Creep of Mg‐PSZ at Room Temperature

Transient β, or Andrade, creep occurs when magnesia‐partially‐stabilized zirconia is loaded in tension at room temperature. The equation relating the longitudinal or tensile creep strain, ε c ℓ to the tensile stress, σ, and to the time, t , has been determined to be ε c ℓ = A σ m t n in which the constants A , m , and n depend on the phase content of the zirconia. Observations are reported of the tetragonal‐to‐monoclinic and tetragonal‐to‐orthorhombic phase transformations which occur during creep: there is also a progressive development of microcracking. It is shown that a combination of these phenomena can account for the observed creep behavior.