In order to evaluate creep life of heat-resistant materials used in power plants, it is important to estimate variation of stress distribution caused by creep deformation appropriately. For achieving this, creep strain equations which can express the creep deformation behavior with good accuracy are indispensable. Additionally, a lot of heat-resistant steels show large heat-to-heat variations in creep properties. Therefore, it is also important to take into account of the heat-to-heat variations in the creep analyses.
In this study, existing creep strain equations for Grade 91 steel were applied to six heats with a variety of creep strength and creep deformation behavior. Furthermore, some modification was made in order to obtain better agreement with test data in primary creep stage. It was found that reasonable agreements were obtained between the measured creep deformation behavior and predictions obtained by these equations only by changing creep rupture property depending on the particular heats. This suggests that reasonable prediction for creep deformation can be made even for the materials lacking the information of creep deformation as long as their rupture properties are known.
