Void growth due to creep and grain boundary diffusion at high triaxialities (Q1354914)

The growth of grain boundary voids at elevated temperatures by coupled creep and grain boundary diffusion is studied numerically using a cylindrical unit cell model. Emphasis is on the influence of the remote stress triaxiality, which is taken to cover the full range of axisymmetric stress states, from purely effective to purely hydrostatic stats of stress. The motivation for extending previous results stems from the need for an accurate cavity growth model to analyse damage due to hydrogen attack, where the grain boundary voids are internally pressurized. In particular, we present formulae which give an approximate, yet fairly accurate, expression for the void volume growth rate due to coupled diffusional and creep growth over the full range of axisymmetric stress states.