Re-examination of creep behaviour of high purity aluminium at low temperature

The deformation behaviour of high-purity aluminium at low temperatures was investigated in order to re-examine Ashby-type deformation mechanism map. All specimens with different purities showed significant creep below room temperature. Under the same stress and temperature, the steady-state creep rate increased with increasing purity of the material. They showed stress exponents around 5.0 and apparent activation energies around 20 kJ/mol at temperatures below about 400 K, and 4.0 and 70-80 kJ/mol at temperatures above that temperature. The grain size had no effect in the low temperature region. From the microstructural observation, secondary slip system was observed. These features imply that pure aluminium deforms in the different mode from the ambient temperature creep of h.c.p. metals which has similar activation energy.