High temperature creep behaviour of an FeAl intermetallic strengthened by nanoscale oxide particles

The creep behaviour of an FeAl intermetallic strengthened by nanosized oxide particles has been examined at temperatures of 700–825 °C. For all temperatures the strain rate shows a power law dependence on the applied stress. At the lowest temperature and with the highest stresses there is evidence of a threshold stress produced by the difficulty of overcoming the particle barriers, while for higher temperatures as well as at low stresses there is no threshold stress and creep appears to be controlled by general climb. The fine oxide particles produce good strengthening at low temperatures but are more readily overcome at high temperatures due to their very small size and limited attractive relaxation force. Despite such fall in creep strength, this material remains one of the strongest iron aluminides to the temperature range evaluated.