| Abstract Scope |
Professor Terence G. Langdon’s pioneering contributions over several decades have significantly advanced the understanding of material creep behavior. Besides the intrinsic material properties, the creep response of a material is affected by a few extrinsic parameters, such as sample size, loading configuration, etc. The importance of the near-surface region, which has a relatively lower dislocation density and larger sub-grain size, becomes significant in miniaturized samples, resulting in the measurement of higher steady-state creep rates and a lower stress exponent. Notably, the surface-proximity effects on creep response can be minimized by introducing strain gradients and associated hardening in the sample. The interplay between surface-proximity and strain gradient effects, especially evident in thin cantilever samples, allows the extraction of standard creep response by testing miniaturized samples. Such insights are useful in the estimation of the residual life of in-service components through creep testing of small-volume cantilever samples. |