Study of changes in the strength and hardness of H13 steel during short-term creep

Changes in strength and hardness of alloys are the main factor affecting the strain rate during creep. Thus measuring these properties and studying their correlations to creep resistance is an important issue. In the current study, the relationship between hardness and creep resistance for H13 steel was investigated during short-term creep. Creep fracture and 1% creep ductility tests were carried out at 500-600 C and stress of 872-926.5 MPa. Hardness test was carried out on all specimens and tensile test was performed on 1% creep ductility specimens at room temperature. The stress power of 4.5 indicated that dislocation creep was the dominant mechanism. The creep activation energy was lower than the activation energy of the self diffusion of alpha iron (109 kJ/mol), which indicated the role of stress in the apparent activation energy of this alloy. A linear relationship has been observed between hardness variation ratio and creep life ratio, although the slopes for the head and gage were slightly different. This linear relationship makes it possible to more accurately predict the life of H13 steel in creep condition.