Bronzes exhibit a combination of high heat conductivity and excellent mechanical strength. They have many important commercial industrial applications. Isothermal tensile creep curves of Cu-2 wt% Sn were obtained in the solid solution region at temperatures 573, 623, 673 and 723 K under constant stresses ranging from 64 to 111 MPa. The values of the transient creep parameters b and n showed dependence on the deformation temperatures, T; and the applied stress, s: b increased with both T and s while n decreased. n is expected to be independent on the temperature at a stress of 208.3 MPa.
The dependence of the steady-state creep rate, ' e; on the grain diameter, d; satisfies a petch type equation ' e ¼ ' e o þ bd: ' e increases with both s and T for any grain diameter. The stress exponent, m; is independent on d but relates to the deformation temperature, T; by the empirical formula m ¼ 0:655 þ 45 Â 10 À4 T. the activation energy of the steadystate creep, Q; decreases with increasing the grain diameter. For any grain diameter, Q is slightly affected by the applied stress. The straight line obtained by the best fitting for the relation between Q and 1=d; has an intercept of 64.9 kJ/mol. This value may correspond to the activation energy of the dislocation climb mechanism in a single crystal of Cu-2 wt% Sn alloy.