Creep in phosphorus alloyed copper during power-law breakdown

During the first phase of storage, creep will take place in the copper canisters in the KBS-3 package for nuclear waste. The temperatures are below 100 °C, and the creep is well inside the power-law breakdown regime. Creep models for this situation have been developed. The analysed material is pure copper with about 50 ppm phosphorus. Constitutive equations for creep and other plastic deformation have been set up based on a generalised Norton expression and Kocks-Mecking’s model for the back stress. A model for the minimum creep rate based on fundamental principles for climb and glide has been derived. This model gives the correct order of magnitude for the creep rate in the temperature range from 400 to 20 °C without the use of fitted parameters. The creep exponent varies from 5 to 105 in this interval. The constitutive equations have also been formulated for multiaxial stress states.