A CASE FOR TAYLOR HARDENING DURING PRIMARY AND STEADY-STATE CREEP IN ALUMINUM AND TYPE-304 STAINLESS-STEEL

Previous elevated-temperature experiments on 304 stainless steel clearly show that the density of dislocations within the subgrain interior influences the flow stress at a given strain rate and temperature. A re-evaluation shows that the hardening is consistent with the Taylor relation if a linear superposition of solute hardening (τ0, or the stress necessary to cause dislocation motion in the absence of a dislocation substructure) and dislocation (αGbρ{variant}1/2) hardening is assumed. The same Taylor relation is applicable to steady-state structures of aluminium if the yield stress of annealed aluminium is assumed equal to τ0. New tests on aluminium deforming under constant-strain-rate creep conditions show a monotonic increase in the dislocation density with strain. This and the constant-stress creep trends are shown to be possibly consistent with Taylor hardening. © 1990 Chapman and Hall Ltd.