The role of cell structure during creep of cold worked copper

In previous work it was demonstrated that cold work could reduce the creep rate of phosphorus doped copper (Cu-OFP) by up to six orders of magnitude at 75 °C at a given applied stress. Cu-OFP will be used in canisters for final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. A dislocation model for the cell structure in the cold deformed material has been formulated. A distinction is made between the balanced dislocation content in the cell walls where the number of dislocations of opposite sign match and the unbalanced content where they do not. The recovery rate of the unbalanced content is much lower than that of the balanced content. Taking this into account, it has been possible to model the creep curves of both 12% and 24% cold worked Cu-OFP. The general appearance of the two sets of creep curves are distinctly different, which can be explained by the higher recovery rate in the 24% deformed state.