Research on Creep and Fracture at High Temperatures: A Report on the Conference held at the National Physical Laboratory, from May 31 to June 1, 1954

IN 1946, a short conference on creep in metals was held at the initiative of the National Physical Laboratory. The aircraft gas turbine was then relatively new. It had been developed during the war as a small fighter engine with outstanding power/weight ratio and short life. Since then it has been applied successfully to commercial aircraft and to ship propulsion and its use in power generation is being actively explored. These applications require in general larger engines, longer lives (up to 100,000 hours in many cases), and high thermal efficiency.