Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
In order to correlate the flow stress anomaly of Ni3Si with dislocation properties, a weakbeam study ofpolycrystalline samples deformed between ambient and the peak temperature was carried out. Samples with two extreme Ni/Si ratios were tested.The most frequently activated slip system changes progressively from octahedral to cubic with increasing temperature. The transformation of superdislocations into Kear-Wilsdorf configurations gives rise to screw dislocations that are rectilinear only after deformation at room temperature. The effect of temperature is to gradually promote bending of Kear-Wisdorf configurations in the cube plane, from a few nanometers at 230°C to several tenths of micrometers at intermediate temperature. Cube slip begins to be massively activated a little below the peak temperature. It is suggested that the flow stress anomaly is controlled by progressive exhaustion of octahedral slip by thermally-activated expansion of superdislocations on the cube cross-slip plane.