Prediction of Failure Times for Decay-Heated Capsules Containing Alpha-Emitting Isotopes

An analytical model has been developed for using conventional creep data, taken at constant temperature and load, to predict failure times under conditions where stress and temperature vary according to simple, monotonic junctions of time. The validity of this method was examined experimentally for T-111 (Ta-8% W-2% Hƒ) and the experimental data are in good agreement with the predictions.