A STATISTICAL THEORY OF CREEP FRACTURE

A theory of creep fracture has been constructed by means of the concept and the method of nonequilibrium statistical physics. In this paper, the cavity evolution equation is given; the cavity distribution function, the cavity distribution probability, the creep fracture life of materials and the famous Monkman-Grant empirical relation are derived on the basis of the two mechanisms of the constrained cavity growth and the unconstrained cavity growth, respectively.