Failure Mechanisms

· When using materials under conditions of high-temperature and high-stress, their lifetime to failure is an important consideration. This type of data may be represented on a Log σ vs. Log t_f diagram as shown.
· Groups of curves of this type for a given material may be reduced to a single master curve by replacing the fracture time by the Larson-Miller parameter, T{log t_f + C}, where T is the temperature of the measurement for t_f and C is a constant used to fit the data to the single curve.

From: Ashby and Jones, "Engineering Materials I,"
Pergamon (1986)