing stress from 3·1 to 5·5. It is demonstrated that the transition to n≈5·5 is not consistent either with normal power law breakdown or with a transition to a region of viscous glide controlled by pipe diffusion, but the results are in good agreement with a breakdown of the dislocations from their solute atmospheres. The activation energies for creep at low and high stresses are 136 and 170 kJ mol−1 respectively.