Creep of power-law material containing spherical voids

Finite element calculations have been carried out for spherical unit cells containing a concentric spherical hole to characterize the power law creep of a material containing voids. Axisymmetric states of macroscopic stress were applied to the unit cells ranging from purely hydrostatic loading to purely deviatoric stressing. The results of the unit cell calculations are approximated well by a creep potential for the macroscopic behavior of a porous material. This potential agrees with the unit cell results for purely hydrostatic stress and purely deviatoric stress and involves a simple elliptical interpolation in between. The model predicts quite well the ratio of transverse to axial strain rate in uniaxial compression tests.