Temperature and Dependence of the Microhardness of Rhenium Sheets

The microhardness of rhenium sheets was determined as a function of indentation load and temperature. The temperature dependence of the microhardness between room temperatures and was studied using a hot microhardness tester equipped with a Vickers indenter. The load dependence of the microhardness was investigated using oth a Vickers and a Knoop indenter. The indentation size effect (ISE) was well explained using the normalized Meyers law. The hardness of the annealed rhenium sheet approached that of the as-rolled sheets at large indentation loads because of work-hardening under the indenter during indentation. The hardness at zero load(obtained from extrapolation of the load dependence of the hardness) suggested that the hardness is controlled by two different mech-anisms having different thermal activation. At low temperature the activation energy for the mechanism controlling the hardness was approximately 0.02 eV , Whereas at higher temperatures that was approximately 0.15eV. The tranisi-tion temperature between the two different controlling mechanisms was about