Basic Analytical Modeling of Creep Strain Curves

Creep strain versus time curves (creep curves) have traditionally been described with the help of empirical models where a number of adjustable parameters are involved. These models are simple to use, but they cannot be applied for prediction. For understanding the general behavior of primary and tertiary creep, they are still useful. In fact, the phi model can represent primary creep, and the Omega model tertiary creep for a number of materials. However, in recent years, basic analytical models have been formulated that can predict and describe creep strain data without using fitting parameters. In the paper, a review of these models is given. A number of applications of the models are also given. It is demonstrated that the basic models can quantitatively predict observations. They also provide derivations of some empirical findings.