UNIAXIAL CREEP OF LONG-FIBER REINFORCED METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITES

A generalisation of McLean's (Directionally Solidified Materials for High Temperature Service, 1983, The Metals Society, London) uniaxial creep model which accounts for the effects of inherent residual stresses, matrix primary creep and the treatment of the effect of possible instantaneous matrix yield upon loading is presented. The model and numerical micromechanics approach are used to analyse the uniaxial creep of Ti-6Al-4V/SiC metal matrix composites. Excellent agreement is obtained between the analytical and numerical models and predicted results are in reasonable agreement with published experimental results.