Micromechanical Modeling of Creep Damage in a Copper-antimony Alloy

A micromechanical model of creep induced grain boundary damage is proposed, which allows for the simulation of creep damage in a polycrystal with the finite element method. Grain boundary cavitation and sliding are considered via a micromechanically motivated cohesive zone model, while the grains creep following the slip system theory. The model has been calibrated with creep test data from pure Cu single crystals and a coarse-grained polycrystalline Cu-Sb alloy. The test data includes porosity measurements and estimates of grain boundary sliding. Finally, the model has been applied to Voronoi models of polycrystalline structures. In particular the influence of grain boundary sliding on the overall creep rate is demonstrated.