Creep cavitation by vacancy diffusion in plastically deforming solid

Abstract

The diffusive growth rate of a grain boundary cavity is calculated under conditions where vacancies are created non-uniformly across the boundary. Away from the boundary, power-law creep relaxes the strain due to the diffusive atom plating which occurs preferentially near the cavity and allows increased growth rates. At high stresses the growth rate is proportional to the creep strain rate or stress to a high power and at low stresses the growth rate is proportional to stress.