Temporary-creep and post-creep properties of aquaculture netting materials

Creep in materials and structures may lead to increasing strains, permanent deformations, change in mechanical properties and rupture at loads significantly smaller than the breaking strength. In this paper, we present data on temporary-creep properties, recovery of strain post creep and post-creep tensile properties of a selection of Raschel knitted netting materials. Creep strain in wet netting materials subjected to a creep target load of 10–90% of average force at break for 30 min varied from 1.6% to 3.5%. The rate of creep decreased with time and decreased target load. The recovery of strain post creep was relatively fast and approximately half of the creep strain was elastic. Post-creep tensile testing showed that the length and force at break were not significantly affected by the creep load history. However, due to permanent deformations of the specimens from the creep test, the nominal breaking strain decreased and the stiffness increased with increased creep target load.