Relation between the internal stress measured in creep and the stress generated by the dislocation structure in the fcc metals

From the steady-state creep rate data treated as a function of the applied and the measured effective stress and temperature, a phenomenological dependence of the internal stress on the applied stress and temperature was derived. The result determined the expected character of the applied stress- and temperature dependences of the dislocation density, which was considered the microstructure parameter of the internal stress sigma(i)=alphaMGbrho(1/2) (sigma(i) is the internal stress, alpha the dislocation interaction factor, M the Taylor factor, G the shear modulus, b the Burgers vector length and rho the dislocation density). A scaling of the expected dislocation density by fitting it to measured dislocation density data yielded reasonable values of the parameter alpha in the Taylor formula, but the experimental data indicated a weaker applied stress dependence of the measured dislocation density than that of the expected dependence. An admission of an empirical formula fitting the dependence of dislocation density on the applied stress and temperature leads to a suggestion that the parameter alpha might be dependent on applied stress and temperature.