The strain rate sensitivity of a variety of materials is known to increase rapidly at strain rates exceeding ∼103 sec-1. This transition has most often in the past been attributed to a transition from thermally activated guide to viscous drag control. An important condition for imposition of dislocation drag effects is that the applied stress, σ, must be on the order of or greater than the threshold stress, which is the flow stress at OK. From Fig. 1, it can be seen for OFE Cu that the ratio of the applied stress to threshold stress remains constant even at strain rates as high as 104 sec-1 suggesting that there is not a mechanism transition but that the intrinsic strength is increasing, since the threshold strength is a mechanical measure of intrinsic strength. These measurements were made at constant strain levels of 0.2, wnich is not a guarantee of constant microstructure. The increase in threshold stress at higher strain rates is a strong indication that the microstructural evolution is a function of strain rate and that the dependence becomes stronger at high strain rates.
