STRESS EQUIVALENCE OF SOLID-SOLUTION HARDENING

In the early 1970s, Basinski et al. (1972) observed that, if two solid solutions of different solutes in a given solvent (copper or silver) had the same initial flow stress at a given temperature in the range 4-380 K, then they had the same activation volume. Moreover, two alloys based on the same solvent metal, which had the same initial flow stress and activation volume at a given temperature, would show the same temperature dependence of initial flow stress and activation volume throughout that range. These observations, which are known as the 'stress equivalence of solution hardening', have been shown to be readily accounted for in terms of the kink-pair formation model of solid-solution hardening.