This paper explicitly establishes a modified creep model of a Sn–_3.8Ag–_0.7Cu alloy using a physical-based micromechanical modeling technique. Through experimentation and reformulation, steady-state creep behavior is analyzed with minimum strain rates for different temperatures 35 °C, 80 °C, and 125 °C. The new modified physical creep model is proposed, by understanding the respective precipitate strengthened deformation mechanism, seeing the dependency of the activation energy over the temperature along with stress and, finally, by integrating the subgrain-size dependency λ_ss. The new model is found to accurately model the creep behavior of lead-free solder alloy by combining the physical state variables. The features of the creep model can be explored further by changing the physical variable such as subgrain size to establish a structure–property relationship for a better solder joint reliability performance.

The fatigue behavior of a fully processed, non-oriented electrical steel sheet is investigated in dependence on shear-cutting parameters and a subsequent heat treatment. For this, stress-controlled fatigue tests are performed before and after annealing at 700 °C for a total of six different shear-cutting settings. For all parameters, the fatigue strength of shear-cut sheets is improved by the heat treatment. This is due to reduction in a large part of the strain hardening region as well as the reduction in tensile residual stresses. Both were introduced during shear cutting and act detrimental to the fatigue strength. However, the intensity of this improvement depends on the shear-cutting parameters. This is related to the corresponding edge surfaces characteristically being formed during shear cutting. Specimens cut with a worn cutting tool show a more pronounced increase in fatigue life. In contrast, specimens produced with a sharp-edged cutting tool and high cutting clearance hardly benefit from the heat treatment. This appears to be caused by differences in surface topography, in particular coarse topographical damage in the form of grain breakouts. If these occur during shear cutting, the crack formation is not significantly delayed by additional annealing.