Improved Models of Long-Term Creep Behavior of High Performance Structural Alloys
In this program, QuesTek Innovations LLC, a leader in the field of computational materials design, proposes to develop a robust creep-modeling toolkit that expands its computational Materials by Design® technology, in order to predict the long-term creep performance of materials for base alloys and weldments in fossil energy systems under wide thermal and mechanical conditions. The Material Database Group of NIMS (National Institute for Material Science, JAPAN) provides reliable public data for long-term creep behavior over 300,000 hours (> 34 years) for a variety of materials including high Cr steels along with seminal work performed by EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) on creep failure of these steels. QuesTek would rely on these premier institutions for experimental data needed to calibrate models. The developed tool has wider applications than the state-of-the-art modeling tools. It includes the effects of chemistry variations, microstructure variation (weldments) etc .which is lacking in many available models requiring the model to be calibrated to large number of datasets for accurate predictions. A model based on fundamental mechanism has promises in application to different materials, other than the demonstrated material (Grade 91 steels) in the current program. As a result of such an effort, we envision greatly advancing the state-of-the-art modeling tools for creep life assessments of different materials.