Heat-to-heat variation in long-term creep strength of some ferritic steels

Heat-to-heat variation in creep life has been investigated for some ferritic steels, mainly 12Cr steels, using long-term creep data in the NIMS Creep Data Sheets. The tempered martensitic plain 12Cr and 12Cr–1Mo–1W–0.3V steels exhibit large heat-to-heat variation in creep life, as shown by about one order of magnitude difference in time to rupture or more between the strongest and weakest heats. On the other hand, low-Cr steels of tempered bainitic 1Cr–1Mo–0.25V, ferritic–pearlitic 2.25Cr–1Mo and ferritic 9Cr–1Mo steels exhibit small heat-to-heat variation in creep life. The heat-to-heat variation in long-term creep strength is correlated with the degradation behaviour at long times, which depends on initial strength and concentrations of Al, nitrogen and Cr. The present results suggest that taking the mechanisms responsible for the heat-to-heat variation in creep life into account, quality of heat resistant steels as well as reliability of remaining life estimation can be further improved.