Creep elastic follow-up factors under multi-axial displacement-controlled loading

In this paper, the effect of multi-axial stress states on the elastic follow-up behaviour of creeping structures is investigated by deriving analytical elastic follow-up factor solutions for two examples; power-law creeping square and cruciform plates under bi-axial displacement-controlled loading. The validity of the analytical solutions is checked against results from finite element analyses. The agreement is found to be good even for large amounts of stress relaxation. Based on the solutions developed, the effects of stress biaxiality, geometry and creep exponent on elastic follow-up are discussed.