The creep behavior and dislocation structures of polycrystalline samples were investigated at intermediate temperatures. At a temperature which was just below the peak strength temperature, differing creep responses occurred at relatively low or high stress levels. At high stresses, the creep exhibited a normal primary regime and then an inverse regime. At low stresses, no visible inverse creep was exhibited. By varying the temperature, an anomalous temperature dependence of the creep strength was revealed. Microstructural observations indicated that super-dislocations slipped on the cube cross-slip plane more easily at lower temperatures. This was considered to be one of the reasons why the creep strength varied anomalously with temperature. It was noted that, although inverse creep was produced by the operation of cube cross-slip, the occurrence of the latter did not necessarily lead to inverse creep.

T.S.Rong, I.P.Jones, R.E.Smallman: Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 1995, 43[4], 1385-93